Bardot Slams Aus Cat Cull

[icyfroth]

French actress Brigitte Bardot has condemned an Australian plan to cull two million feral cats, blamed for wreaking havoc on native animals, to stop them further harming vanishing populations.

Feral cats have been identified as the main culprit behind Australia's high rate of mammal extinction, with more than 10 percent of species wiped out since Europeans settled here two centuries ago. 

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has said the advice he has received is that the cats number 20 million across the country and devour countless native animals every night."They are tsunamis of violence and death for Australia's native species," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last week.

Hunt said a target of eradicating two million feral cats had been set for 2020, in addition to creating feral-free enclosures to aid the recovery of birds and mammals among other measures.

The government has stressed the eradication of cats will be carried out humanely, but Bardot urged the government to reconsider the plan which she said was "appalling" to the international community.

"This animal genocide is inhumane and ridiculous. In addition to being cruel, killing these cats is absolutely useless since the rest of them will keep breeding," she said in the English translation of the open letter to Hunt. 

Entire Article Here

Animal Genocide? Of Cats? What planet is this lady living on?

Everybody knows I love cats, but I'm realistic enough to understand the damage feral cats are doing to our native animals. There needs to be a cull.

How does she suggest we bring the numbers down otherwise?

Make Akubra hats out of them? 

[lionrose.7]

So keep it on your own computer, so you can get your dead cat kick, I think if is awful

[bluecat*dancing]

The pic is distressing and unneccesary.

[bluecat*dancing]

I just hope when the killing starts people have enough sense to keep their pets indoors. Because that poison-laced meat can and will be picked up and ingested by all kinds of animals--not just the targeted ferals. Although I'm sure there are some people on this board who would just consider unintended victims to be "collateral damage".

This bothers me, too. Pet cats should be contained at home, anyway, but would wildlife be attracted to the baits? Will the feral cats die quickly and painlessly? Does anyone seriously believe that all feral cats will be eradicated through mass poisoning? How will the remaining and future ferals be dealt with? There would not be a feral cat problem if people weren't so bloody irresponsible in the first place.

My ex raised a feral kitten. He was a gorgeous cat.

[kilroy_is_here]

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@artfulcreations4all wrote:

That photo up there of the bleeding cat is really offensive, so congratulations, iapetus, since offending was obviously your goal.

Kilroy, I understand the topography of Australia makes the situation more difficult to deal with. There are oral contraceptives that can be put in food like the poison that's planned. It doesn't have the same permanent effect that desexing does but it's an alternative when an operation isn't feasible. But, clearly, the Australian government has no intention of allocating any funds for anything except killing so it's a mute point.

I also understand the urgency of the matter but the failure of the Australian government to do something about a problem that's existed in ever-increasing numbers for over two hundred years can't be solved, IMO, by a sudden mass kill. If eradiction programs actually worked they wouldn't have to be done over and over again. Controling the ability to procreate is the only method that's been proven to work over the long term.

It's also been proven that when one species of predator has been removed another one of a different kind  takes its place..There's never going to be a perfect Eden again where only native species thrive and you can blame the introduction of the worst kind of invasive species--mankind--.for that. Feral cats have been a part of the environment for so long that who is to say what the effect would be on the balance of nature if they were ever removed--in part or in whole. It may not be the beneficial effect people expect.

I just hope when the killing starts people have enough sense to keep their pets indoors. Because that poison-laced meat can and will be picked up and ingested by all kinds of animals--not just the targeted ferals. Although I'm sure there are some people on this board who would just consider unintended victims to be "collateral damage".

I probably said this already but I'm truly disgusted by this whole thing. But my heart does goes out to the wildlife that's struggling to survive too. No one wants to see a species die out. They're all precious and they all matter.

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All all the things you mention regarding removal of predictors is true and has been under study and testing for many years , this is nota snap decision , it's a metered study approach to a major problem , as to native animals taking baits it wouldn't matter as the poison used is taken from our bush and the natives are ammune to it , the cat up top is not even a big cat in fact it's probably average size , as to pet cats baiting will not take place where pet cats would be

[iapetus_rocks]

Perhaps you and the others who were offended and sickened  by my pic should be grateful I didn't post pictures of some of the multitude of native wildlife killed by feral cats.

For me it doesn't matter how feral cats are destroyed. Think of it less as an excercise in destruction and more of an excercise in the preservation of our threatened native animal species.

As stated above, it's far too expensive to catch, sterilize and release feral cats. Far better to spend that money on their destruction and on other ways of protecting our native animals from these  dangerous introduced predators.

You know whose side I am on. Now, whose side are you on?

[bluecat*dancing]

I wasn't offended by the pic. I do care about how feral cats, or, any animal for that matter, are killed but that doesn't mean that I don't care about the decimation of wildlife. Whose side am I? The humane treatment of all animals.

[iapetus_rocks]

I think that a part of the dilemma (or problem if you will), is that humane treatment of feral cats results in an inhumane approach to the protection of native animals.

I'd rather there were no cats at all in Australia. I once saw a domestic cat (not a feral cat) with a native duck it had killed. and that was in a suburban street in Adelaide.

Domestic cats take their toll on birdlife even in towns and cities.

[bluecat*dancing]

Something needs to be done about feral cats, foxes, pigs etc, loss of habitat and anything else that is endangering the native wildlife. I just hope that the proposed poisoning results in death being fast and painless.

My cats are not alllowed to roam - there is no reason for any cat to not be contained,

+

[punch*drunk]

It would take so long to catch and sterilize all the feral cats that a whole new generation would be born before you finished, you'd then be back where you started, not to mention the newly dumped pets 😞 Seriously no way that would ever work, let alone what it would cost.

We have a feral cat problem where I live and more recently packs of dogs killing peoples livestock, no doubt they are killing native species too.

For each cat killed there is an untold number of natives animals saved. There's no feasible solution that saves all the animals.

[rose_tvaddict]

" There are programs all over the US to deal with these cats in a HUMANE way. Namely, trapping, neutering, vaccinating, then returning them to the area they were living in, or moving them to a different area if the original one isn't feasible for some reason. The ideal thing is to have these colonies monitored and reguarly fed until they die out. I, myself, have helped monitor a feral cat colony and have also taken care of individual feral cats for years."

So, do they catch and neuter the males or females? Both? How do they know they've got them all - you only have to miss one and all that money is a waste.

"colonies monitored and reguarly fed until they die out" - So now we have to feed them too?

" moving them to a different area if the original one isn't feasible" - so, move them to a new area so they can kill the natives in that area too? Makes sense to someone I suppose.