Australian cutting-edge program to poison feral cats could kill pet dogs too

Felixer being put down

This is described as a cutting-edge program to kill feral cats in Australia. You put a machine, the ‘Felixer’, on the ground in a well selected site and it squirts a specific amount of a poison (1080) onto the cat’s fur. The cat licks it off and dies. Voilà, job done. I presume cats …

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Contextualizing the predation of reptiles by cats in Australia

Pintupi hunter and dead feral cat

A recent study on how many reptiles are killed by cats in Australia concluded that 649 million reptiles are killed annually by both domestic cats and feral cats on the continent. The news media headlines translate this to cats killing almost 2 million lizards a day in Australia and even causing the extinction of …

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Australia’s dirty secret: shooting kangaroos and cats at night

Australia's dirty secret: their attitude towards the kangaroo and cat

Australia’s dirty secret is shooting kangaroos and cats at night, out of sight. The authorities consider both these animals vermin and pests because (a) the kangaroo competes with livestock for pasture and (b) the feral cat kills native species. Kangaroos have been in Australia for millions of years. They are a native species. The …

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Australians and New Zealanders Need to Do a Study on Abandoned Domestic Cats

Find out how many cat owners in Australia are abandoning cats

I think it might be useful if the New Zealand and the Australian authorities did a study on the number of abandoned cats in their countries as a means to assess whether they need to take proactive steps to prevent the creation of feral cats rather than just focusing on eliminating them.

The non-native feral cat of Australia might be beneficial

Feral cat Australia

A nation’s conservationists are always hostile towards non-native species. It is axiomatic. It is automatic. Non-native species must be bad for the environment and native species. This is certainly the case for Australian conservationists and environmental experts who provide advice to local and national governments. These ‘experts’ colour opinion. They change opinions. They create …

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Decimation of koala numbers is a lesson in human failure to protect Australia’s native species

We routinely hear from the authorities in Australia that feral cats are having a terrible impact upon Australia’s native species. I have consistently said that by far the biggest impact on Australia’s native species is the impact of human activity. Here is a good example. One relatively minor threat to koalas is the feral …

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The Reason Why Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) Is Better Than Killing Feral Cats

Killing feral cats in order to protect wildlife is a short term fix but in the long term there will be failure. Conversely, trap-neuter-release (TNR) is a long term solution which if carried out consistently and with commitment produces success. The underlying difference is short termism versus long-term solutions. In many cases the long …

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