We know that Australians in government are waging a war against the dreaded feral cat in their country because they feel that it is killing too many native wild animals. There have been many proposals on the best way to kill feral cats. They are all inhumane. TNR has never been discussed.
Now they have devised robotic killers which detect feral cats and then spray poison onto the cat’s fur. The poison is licked off by the cat and the cat dies. These devices have been deployed in the desert.
The device has been invented by John Read. He is an ecologist. It took him seven years. He has manufactured four of these devices and the first one is currently in action in a nature reserve in South West Queensland.
He says that “this trap targets the cat’s Achilles heel”. What he is referring to is that all cats are fastidious self-groomers. They’re bound to lick the poison off their fur. His robotic device exploits this “weakness” as he sees it.
The device employs laser range finders. It detects when something moves in front of it. If it detects that the animal is taller than a cat it shuts down. The same response takes place if the animal is “low-slung” such as a wombat. Obviously the intention is to avoid killing native species!
Two rangefinders at the front and back of the device have to be triggered simultaneously for the device to spray poison on the animal in front of it, which should be a feral cat if the device is functioning properly. What about domestic cats who are wondering outside?
Custom search results for killing feral cats in Australia on PoC
John has clearly given a lot of thought about how to avoid killing native species which would be the exact opposite to his intentions. Another way to ensure that the device kills cats is that the poison being used is called “1080”. This occurs naturally in some plants. The idea is that native animals are less susceptible to it — i.e. to being killed by it. The dosage used is able to kill three cats but unlikely to kill a native animal, John says. I am not sure that his thinking is logical. Is it logical to state that just because an animal is native to a country it is less susceptible to a poison simply because it happens to be contained within some plants which are also native to the country? I’m not sure about that.
Another argument that John makes is that most animals other than cats are less likely to lick their fur as cats do and therefore are less liable to ingest the poison.
In addition, this poison producing device emits sounds similar to those of the prey of feral cats which hopefully will attract the cats to the device.
There are, in fact, three trial locations. Based on the trials the devices will be optimised with the intention of manufacturing 50 or more for further and more extensive trials over a wider range in the future.
Up until now just under AU$500,000 has been spent developing the traps. Part of the funding comes from the South Australian government.
It is hoped that the devices will help protect parrots at the Pullen Pullen Reserve.
What you think about this? Australian scientists are certainly exercising their brain matter to devise ways to exterminate the feral cat in Australia. This device is one in a long list of proposed methods. Poisoning seems to be coming to the fore as the most effective means of achieving their aims. The great weakness with poisoning is that you might poison animals other than feral cats. The fact that the death is inhumane and cruel and that Australians created the feral cat appears to be irrelevant to their thinking. Oh…and they also ignore the simple fact that humans kill far more wildlife than cats through habitat destruction. Hypocrites.
Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.
I am deeply disappointed that the feral cats of Australia have been so targeted. And anybody with a brain knows that anything that eats a poisoned cat will be poisoned too. So it seems like the idea is to get rid of predators and keep rodents and birds. If this plan succeeds, the next thing you know you will be overrun by rats and the bird flu will hit. I don’t have an answer on how to save birds that live in the ground, but I really doubt that their only predator is the cat. Snakes? Wombats? Possams? Large Spiders? Large Birds? Dingos? Kukaboros? etc., etc. Anyway there are a lot of animals that would want to eat ground birds, so its amazing they exist. It’s interesting that you value the lives of birds over cats. Blaming all the problems on one species (often done with races in humans) is truly simplistic, and it is comparable to racism. Speciesism doesn’t have the same negative connotation. I just saw an article where people in Australia are discouraged from having bird feeders because it will make cats watch, which is likely to send cat haters into a frenzy. Geesh, never knew Aussies hated them so much until now. And the stuff about these aren’t cuddly cats is ridiculous. Its all about environment, so even a feral cat can become a pet with time and patience. I don’t have a solution to this problem, but I have only considered it for about 15 minutes. Placing devices to spray poison isn’t a good solution and certainly wont be limited to cats. Demonizing one species and valuing the rest above them is simplistic and leading to what I consider equivalent to hate crimes against cats.
Thanks for commenting. Sorry it took a while for your comment to be published. Good comment.
One thing that everyone seems to be overlooking: What about the animals that eat carrion? If the animal was killed by poison, whatever eats its flesh will also die from poisoning. DUH!!! These pee-poles need to go back to school and pass before spewing this crap.
I bet you won’t publish this one! Mustn’t show anyone just how wrong you are, now can we. That’s okay, it’s being published on every other site about this topic so everyone already knows this about you. The whole world is laughing at you now. The only place you’ll have a chance of refuting anything stated will be here on your own site. LOL
Here is glaring proof of how, as cat-hoarders so often and mindlessly respew, “Trap-Neuter-Release is the most effective means of managing feral cat populations. In fact, it is the only proven way to do so.”
The residents of the UK who invented that TNR lunacy in the 1950’s have been relentlessly practicing that failed ideology NATIONWIDE for over 60 years now. And all they have managed to do with TNR is DOUBLE their vermin cat populations — from 4.1 million vermin cats in 1965 to 7.9 million vermin cats in 2014. And to help, all this time they are still killing them in shelters and legally shooting them to death in rural areas under their animal depredation-control laws. By foolishly hoping and praying that their very own TNR concept will reduce vermin cat populations someday they have now even driven their one and only NATIVE cat species to extinction with their invasive-species vermin “moggies” (feral house-cats) — with less than 35 “Scottish Wildcats” left in the whole world. (Along with 421 other species that they have already made extinct in the last 200 years — over 2 species per year gone forever due to British cultural beliefs, practices, and values.) All the while they still insist that practicing their failed TNR policies will still save their “Scottish Wildcat” from being wiped from the earth forever. You can kiss their “Scottish Wildcat” good-bye too now. (Laughably ironic if it weren’t so pathetically, globally, and PERMANENTLY sad.)
Nice plan. TNR sure does work, doesn’t it!
You know that saying about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The British have proved the failure of their vermin cat-insanity for over 60 years now. You too can be just as ecologically destructive, ignorant, and just as insane as the inbred mentalities of the Toxoplasma gondii brain-damaged moggie-licking British by practicing and promoting their failed-belief in their TNR concept! 🙂
I will publish it but your comment is colored by anger and bias. If TNR is practised properly and consistently it works. The Aussies just prefer to kill animals. This device won’t work. It won’t solve the problem. At the end of the day they’ll come back to something like TNR as it is the only way currently of decreasing feral cat populations.
You must have learned some arithmetic that is very different than that learned by all the rest of humanity. Since implementing TNR in the UK the feral cat population has gone from 4.1 million cats in 1965 to 7.9 million cats in 2014 in the UK. And you see that as TNR “decreasing feral cat populations” in your mind. Okay. LOL Keep floundering in the face of reality. I’m sure that many are tuning-in now to watch the joke. Let us know when the lobes of your mind have finally throttled themselves to death in trying to twist and squirm itself away from facts and the real world. Oh wait, it’s already beyond that. LOL
TNR is not practised widely in the UK. In fact it is hardly carried at all. You need to do more research. Your arrogance and desire to “win the argument” has blinded you.
Then by default TNR is STILL A TOTAL FAILURE! You’ve been trying to promote it to the general population for over SIXTY YEARS and still people are not buying it — NOT EVEN PEOPLE WHO LOVE CATS AS MUCH AS THEY DO IN THE UK. What makes you think that any population anywhere else on earth will buy it? In fact, when I researched the percentage of population that will even support it with so much as a “likes” mouse-click on facebook, it comes to less than 0.005% of the human population everywhere on earth that even care that as much as a mouse-click about saving the lives of your vermin cats. The other more than 99.995% of humanity can see right through all the blatant deceptions and lies that are TNR. Let’s promote TNR for another 200 years. That surely will make it work! LOL It’s time you realized that you’re on the dreadfully losing side. While you destroy countless thousands of species of animals on the planet in your arrogance in hoping and praying that people will someday buy your failed foolish ideas to save unwanted vermin cats.
Hint: if it was a good idea, even a half-assed idea, at least 50% of humanity would be behind it and supporting it. You can’t even get your own kind to promote and practice it! LOL
You’re a LOSER, of the worst kind! So much for people finding anything worth knowing about the British. LOL
Oh, while I have your attention. Here’s a good site for you to dream about at night. It shows how your “loving and humane” euthanasia by “TNR attrition” actually works to reduce cat populations by supporting, promoting, and practicing TNR:
http : / / realoutdoorcats . tumblr . com /
Enjoy!!! 🙂
After you view all the photos and read all the articles on that site, come back and tell us all about that concept of “humane” that you use when promoting TNR and how much that you truly love cats. 🙂 This should be fun! I wonder how many of your visitor’s cats ended-up photographed on that site, all due to you telling them to practice TNR. 🙂
Lets get thing straight here, most people here are happy for an introduced hunter to attack and eat a native animal alive, and that is humane how? Australian Marsupials have evolved for milions of years without Felines (cats) of anysort and have no reconition of them as dangerous. So get eaten alive.
Pam…are you serious? What a deep understanding of the problem feral cats are. Band the trees, all 5 billion of them. You can somehow tell none of the people on this site are country dwellers…sheesh..
Thanks for commenting Hue.
Australia, congratulations on losing your moral compass. This is a stain on humanity, one that can never be washed away. I am so pleased to circulate this story. When my friends make their vacation plans, I want to be sure Australia is NOT on their list. You sure aren’t on mine!
Totally agree with you Catherine. What they are doing does indeed stain their country. Anyway it won’t work. It is horribly cruel.
Catherine Robinson, Says the American who has more mass shootings then any other country on earth. Moral compass indeed. lol
I am a Australian and I DO NOT agree with what they are doing to feral cats. HUMANS are and always have been the biggest killers of nature. It will never stop. People need to ask WHY there are so many feral cats here? And while they are at it, why not kill off feral dogs? oh god no..everyone loves a dog. Well not me. If its good enough to kill feral cats then kill feral dogs too. I am against what they are doing. And serious one day hope their traps backfire and poison them.
Thanks Ali. I am pleased that you disagree with what is happening. It pleases me to know that.
have they ever considered TNR this is the best way to stop overpopulation of animals. Seems to me they just want to kill them cause they were too lazy years ago to trap and fix the cats to stop this. How the hell does the inventor of this machine shoot enough poison to kill them, what if its only enough to make the cats sick and they lay in agony and suffer. yeah the govt really loves cats if they did they would try another way instead of blaming cats for destroying your precious eco system which if you were human enough would see HUMANS are the destroyiers of the world. Put the blame where it belongs, stop the killing of innocent cats Shame on Austrailia
Well said Kaye. I have said the same thing in a number of responses to other comments. Thanks for commenting.
kaye, as an Australian I would rather see a feral cat die then a unique Marsupial be eaten alive, what is more human ?
I’d rather see humans take responsibility for their actions.
They are, by killing the ferals cats.
No, that is passing the buck for wildlife destruction onto cats. Humans must look at their behavior and modify it so that it does not have an impact on wildlife. That is taking responsibility for their actions. And own up to it as well. You never hear Australians saying it is their fault that there is habitat destruction or that they created the feral cat.
Utterly shameful. They don’t give a toss about animals – ANY animal – if they kill cats. It is humans’ fault these cats are out there – deal with it humanely not by poisoning cats. Wicked and evil concept. I hope Karma visits this man and makes him regret this evil deed.
Thanks Marjorie. I have the same thoughts as you. I guess you know that.
This disgusts me! TNR is a much better way to control the cat population. Or they could try to do something else that will not harm the cats. This is sick! I used to want to go to Australia. Not anymore.
Agreed. Thanks Catherine.
The tnr program will never work you simpleton
TNR does work if carried out properly with commitment and organisation. Don’t call someone a simpleton just because you disagree with them. That’s rude.
Trap and euthanize is by far the most humane way but very expensive, there are far to many cats over such a vast area that it just cant be done like that. To let a cat back into the wild even after desexing is death to thousands more native animal.
I see your point KDC but the authorities created this situation. It is beholden to them to deal with it humanely and decently. I have published all your other comments. Thanks for commenting.
This is disgusting!! I am part of a non profit organization that TNR’s the feral cats. We also have people that feed these cats once they have been put back into their feeding area they came from. Just because some humans decide to throw their cat out the door and then they help to populate the area and become more feral, doesn’t mean we as a people can’t TNR these beautiful creatures and even take in their young so they can go to good homes.
I completely agree with you. Thanks for commenting, Heather.
Heather Lee come to Australia and help yourself to these beautiful creatures, the adults will tear the hide off you.
Heather What you are doing is ILLEGAL you call your self a animal lover.
How dare you release cats into the wild in Australia. For goodness sake learn about how animals behave, Cats like dogs enjoy the hunt and enjoy tormenting animals before they kill them they dont always eat what they kill they simply enjoy the game.. While you may feed them this will not stop them from entertaining themselves.
We are not worried about cats mating with wildlife We are worried that cats will catch and main and kill wildlife.
Wake up to your self. What you are doing is ILLEGAL .
What you are saying is completely wrong. You are saying (loudly) that TNR is illegal. You are saying that after the feral cat has been neutered and put back where he/she came from is illegal. If you mean to say that, it is rubbish. Obviously. What you are saying is the presence of feral cats is illegal. If that is the case Australians are all criminals for having feral cats.
Nut jobs! All of them.
How can this thing distinguish the difference between an animal and a child?
Young children put everything in their mouths.
I doubt children will be at risk, these traps are in the outback. For all you Americans, these are not your normal domestic cat, they are not cuddly nor are they friendly. They cause un told damage to our native wildlife bringing a lot of species to near extinction. They can not be tamed and they can not be let go back into the wild because of the damage they do. I agree that this may not be the best solution, however, it would be that or shooting them or trapping and euthanasing them. Humans are the cause, irresponsible owners who let their cats roam and breed in the wild. Bur non the less, a huge problem they are as are rabbits, foxes and wild pigs..
I sense that Australians have been indoctrinated by the Australian authorities into believing that the feral cat is some sort of devil. If you have branded the feral cat a monster because it kills native species, then the human is Beelzebub as they kill more than the feral cat.
No brain washing here, go out and see for yourself. Perhaps you have been brain washed by one side uninformed infomation from overseas sorces that have NEVER been into the Australian outback.
Well I see a hatred for the feral cat which is very arrogant. People need to take responsibility for their actions and be accountable. The authorities have not done this. If they had practiced TNR 20 years ago and consistently since, this problem would not exist today.
Michael I am Australian and I live in the country I have also been a farmer and blaming the cats is an easy out for a lot of people who do not want to admit that if people had been responsible pet owners in the beginning then there would NOT be the problem now. And 1080 is a terrible poison . I have lost a really good sheep dog to it because a neighbour put some baits out for foxes and did not bother to go around the next morning and pick them up. Having seen what it did to my dog I would like to shove it down the throats of any one using it
Thanks Margaret. To outsiders what the Australian authorities are proposing and have proposed in the past appears cruel, inhumane and frankly arrogant.
This is terrible news. I live in Tasmania where 1080 poison is used to kill foxes – even tho there is absolutely no proof any exist in the state. Many believe they actually use it to kill native animals who interfere with farming using foxes as an excuse. 1080 is well known to kill native animals so I don’t understand why anyone is saying it doesnt. It’s also a poison that stays in the animal it kills and kills anything that feeds on the dead animal. It is BANNED in several states. Sorry this isn’t making sense at all.
Thank you for commenting, Jacki. Your comment does make sense. The information you have provided regarding the type of poison used is interesting and as you say contradicts what they are claiming, namely that it is less effective against native species compared to the feral cat. That didn’t make sense to me and what you have written supports my initial thoughts about it. Thanks again.
you are so right Jacki.
Australia is the testing ground for this agenda-driven scapegoating of cats that has become so cherished by ecology types. It does not arise from objective critical analysis. It serves an end which, at this point, they choose not to share. And the Australian government introduced the feral cats in the first place, a fact they wish everyone would forget.
The goverment did not introduce the cat, the cats came with the English setllers, same as the fox and rabbits.
SICK BASTARD…HOPE YOU INGEST A LOT OF THAT POISON YOURSELF. Gee, not smart enough to band the trees so cats can’t climb up to get the birds???
Thanks Pam. They are sick. Australians forget that humans are the biggest killers of native wildlife.
Pam on, They are trying to protect The Night Parrot, which is a ground dweller, and not too many trees where they are anyway.
Why didn’t the authorities use TNR years ago in this reserve to protect the parrot? This is a problem of their own making.
Pam you don’t seem to realise that birds feed on the ground. The number ot trees in Aust is almost as many as the number of ferral cats. This is a real serious problem over here. All the damage is being done in the outback, not no the coastal fringe where 95% of Aussie’s live.
Pam, you’re wrong.
The majority of native animals that cats kill in Australia are ground based animals. It would be wonderful if you could come to Australia and see some of our unique marsupials, such as Quackers, quolls or numbats, but most of the are now extinct or critically endangered due to introduced fetal predation.
According to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, feral cats kill an estimated 75 million native animals EVERY NIGHT!!
Clive I made your comment more polite. The authorities have been estimating the impact of feral cats for years. They are just that: estimates. They don’t know the numbers. Therefore you should not believe the figures. They are almost certainly highly exaggerated in order to justify cruel devices as mentioned in the article.
Read this for a start:
http://cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org/2013/01/stop-estimating-wildlife-killed-by-cats.html
Pam we have a country 100 times the size of the UK we have some farms here that are the size of the UK and the cats live in the bush and outback so just how would we band all those trees, and when we do manage this how are the native animals meant to climb them.
You know I and my family had always had plans of visiting Australia. We will not be doing so now. After not even considering a non lethal option for the feral cat problem like Trap, neuter, release. My family and all friends and friends of friends will not be contributing to your tourism dollars.
You are a cruel nation.
When it comes to cats they are indeed cruel. I agree with you. The Aussie authorities are obsessed by the feral cat while ignoring the damage they do to the environment and wildlife habitat. The authorities who want to exterminate feral cats are hypocrites.
Michael where are you from ?? You should do some research into the damage feral cats do to native species. Your comments are pure ignorance. What human do is a complete different matter.
What humans do is not a completely different matter. This is about protecting native species. The biggest positive effect will come from humans changing their behavior. All over the world it is the human who has relentlessly persecuted wild life and taken their habitat from wild species. The feral cat is not in the same league.
Try and open your eyes and be less of the arrogant male human.
It would make a lot more sense to stop the government allowing overseas coalmines etc from destroying vast tract of the native animals habitat. And man himself is the worst predator of any native animal
trap , nueter and release ?? Do you understand what you are saying ?? Releasing live cats into the wild is not an option that will stop the cats from killing native species that are under threat of extinction due to feral cats. We have the night parrot which is a ground dweller, they were thought to be completely extinct till recently a small colony of less than a hundred were found.. You should really do some research before you make irresponsible and ludicrous comments
Greg, TNR done properly and extensively does work. There are many examples in the USA. Poisoning like this is less effectively and I believe that you’ll find that out at the end of the day.
It may work in the USA but Australia is another thing altogether. Please look after your back yard and we will look after ours. All feral cats (Foxes, feral Dogs, Goats, Pigs) must die or Australia will lose more of it’s unique wildlife. To release a cat back into the wild is outragous, may as well shoot half a dozen native animals each night, it would be quicker and more humane for them.
In the modern age with the internet I don’t believe you can say people should not criticise other countries. Animal welfare is a world issue. Standing back and looking in allows outsiders to see more clearly. The Aussies are doing themselves a disservice in mass poisonings. It looks bad. It looks like mass cruelty and indecency.
LOL TNR spend money trapping it, spend money neutering then release it and still have the problem hahahah thats a great plan.
If TNR does not work it is because it is not carried out extensively enough and with enough commitment. In the UK, TNR is hardly used at all because we don’t have feral cats despite the false estimates as to numbers.
Micheal is lying out of his ass again. There is not ONE community ANYWHERE in the USA that has reduced cat populations from TNR programs–NOT ONE. Even their own researchers have finally admitted publicly that TNR is a failure and does NOTHING that TNR promoters claim that it does. It does not reduce cat populations, it does not protect communities and wildlife from the 3dozen+ deadly diseases that cats are spreading everywhere, and it doesn’t even keep new cats away either.
Every last thing about TNR is just one big manipulative LIE. That’s all it is and all it has EVER been!
Good dont come over. We dont want fucktards like yourself over here
Your comment is published.
Shelby, you obviously have no idea what damage these cats cause to our environment, so stay the f***k out of Australia we don’t want you visiting.
We know that feral cats kill native species but robotic poisoning is not the way forward. Excellent TNR will help. The priority is for humans to change their behaviour and stop destroying native species habitat.
Feral cats are a massive problem in Oz. Any means of killing a feral cat is good by me. TNR is bullshit, releasing a feral cat back into the wild, is akin to sterilising a serial killer and releasing them back into the public.
In fact, I would like to see it made illegal to even own a cat in Australia. Because every cat that is feral is directly descended from a domestic cat that escaped. Even domestic cats are a blight on Aussie native critters, because their owners allow them to roam free at night! All cats in Australia should be killed, and owning a cat should carry a fine larger than Queenslands fine for owning a Rabbit.
Clive, you are not qualified to comment on this subject because you hate cats. You cannot provide a balanced viewpoint. Therefore what you write is not worth reading. If Australians had acted more responsibly 50 to 20 years ago there would no “feral cat problem” today. And if Australians took responsibility for their actions in destroying wildlife habitat they would not be the number one killer of native species today. You are just passing the buck onto cats. Yes, feral cats are a problem. Definitely. But deal with it humanely because doing what you are doing makes you look like indecent idiots.
Michael, likewise. You cannot possibly have an objective view on Australia’s feral cat problem because you are a cat lover, and see absurdly out of perspective thinking that TNR could possibly work in a country the size of Australia with its sparse population for its landmass.
I do not hate cats, just the people that own them and are negligent in keeping them under control. Cats should never have been taken to Australia, let alone be allowed to escape and turn feral. Even domestic cats kill native Australian wildlife and should be kept inside or taken out on a leash. No cat should be roaming freely anywhere in Australia.
Saying that Australians should have been more careful 50 to 20 years ago is also preposterous, because unless you have invented a time machine recently that the scientific world is yet to be made aware of and can go back and sort the problem decades ago, then that proposal and view point is moot. We have to deal with the problem today, not bleat about the past.
The unfortunate skew that exists with the majority of your audience, judging by their comments, is that they associate ‘Feral Cat’ with a semi tame moggy, that lives behind McDonalds and steals a little food from the bins. Feral cats are not really an urban problem in Oz, they’re a nationwide outback problem. Australia has a land mass comparable to the whole of mainland U.S.A. with a population that is less than a third of that of the U.K. and thinking that TNR could even be achieved over such a large area is crazy. Feral cats in Australia are truly wild animals and I dare any of you cat loving readership to try and pick one up ans pets it.
I agree:
“Many animals were brought to Australia by humans. Some, such as the sheep and cattle, have been vital to the Australian economy. Others have caused serious problems to the Australian environment, native animals and plants. We humans, have self-righteously classified all introduced animals we can’t make a profit on as evil. This has led to the demonisation of these hapless creatures and attempts to eradicate them in some extremely cruel and inhuman ways. Believe it or not, we humans have been the most destructive animals ever introduced to Australia”
http://panique.com.au/trishansoz/animals/australia-introduced-animals.html
Thanks Susan.
Good fuck off, we don’t want retards like you in the country anyway.
Thanks for commenting Steve. Strong words.
What are you saying Shelby? Trap = yes; neuter then release! Sorry, neutered or not, the cat needs to eat. Please, do a little reading about the damage feral animals do in the bush, cats in particular as there are more of them and they reproduce at an alarming rate. Feral cats are found in the deserts and dense bush (forests) of Australia where ignorant humans have abandoned them. They MUST be removed.
And by the way, I love cats to the point that the word (or meows) spreads and neighbourhood cats keep moving in with me!
Until you are better informed Shelby, do not visit Australia, you would not like it!
Louise I understand your emotions about feral cats but….you can’t tell me that you actually agree to mass poisoning of feral cats by a robot can you? You say you love cats. You can’t love domestic cats and hate feral cats to that degree. If you truly love cats you love all animals and want to behave decently towards them all. TNR works. Yes it takes time but it prevents births which is the equivalent to deaths. If Aussies had started TNR 20 years ago you’d have had what you want now with respect to native species protection. To me, it seems that Aussies screwed up and are now looking at expediencies and you don’t mind it they are horribly cruel. Shame really.
Screw Australia and every cat they slaughter I hope each one of them come back as a mouse and I as a cat!
🙂 agreed. They just don’t want to see sense and do things humanely.