Woodsman is the notorious feral cat hater/shooter and internet troll. He professes to shoot feral cats in their thousands. He is proud of it and he gets away with it. He considers it his duty because feral cats spread disease and destruction, he declares (frequently).
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| Jim Stevenson |
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| Jim Stevenson |
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| Jim Stevenson |
He admits to using a .22 calibre rifle. You may have heard about him. He spends a lot of his time writing very long comments below Internet articles and they're all the same. Everyone comment he writes is pretty much the same in basic content. The tone of the comment is identical as well. They are classic rants. They insult people. They indicate that he has a lot of hatred for people who like cats and the cats themselves.
He likes to use the phrase “cat-licker". This is reference to a cat lover and I think he got the idea from the picture of a woman who likes to lick her cat. It stuck in his mind - his damaged mind - because believe me does have a damaged mind. How do I know? His comments strongly indicate it.
His hatred for the feral cat and indeed all cats that go outside, originates in his ornithological activities. He likes birds and birdwatching. He is the founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society and his father (or mother) was/is an ornithologist. It is in his blood. He is programmed! He is what we call a “twitcher". He is about 60 years of age, I believe.
Although I am not 100% sure that the pictures on this page are of Woodsman001, this notorious internet troll, I do believe they are and that his real name is Jim Stevenson.
He was outed when in 2006 he was spotted shooting a cat in Galveston County and ended up in the criminal court being prosecuted for it. I believe a photograph was taken off him by the police. Because he went to court there was discussion about him and his activities. A .22 calibre rifle was found in his white van which squares up with what we know about his activities shooting feral cats. He uses a scope on his rifle. He likes to shoot feral cats and I'm sure he's very good at it. He calls himself a mobile abortion clinic or something like that, meaning he aborts the lives of cats. He wants to exterminate them all to protect birds.
On the occasion he was caught shooting a cat, we are told that it was because he wanted to protect a piping plover (a shorebird). The cat he shot was stalking this bird. That also squares up with what we know about Jim Stevenson.
He was on trial in Galveston, where he lives. His lawyer said:
"Six or seven people got struck because they thought it was the biggest waste of their time," Nelson said. "They couldn't believe they got called down to court to talk about a bird and a cat. Much of those people were more dog people than cat people. Some of the people on the jury have cats and are professed cat lovers. I don't think it comes down to bird versus cat. I think it ultimately comes down to the law."The central question was whether he shot a pet or a feral cat. The latter is unprotected in Texas from being shot. The domestic cat is obviously protected. But if a person takes pot shots at cats in general they are open to killing a pet. Obvious. I don't know the outcome of the criminal trial. Can someone help in a comment?
For some time, I have wanted to know who Woodsman, the Internet troll was. I think I have found out. It is important to know who he is but now we need to make a direct and hard connection between his Internet troll activities and himself. He uses a proxy servers and other fancy methods to avoid being detected as an Internet troll.
If we can build up evidence that Jim Stevenson, the ornithologist, is the notorious Internet troll that people know as Woodsman, it may be possible to prosecute him for these activities. I don't know the law in America but in the UK to troll on the Internet the way he does is considered a crime and a number of people have been prosecuted in the UK for this sort of activity.
Jim Stevenson, if he is this person, has many Internet names and e-mail addresses. You can see some of them on this page.
Anybody who reads this webpage curve further information about this person then please do so in a comment. It would be great if we could stop him one day.
Finally I agree that cat populations need to be controlled - long overdue in fact. I don't like to see cats prey on birds. However, for a cat, birds are well down the list of prey items at about 6% of prey items. Small mammals are preferred because they are easier to catch. Cats don't decimate bird populations.
We have a moral obligation to control feral cat colonies and in a way that is humane and decent because the feral cat originates in the careless activities of people. At present TNR is the only humane way we know.
So I am not against the basic concepts of Jim Stevenson's thoughts. I am strongly against how he does things.
