How can someone who promotes the welfare of any creature wish such cruelty on other animals? Maybe that question should be directed to Ted Williams, Audubon editor-at-large and author of a shocking article in the Orlando Sentinel, in which he suggests controlling feral cat populations by poisoning them with Tylenol!
According to New Mexico veterinarian and author Dr. Jeff Nichol, a cat that ingests Tylenol and is not treated quickly will die painfully and slowly over a few hours’ time. Click on the link for details, but it involves vomiting, swelling of face and paws, and liver, lung and kidney damage over the period of time that the cat is dying.
Not only can Tylenol poison feral cats… it can also poison your cat, if it happens to get out and consume any left around for ferals. It can also poison your dog. Tylenol is as dangerous for pets as it is for ferals; in addition it is against the law to kill a cat in every state of the U.S. and in D.C. Williams’ hatred of cats is so deep that he wants to break the law to kill them.
Many humans in the bird community do not like cats, especially feral cats. They want to see all Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) programs shut down and all feral cats killed. But Ted Williams has really outdone himself with this editorial. Read it: it is obvious by its very tone that this man really hates cats.
Ah, but wait a minute! Where is the reference to Tylenol? After much outcry, the Orlando Sentinel quietly removed that section — without retraction or acknowledgement. Fortunately for us, Alley Cat Allies copied the story before it was changed. You can read it in full in their PDF file here: https://www.alleycat.org/document.doc?id=630 And here is the exact, unedited quote, if you don’t want to open the PDF document: “There are two effective, humane alternatives to the cat hell of TNR. One is Tylenol (the human pain medication) — a completely selective feral-cat poison. But the TNR lobby has blocked its registration for this use.” The paper also changed Williams’ end bio from “Ted Williams is editor-at-large for Audubon magazine” to “Ted Williams writes an independent column for Audubon magazine. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the National Audubon Society.”
I hope you find all this upsetting enough to want to do something about it because Alley Cat Allies is asking you to take action! Click here to send an email to the Audubon Society that asks them to denounce Ted Williams’ story, and to relieve him of his position with the organization. Somebody as biased and irresponsible as Williams only damages the integrity of any group he belongs to, and any paper in which his writing appears.
And speaking of papers… I suggest you also write to the Orlando Sentinel and complain about a) the clear anti-cat bias of the story and b) the attempts to whitewash the story in lieu of apologizing for it. This link leads you to the Orlando Sentinel staff contact list. I am not sure who is responsible for Williams’ story appearing in the paper, but I would wager that it is one of the editors in the Executive management list. If you do write, please be articulate, calm and factual (cite links from experts, not emotionally-written blogs).
We in the cat community need to fight for our own! So please take action now!
In the great civilization of Egypt, they knew what to do with devils like that one, and I advocate for capital punishment, as they practiced, for anyone who would even THINK of harming a cat.
In this much less enlightened society, though right is wrong and wrong is right, the cretinous, vicious and ignorant excuse for a man is still a sociopath and should be regarded and dealt with as such. Hopefully someone with nothing to lose will do so, very shortly. In the meantime, we’re doing all we can to set the record straight and get idiots like that one removed from the media. They obviously are a danger to all.
We could barely believe the stupidity and cruelty of such a comment. And then for the newspaper to whitewash the article? We can’t think of anything polite to say about the whole situation. 🙁
We signed the petition and shared it. One of TW’s friends added the following message:
That a national publication should print an article encouraging the torture death by poison of countless animals, including family pets who happen to get hold of the venom is horrifying and is almost beyond credence. Such slaughter is illegal. Beyond that, it is stark evil. Mr. Williams should be roundly censured.
Mes thinks this guy is whacked! And he should be whapped by a million cats!
Kisses
Nellie
We wanna put the bitey on this guy….a few hundred times!!
What a truly horrible man. We signed the petition.
We were shocked to read about his.
Thank you for joining paws and getting the word out.
We’ve all signed the petition here.
xo
1/ can someone help me find Ted’s phone number or address?
2/ this website is really bad on mobile fyi breaks down and took me twenty minutes to write a comment. Should get that checked out.
We shared the other day as soon as we heard. Good for you Sparkle!
People just don’t think.
What Hairball is going on with all this vendetta poop about feral cats!! What rock have all these peeps crawled out from under??? Me thinks they ought to crawl right back under…just sayin’…and I did the Alley Cat’s Allies ‘sign this petition’ today, Caturday. Really hacks me off I can tell you…
OMC , what an awful little man !!
Me I gladely come and poop on him too !!
wonderfully written Sparkle. I hope they listen to you!
So, if Tylenol is so poisonous to cats and dogs, would it not be so for all creatures–including all those that Mr. Williams supposedly wants to protect? So, if you put it out to poison the kitties–wouldn’t it be said if a bird or squirrel or rabbit come along and eat it too? What an idiot.
Yes, we all need to put out a full scale IDIOT ALERT, IDIOT ALERT, IDIOT ALERT and stop these evil ones!
I was awakened at 12:30 am & picked up my iPod to “relax.” I have now spent the last 8 hours tweeting about Ted Williams, blogging about him, posting about him on Tumblr & Facebook, contacting anti-animal cruelty celebs, the Audubon Society via Facebook and Twitter, the Orlando Sentinel, and the makers of Tylenol. If I could think of one more place to spread the word, I would. He also advocated shooting wild horses on government land and has referred to the “cat mafia” and “horse mafia.” He is clearly a danger to all animals except, apparently, birds.
Mom was sooooooooo mad… She did the Allie Cat Allies Letter ( and added another 2 cents to it) and wrote the paper too. She used a litter-box word and said “what the h-e-double hockey sticks” is wrong with some people. We thinks everyon should write. Thanks for putting this out there
Harry, Dexter and Tipp
We have shared & have sent a letter through Alley Cat Allies.
We wrote and have shared your post. Thank you for keeping everyone informed.
Done. sent the email. This is just awful.
What a terrible man – he obviously has two faces – a caring one and a vicious murdering one.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
This is appalling. We wonder what we can do from here. We are horrified.
On a much happier note, we are most delighted by your comment on our blog and gracious donation of your Magic Fishie. We shall instruct Äiti to contact someone she knows at the Meri-Lapin animal rescue who is in charge of fostering the cats in the area around the Swedish/Finnish border at the top of the Baltic Sea, about 100km from us. They get not help from the local city and are all volunteers. We’ll make sure there’s a good donation going their way. Thank you very much for this.
Even if you did point out that Aila was The Boss.
I’d dearly love to poop on this man. What a miserable human being.
We sent a message! This is heinous! Our Mommy would LOVE to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with Mr. Williams. He makes us want to hork a hairball.
Interesting how this evolved today. When I read it on the Sentinel’s site this afternoon, they had changed his title from “editor-at-large” to “field editor”. I wonder why…? This is a vendetta. There is nothing honorable about this man.
We wrote to audubon, an original message…