The latest wheeze by the Australian authorities to keep down the feral cat population on their continent is to blowup rabbits and their homes. Rabbits are a prey animal for feral cats and the argument is that if you destroy rabbits you destroy feral cats because they might starve to death which I think is a very bad argument.
The sharp end of animal welfare
Let me say right away that I know a lot of people don’t like me attacking Australia about their feral cat policy and advertisers don’t like animal advocates like me addressing the sharp end of animal welfare with strong language. But I believe you have to use strong language. And you have to address the real animal welfare issues. You have to see things from an animal perspective. From the perspective of sentience. Someone has to be the voice of persecuted animals.
Sentience
I don’t think the Aussie authorities believe that the feral cat is a sentient creature. And I don’t believe that they think the rabbit is a sentient creature. Or they conviently forget it. Perhaps they don’t understand the meaning of the word “sentience”. For the sake of clarity it means that they feel pain and have basic emotions. They are living creatures not inanimate objects to blowup.
The article from an Australian online newspaper is that, “Rabbit warren ripping might be the way to win the war on feral cats, researchers hope.”
To get rid of feral cats you have to get rid of rabbits they say. That’s what researchers are thinking. And this rather grisly phrase “Rabbit warren ripping” means you blowup their underground networks. That means you blowup rabbits I guess because they are inside those networks aren’t they?
Rabbits are pests in Australia as our foxes as our feral cats and other animals such as kangaroos although they harvest kangaroos to produce leather to make golf gloves! But huge numbers of kangaroos are shot annually. They do it night with searchlights. Nobody sees it. It’s an anonymous, invisible slaughter.
Feral cats also use rabbit burrow sometimes as dens during cold winters. It appears that the professor behind this scheme, Professor Jones is recording the results of warren ripping in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. This is an area which has lost much of its wildlife over the past 200 years.
South Australia’s Flinders Ranges
Well, let’s examine that statement. Why has South Australia’s Flinders Ranges lost most of its wildlife over the past 200 years. The Aussies imply it is the feral cats fault. But the main reason is current human behaviour. Here is the breakdown:
The Flinders Ranges in South Australia have experienced significant wildlife decline over the past 200 years due to a combination of factors, including:
- Land clearing and habitat loss:
- Extensive land clearing for agriculture, grazing, and human settlement has resulted in the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats in the Flinders Ranges.
- This has reduced the available area and quality of habitat for many native species, leading to population declines and local extinctions.
- Introduced species:
- The introduction of non-native predators, such as foxes and feral cats, has had a devastating impact on the native wildlife, particularly smaller mammals and ground-dwelling birds.
- Invasive plant species have also outcompeted and displaced native vegetation, further degrading the natural ecosystems.
- Overgrazing:
- Overgrazing by introduced livestock, such as sheep and cattle, has led to the degradation of the Flinders Ranges’ vegetation, reducing the availability of food and cover for many native species.
- This has altered the natural balance of the ecosystem and made it more difficult for wildlife to thrive.
- Climate change:
- The Flinders Ranges have experienced changes in temperature and precipitation patterns due to climate change, which can disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem.
- Increased droughts, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events have put additional stress on the native wildlife, making it more difficult for them to survive and reproduce.
- Hunting and poaching:
- Historical hunting and poaching of certain species, such as larger mammals, have contributed to the decline of some wildlife populations in the Flinders Ranges.
The combination of these factors has led to a significant loss of biodiversity in the Flinders Ranges over the past two centuries. Conservation efforts, habitat restoration, and management of introduced species and human activities are crucial to protect the remaining wildlife and restore the ecosystem’s natural balance.
Blowing up the warrens
So how do they blowup rabbit warrants? Apparently they go in with big machinery with one-metre-long tines on the back of a big tractor or bulldozer and they criss-cross and completely destroy the warren structure. The land is then regenerated and seeded. Or the blow it up as per the image on this page.
Toxo storm
One farmer calls the presence of feral cats a “toxo storm”. He is referring to toxoplasmosis which is carried by many cats and which is a zoonosis; transferable to other species including humans. Although the cat is maligned in regard of this zoonotic disease because they only shed Toxoplasma gondii oocysts for about 10 days in their lives.
But for farmers it’s a problem. It can cause abortions in sheep. One farmer said that, “We get a tiny bit of toxo at times from our breeding ewes, which is obviously an abortion disease, and once toxo is about, there is risk of a toxo storm because it’s contagious.”
Apparently they put hay out to feed and cats might defecate in that hay leaving faeces which carry the oocysts. Another transferable disease is sarcosystis which they say has been detected in livestock which means they’re not fit for human consumption.
They worked out that they need to destroy 60% of the feral cat population annually to keep the population down because of the cat’s efficiency in procreation.
Warren ripping itself won’t solve the problem. It’s one more element of the armoury of methods to get rid of feral cats. The best brains of Australia have devised various methods to kill them but they don’t know how many feral cats there are and it seems that they are not winning the battle.
The article says that they want to be as humane as possible when killing cats but every article I’ve written about killing feral cats indicates that the methods are inhumane.
Human carelessness
Let’s just add a little bit of reality into this discussion briefly. Feral cats are the product of domestic cats brought to Australia with the first settlers. Their presence is a consequence of human carelessness. That needs to be said over and over again because I think Australians forget it.
Therefore, the underlying cause of all these feral cat problems is human behaviour. They would benefit from remembering that.
The feral cat is a victim as much as the native species upon which they prey, and the farmers who are irritated by the feral cat presence.
And rabbits, too, were introduced to Australia by people. The Australians never mention this. More human carelessness. Rabbits are the victims too. It is all a human-made mess of gargantuan proportions.
Asking AI (Poe): ‘Rabbits were introduced to Australia by early settlers and is non-native. Correct?’
Response: Yes, that is correct. Rabbits were not native to Australia and were introduced by early European settlers.
Rabbits were first brought to Australia in the late 18th century, when the first European settlers arrived. They were initially introduced as a food source, but the rabbits soon escaped or were released into the wild. With few natural predators and an abundance of suitable habitat, the rabbit population exploded across Australia.
The introduction of rabbits had a major impact on the local ecosystem. Rabbits outcompeted native herbivores, consumed large amounts of vegetation, and contributed to soil erosion and land degradation. This had significant consequences for the native flora and fauna.
Attempts were made to control the rabbit population, including the introduction of diseases like myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease. However, the rabbit remains an invasive and problematic species in Australia to this day.
