The drastic measure Australia MUST make to save its unique native wildlife – but millions of Aussie cat-lovers are going to be heartbroken: ‘Make them EXTINCT’
An Australian zoologist has demanded a complete ban on all cats by making it illegal to even own one and drive them into extinction to save the local native wildlife.
University of Sydney’s Antone Martinho-Truswell said feral and pet cats combine to kill three billion native animals each year, or a breathtaking 8.2million every day.
‘The breeding trade should be shut down,’ Dr Martinho-Truswell demanded.
‘Pet cats will slowly become extinct. It’s time we outlawed pet cats. Cats kill more of Australia’s native species than any other of the exotic animals we outlaw.’
Australia has up to six million feral cats and 4.9million pet cats. Each pet cat kills between 186 and 200 animals every year, for an annual total of some 400million.
The daily death toll is made up by cats killing an estimated 2.92million mammals, 1.67million reptiles, 1.09million birds, 2.97million invertebrates and 0.26million frogs every single day, according to The Invasive Species Council of Australia.
Even pet cats supposedly kept indoors at night have regularly been tracked outside their home, on the prowl to kill birds and small animals.
Zoologists have discovered domestic cats will travel up to 30km to feast on wildlife after a bushfire has burnt through the area.
An Australian zoologist has demanded a complete ban on all cats by making it illegal to even own one and drive them into extinction to save the local native wildlife
University of Sydney’s Antone Martinho-Truswell (pictured) said feral and pet cats combine to kill three billion native animals each year, or a breathtaking 8.2million every day
Up to 6m feral cats roam Australia feasting on native wildlife of which 8.2m die each day. Inside this cat’s stomach, left to right, were a marsupial Planigale, a stripe-faced dunnart, 9 mice of various species, surrounded by two curl snakes (suta suta)
Meanwhile, feral cats have been found to be one of the most ferocious predators in the Australian ecosystem.
Experts claim local wildlife has suffered more damage from cats than any ecosystem worldwide since the very first pets arrived on the First Fleet.
‘It’s been like a smorgasbord ever since,’ said South Australian cat trapper, Barry O’Shea, who still sees a future for pet cats, but with some tighter restrictions.
‘You’d have to have them in a cat run, a caged and netted area from which they can’t get out,’ he said.
However, Dr Martinho-Truswell sees a complete ban as the only solution to save Australia’s fragile wildlife diversity from its own extinction.
‘We are allowing a massacre to persist for the sake of keeping a discretionary pet,’ he said. ‘I love animals. We do not need cats.
‘Every pet cat is a potential escapee. Your cat is a killer and it cannot be permitted to live here.’
He said cat ownership in Australia was ‘cavalier’ compared to the strict quarantine laws against other invasive or feral species, but cats ‘do ten times more damage’.
The death toll for pet and feral cats of Australian native species totals three billion creatures
Each day across Australia cats kill 2.92 million mammals, 1.67 million reptiles, 1.09 million birds 2.97 million invertebrates and 0.26 million frogs
The biologist compared cats with foxes, which are illegal to own or import, and tortoises, which are also banned because they are invasive and carry diseases.
Likewise, exotic birds, such as macaws, are banned – but ‘you can import your cat,’ he added.
‘You can phone up a cat breeder and buy one … keep it in your garden and let it roam the neighbourhood.’
Scientists disagree about the full extent of cats’ impact on Australian mammals since the British arrived, which has seen whole species subsequently wiped out.
In January this year, the Biodiversity Council settled a stoush which followed a scientific uproar over a widely publicised and controversial paper by Canadian scientist Dr Erick Lundgren and Dr Arian Wallach of Queensland University of Technology.
The pair cast strong doubt on the role of feral cats and red foxes in Australian mammal extinctions, of which there have been 40 since white settlement.
The latest rebuttal by ’25 leading conservation scientists, ecologists, and mammal experts’ said the two ‘misinterpreted their own data, made naive false arguments and ignored key evidence to claim that cats and foxes were innocent bystanders rather than culprits in Australia’s world-leading mammal declines’.
The group’s leader, Professor John Woinarski, concluded: ‘The evidence is overwhelming.
Sean O’Shea operates a biohazard cleaning service in South Australia, specialising in decontaminating methamphetamine lab houses, but is passionate about saving native wildlife from feral cats
‘Cats and foxes were the primary driver of the decline of most of the Australian mammals that have become extinct since 1788, and continue to drive the decline of many remaining species.’
He said it mattered to expose ‘the flawed and unsubstantiated denialist case’ because this was more than academic argument.
‘The survival of many of Australia’s remaining native mammals, and other species like ground-nesting birds, depends on controlling cats and foxes.’
Eradicating feral cats across the continent is sporadic without any central policy, although on Kangaroo Island, the famed ‘Cat Man’ Barry Green has been trapping and shooting ferals for 30 years, aided by Sean O’Shea.
Mr O’Shea believes Australian schoolchildren could learn to trap feral cats as part of a wildlife preservation course introduced into the curriculum.
‘They could go on school camps and learn these skills, see how we trap and shoot humanely, he said.
‘Who knows, it could lead some of them into careers in ecology and such like.
‘It’s a sight to see these feral cats. Our biggest one was 4.7kg, roaming around like athletes in the environment.
Kangaroo Island’s ‘Cat Man’ Barry Green began catching feral moggies to save local birdlife 30 years ago and developed a business making stubby holders, hats and other items for tourists from the animals’ pelts
‘When they get trapped, they’re hissing and scratching like a Tassie devil in the cage. Look up what some people have found inside a feral cat’s belly, dozens of little animals.’
To illustrate the danger cats posed to Australian animals, Mr O’Shea suggested people should imagine what it would be like for humans if millions of lions and tigers were roaming around on the loose.
Dr Martinho-Truswell says the eradication of feral cats is tricky, but the elimination of pet cats can be done in an efficient and straightforward manner which would cull the population across Australia by 40 to 80 per cent.
He admitted that his views would attract the inevitable backlash from cat-loving social media posters, and requested: ‘Please keep your hate mail brief and civil.’
