Australia declares war on feral cats with plan to 'cull two million by 2020 - Polidicks

[quote]Australia plans to kill two million feral cats over the next five years following concerns that the predators have been preying on wildlife and have left more than 120 native species at risk of extinction. Declaring a “war on cats”, the federal government said it planned to use poison baits and has created a phone app called FeralCatScan for the public to alert authorities about areas where large numbers of the predators have been spotted. Scientists believe feral cats have been involved in 28 of Australia’s 29 known native mammal extinctions in the past 200 years. “It is very important to emphasise that we don't hate cats,” Gregory Andrews, Australia's first threatened species commissioner, told ABC Radio. “We just can't tolerate the damage that they're doing anymore to our wildlife … Over 120 Australian animals are at risk of extinction from feral cats. So the scientific evidence is crystal clear that they're the biggest threat.” It is believed there are about 20 million cats across the nation – and they kill about 75 million native animals a day. The cats arrived with the European settlers in the late 1700s and are the same species as domestic or alley cats, but have since gone wild and spread across the continent.[/quote] Article is pretty short, give the rest a read. [url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11743499/Australia-declares-war-on-feral-cats-with-plan-to-cull-two-million-by-2020.html[/url] When I first saw this, it was a petition to stop this, and I thought it was just a joke, satire. Curious, I googled it anyway and it turns out to be true. The Onion is becoming reality.

emu war 2 electric boogaloo tbh the feral cats are a pretty big fucking problem so a culling makes sense two million seems to be like an impossible number though

2 million won't even dent the population.

I'd rather have native wildlife than feral cats. Cats are apex predators, and their introduction to our native habitats have severely skewed the system in their favour. You have no idea of conservation if you think otherwise.

How about sterilizing instead of outright killing?

[QUOTE=Killuah;48259101]How about sterilizing instead of outright killing?[/QUOTE] Incredibly expensive by comparison, especially for the apparent scale of the problem. We do capture/sterilisation in Scotland, in the Highlands, to try and limit interbreeding between feral cats and the Scottish Wildcat (one of the reasons for its decline), but we are dealing with lower numbers of feral cats in a far smaller area. The expense gets prohibitive if you start scaling up.

[QUOTE=Killuah;48259101]How about sterilizing instead of outright killing?[/QUOTE] If you want to fund the $200/cat price tag, go right ahead.

Is Tony Abbot going to stop the cats? [editline]21st July 2015[/editline] But yes as sad as it is you need to do this it's kind of necessary

The last time Australia declared war on their fauna, it didn't go too well. Either way, go get that pussy guys

Australia has a long history of trying to battle nature. First the emus, then the sharks, then every fish in the ocean, then every animal on the planet. Can't kill us if we kill everything through the destruction of the environment motherfuckers.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;48259190]The last time Australia declared war on their fauna, it didn't go too well. Either way, go get that pussy guys[/QUOTE] Can't help but picture a wall of Aussie troops being overwhelmed by hordes of angry cats. Anyway. As much as I hate to say it, culling the feral cat population is a necessary evil if Australia hopes to retain its native wildlife population. Conservation is key.

[quote]“It is very important to emphasize that [B]we don't hate cats[/B],” Gregory Andrews, Australia's first threatened species commissioner, told ABC Radio.[/quote] This bit had me crack up a little. You definitely don't want the cat people to get any wrong ideas.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4lS1HX5.jpg[/IMG] I like how Australia has venomous spiders, venomous snakes and pretty much deadly everything which also wants to kill you, and then imported cats from Europe is their biggest problem. Hope they can maintain the feral cats though, sounds like a tremendous problem for smaller wildlife. [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Image macro" - OvB))[/highlight]

It's gonna suck that a lot of legitimate cats are going to get caught in the crossfire cause of this. Happened all the time when I lived in the country, perfectly fine outdoors cats (wearing bells so they can't catch birds and mice) would end up getting shot by farmers. Needs to happen regardless, feral cats are ridiculously destructive and breed like mad.

[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;48259299]It's gonna suck that a lot of legitimate cats are going to get caught in the crossfire cause of this. Happened all the time when I lived in the country, perfectly fine outdoors cats (wearing bells so they can't catch birds and mice) would end up getting shot by farmers. Needs to happen regardless, feral cats are ridiculously destructive and breed like mad.[/QUOTE] If I'm not mistaken. Those bells are pretty useless, cat's have adapted to hunting with the bell, on and not making any noise.

Much as I like cats, feral cats are seriously bad for the local wildlife and need to be controlled.

[QUOTE=Killuah;48259101]How about sterilizing instead of outright killing?[/QUOTE] Sterilized animals live longer than fertile ones so it's not actually that effective, especially since they'd probably end up wasting time recapturing the same animals over and over. [QUOTE=Zergeant;48259279]I like how Australia has venomous spiders, venomous snakes and pretty much deadly everything which also wants to kill you, and then imported cats from Europe is their biggest problem..[/QUOTE] Rabbits, dingos and cane toads are up there, too. Best way to outdo the wildlife in the location that wants to kill you is with a frog from somewhere else that wants to kill you.

[QUOTE=Killuah;48259101]How about sterilizing instead of outright killing?[/QUOTE] They're trying to prevent further damage to the local ecology due to feral cats hunting animals that don't know how to deal with them. Letting them live for ~10 years wouldn't help anything.

[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;48259299] Happened all the time when I lived in the country, perfectly fine outdoors cats (wearing bells so they can't catch birds and [B]mice[/B]) would end up getting shot by farmers.[/QUOTE] Why would anyone want cats not to be able catch mice? That is pretty much the original reason why people have cats.

[QUOTE=Combine 177;48259423]Why would anyone want cats not to be able catch mice? That is pretty much the original reason why people have cats.[/QUOTE] ...mouse farmers?

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48259430]...mouse farmers?[/QUOTE] That would probably be really profitable business in Australia considering almost all the endangered mammals are part of rat and mouse family.

[QUOTE=Combine 177;48259423]Why would anyone want cats not to be able catch mice? That is pretty much the original reason why people have cats.[/QUOTE] Not when the local wildlife IS mice.

Good. We should do it here too. I like ground nesting birds. I like having small mammals running about in the yard. I've been tending my garden to attract them. There are cats that come by and kill them and then chew up the garden and piss on everything. Feral cats are the fucking worst. Do you think it's okay if I just let my dog wander around, take shits on things, kill stuff in your yard and then when you complain it's "Ohhhh you, it's only natural!" Fuck feral cats.

I hate cats, I have a family of magpies that live in my area who I feed and interact with daily and watching a baby magpie grow up before my eyes makes me happy. I've also had cats trying to kill my budgies as well. They need to be stopped (I did have a friendly interaction with two wild cats while on holidays though for a change).

Put a bounty on cat tails, let people shoot them with right registration, dent more than 2 mill pretty quick I'd think.

I agree with those but hope the government handles this right and I don't start hearing reports about people's pet cats being killed by the government. I assume that they're going to do this mostly in the bush so hopefully that won't be an issue

[QUOTE=$$>MUFFIN<$$;48259555]Put a bounty on cat tails, let people shoot them with right registration, dent more than 2 mill pretty quick I'd think.[/QUOTE] And then all the pet cats get murdered by retards looking for a quick buck.

[QUOTE=Lium;48259627]And then all the pet cats get murdered by retards looking for a quick buck.[/QUOTE] You wouldn't shoot in suburbia.

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;48259473]Not when the local wildlife IS mice.[/QUOTE] Certainly was no shortage of mice in parts of Australia at one point [video=youtube;IOwinLWrEIw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOwinLWrEIw[/video]

Not sure what to say here I guess its good getting rid of them but I hope they are put down quietly