Tag: culling cats

The reasons we are so intolerant towards cats.

Cats inhabit every continent except Antarctica and the world is full of cat lovers who find nothing more relaxing than the company of one purring on their lap. For this reason they rank second in popularity in most countries to the dog. But their popularity doesn’t extend to everyone and governments, conservationists, hobbyists and scientists are among the many who dislike them for a variety of reasons.

It seems cats cannot do anything right.

For every person who loves cats there is probably another who hates or has a phobia about them. If a cat digs a hole in someones flowerbed or even worse the vegetable patch, many gardeners will run for their air rifle or garden hose, or resort to even crueller deterrent methods. Dogs though seem to be able to poo wherever they wish and we mostly turn a blind eye to the mess they leave behind or to the abandoned plastic poo bags littering the ground. This is because a large proportion of society do not like cats invading their space even though they have the decency to cover up their toiletry antics unlike dogs.

cat with bird in mouth
Cats are vilified for being predators.

We find them to be the cause of our allergies, are frightened they will asphyxiate our sleeping babies, spread disease and infest us with fleas. We view them as vicious and bad tempered and declaw them, classify them as pests just like rats and are afraid of their aloof attitude or believe they are demonic with their ‘evil’ stare. Hoarders keep hundreds of them confined in their houses little understanding the suffering they are causing.

In retaliation for their perceived crimes or just for fun many torment them, poison them, shoot them with airguns from their bedroom windows. Or kill and mutilate them as in the case of the notorious “cat ripper of Croydon” who allegedly stalked the London Borough luring an estimated 400 cats to their deaths with chicken, before strangling, decapitating and mutilating their bodies. Prosecutions for cat cruelty are common and the offences often vicious.

We hate cats for following their predatory instincts

cat, bird, cat chasing bird
Cats are vilified for decimating bird populations

And we are only talking about pet cats here. When it comes to stray and feral cats it is all out war against them the world over. So what is going on. It would seem that cats are being vilified for just being cats. Their main crime is that they pursue their natural instincts and behaviours as predators and through feckless ownership they have become pests in many people’s eyes.

So who are these people who have an aversion to cats? Well, as already mentioned, there are the gardeners who cannot stand these free roaming creatures that trespass and soil and damage their land. Then we have bird, small mammal, reptile and amphibian enthusiasts who are appalled that they sadistically chase, play, kill and eat hundreds of millions annually.

So called feral cats bear the brunt of all the antagonism. Most feral cats prefer to live alongside us, but remain disassociated from us, preferring to scavenge and hunt in order to survive. But being ‘animal lovers’ we insist on trying to help them, by feeding, catching and neutering them, causing them to live in closer proximity to us. This can then cause conflict when local residents begin to view them as vermin because they cause smells, mess and damage similar to rats.

Governments and conservationists in Australia and New Zealand and many island nations are paranoid about their feral cats because of their impact on small native species of birds, reptiles and small mammals particularly marsupials. Australia has a five year plan ending in 2020 to kill 2 million of them by various methods such as shooting, trapping and poisoning.

They may not be able to breed but they can still eat

Conservationists, many individuals and local and state governments believe extermination is the answer and decry any other initiatives like trapping, neutering and releasing. They believe it is not cost effective and doesn’t decrease numbers because it is impossible to neuter them all and stop owners from abandoning more. And it just maintains large cat colonies which in some circumstances can cause havoc in nearby sensitive wildlife areas. They may not be able to breed, but they can still eat is the stance that the exterminator lobby take.

Cat trapping, feral cats, feral cat colonies
Trap, Neuter & release (TNR). Many observers say they may not be able to breed but they can still kill.

The town of Omaui in New Zealand has plans to be the first authority to ban cats by stopping owners from replacing their pet after it dies to gradually phase them out. Some countries want to ban them going outside at all, others have curfews and bans on letting cats out if they live near vulnerable wildlife. There is a worldwide movement to basically curtail cat owning and stop cats from enjoying a natural life.

Unfortunately, there are far too many people who cannot accept or tolerate the fact that they are predators and no matter how much you try, you can never take the killer instinct out of a predator. In fact it is unfair to do so, or for that matter chide them for doing so. It is through our feckless ownership that we have created the problem of so many stray and feral cats and have put them into this position. Therefore it is only fair that we should endeavour to have more tolerance, otherwise even more stringent regulations will make it impossible for them to enjoy natural lives.

The right to roam, cats cannot trespass
We need a UK Cat Act
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The global war on feral cats.

Although domestic cats are one of our most popular companion pets, we have for centuries, been bad keepers of them and allowed them to breed indiscriminately, introduced them to countries around the world where they didn’t naturally exist and where they have upset the balance of nature, abandoned them in large numbers and generally failed to act responsibly with them. They are now paying the price of our reckless behaviour.

What is a feral cat?

Over generations domesticated cats, for various reasons, have been left to their own devices without human interference and they have reverted to their wild instincts. We call them feral rather than wild and they tend to remain disassociated from us, preferring to scavenge and hunt in order to survive. Because they have been born ‘wild’ it can be difficult to fully adapt them back to domesticity.

Ferals differ to what we refer to as strays because stray cats were generally once ‘owned’ but for one reason or another have lost their homes and are not as adept at surviving without some human contact. Given time though they can also revert to be totally feral.

Being ‘animal lovers’ we cannot resist interfering in the lives of both feral and strays and insist on trying to help them, by feeding, catching and neutering them and encouraging them to live in closer proximity to us which results in them becoming more dependent on us. This can lead to conflict with local residents and even governments who view them as a nuisance or even vermin.

Feral cat colony, cruelty to cats, TNR
Many people view neutered cat colonies a nuisance.

Feral cats face unpleasant and agonising deaths through poisoning and trapping.

Governments and conservationists in Australia and New Zealand and many island nations are paranoid about their feral cats because of their impact on small native species of birds, reptiles and small mammals particularly marsupials. These countries go to extreme and costly lengths to eradicate them going to such lengths as using aircraft and helicopters to drop poisoned bait and shooting and trapping them.

Australia has a five year plan ending in 2020 to kill 2 million of them by various methods including dropping 50 poisoned ‘sausages’ per square kilometre from aircraft at a rate of 500,000 baits a month. An estimated 211,560 cats were killed in the first year. They are blamed for killing 75 million native animals and have allegedly driven at least 27 mammal species to extinction.

cat with bird in mouth
Feral cats are villified for being predators.

Gregory Andrews, the threatened species commissioner for the Department of the Environment stated: “We don’t hate cats. We just can’t tolerate the damage that they’re doing to our wildlife”. All kinds of methods are used to exterminate them and they have been eradicated from over 50 islands and large areas of the Australian and New Zealand mainland.

They may not be able to breed but they can still eat

Cat loving advocates prefer to trap, neuter and return them back to fend for themselves, something now referred to as ‘TNR’. The jury is out as to whether this has much impact on numbers, but releasing them again doesn’t appease those that do not like them eating wildlife.

Conservationists, individuals and local and state governments find extermination to be the answer and decry any other initiative such as TNR as it is not viewed as cost-effective and doesn’t decrease numbers because you need to neuter all of them and not allow any to be abandoned. And it just maintains large cat colonies which in some circumstances can cause havoc in nearby sensitive wildlife areas. They may not be able to breed, but they can still eat is the stance that the exterminator lobby take.

Cat trapping, feral cats, feral cat colonies
Trap, Neuter & release (TNR). Many observers say they may not be able to breed but they can still kill.

New Zealand like Australia wants to rid the country of 2.5 million feral cats by 2025 and Gareth Morgan, a businessman and philanthropist, began a “Cats to Go” campaign aimed at eradicating all cats from the country as they were destroying native animals. The campaign accused the local NZSPCA of not getting real and he stated that the country should “stop pussyfooting around and fry the ferals”.

The Australian branch of the Cats to Go campaign reckon they are far ahead of their New Zealand counterparts, “who lack spine in dealing with wandering cats, by compulsory microchipping, fines and legislated areas which prohibit cats being outdoors,” instead of killing them.

The town of Omaui in New Zealand has plans to be the first authority to ban cats by stopping owners from replacing their pet after it dies to gradually phase them out. Some countries want to ban them going outside at all, others have curfews and bans on letting cats out if they live near vulnerable wildlife. There is a worldwide movement to basically curtail cat owning and stop cats from enjoying a natural life.

Their crime is pursuing their natural instincts and behaviours as predators. 

In the USA, where it is believed there are 70 million feral cats roaming the country, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish & Wildlife Service combined their research  and accused cats of killing 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 22.3 billion mammals each year. They reckoned two thirds of the deaths were caused by feral cats. Research in Canada where they have fewer feral cats appears to back up these incredible statistics. The authorities wage a similar war on them as in Australasia.

The UK Mammal Society believe 275 million animals are killed by cats, including 55 million birds and 80 million mice. They have even been implicated in the death of 230,000 bats. Bizarrely the top three birds allegedly killed by cats are house sparrows, blackbirds and starlings which we look upon as pest species anyway in the UK and slaughter in their millions. The whole debate then becomes rather meaningless.

But strangely there are no studies or evidence that cats are the only or main cause of any bird depopulation, except in the cases of small islands. Agriculture, logging, climate change and human interference are probably more to blame. Surprisingly, the RSPB, the UK’s leading bird conservation organisation, have supported the cat in the past pointing out that:

“there is no clear scientific evidence that such mortality is causing bird populations to decline. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds”. RSPB

The lines are drawn between those who want to kill all the ‘nuisance’ feral and stray cats and those who wish to neuter and release them and it is pretty obvious which side will prevail. This is particularly so in countries like Australia, New Zealand and islands who have vulnerable rare native species of birds, mammals and reptiles. The shame of it is that none of this was their fault and their only crime is in trying to survive by pursuing their natural instincts and behaviours as predators. The blame, as always, lies with all the generations of irresponsible human owners who have created the problems and the lack laws to control ownership.

Poisoned cats in Australia, the result of the Governments campaign to kill 2 million cats.

Blog updated 09/01/2020