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Cats are remarkably capable predators, and cat owners are remarkably irresponsible.
Letting your cat be an "outside" cat is bad enough for the environment. Not spaying/neutering said "outside cat" is how we get feral cats everywhere.
That said, I dont love the vague "eradicate feral cats" language. Would greatly prefer a broad spectrum spay/neuter/tag program to naturally reduce their population.
Predator-free NZ was always destined to ruffle some feathers though.
they gotta put thiel on that list
Rats are already on it.
I don't think just spaying is enough. It'd have to be capture or even worst case euthanize. Leaving cats and any nonnative predator is especially harsh on local species each second they are in the wild because new zealand is one of the few places with flightless birds like the kakapo, which are critically endangered (just one step away from being extinct in the wild)
As someone who donates significantly to spay/neuter efforts (in the U.S.), these irresponsible people piss me the fuck off. To the extent that I have cut people out of my social circle over the issue.
My fucking neighbors just keep letting their outdoor only cats reproduce and get mad when they meow for kibble. It's the worst. My county has a well funded TNR and last litter program, but they don't give a shit. I've done TNR of at least 8 or 9 cats and they just keep coming.
These aren't even the completely wild and feral cats or anything (since the shitty neighbors feed them from time to time) although I'm sure their offspring has made some feral cats by now. It's horrible.
I adopted mine, got her spayed, and she absolutely never goes outside. Not that she would, she’s too much of a chicken shit to bother trying to get out.
New Zealand has no native predators, and cats are extremely good predators.
These aren’t house cats that got lost, these are cats that are entirely wild and are now an invasive species. TNR would still decimate the local fauna while waiting for nature to take its course.
They also can’t be housed like you might do with a house cat turned stray.
as much as I love house cats, in New Zealand, the feral cats are an ecological apocalypse.
To the people thinking "oh poor kitties". In New Zealand, cats are like terminators (or more accurately, Predators from those movies). Pretty much everything evolved to be incredibly easy pray for cats. Sure, it sucks that cats have to die, but they're an incredibly invasive species that hunts the native species to extinction. They should've never been imported in the first place.
No one in New Zealand actually wants to go around killing cats. Euthanizing them is the tool of last resort, and it’s generally prioritized for areas where urgency is high and other more humane solutions are hard to implement.
You can’t fuck around in an island ecosystem. You have to make hard choices in order to preserve the lives of the native plants and animals.
New zealand is extremely prone because its home to flightless birds and other similar species that never grew up against land predators of this nature. That's why cats and even rats are especially dangerous. These flightless birds have no real way of protecting their young and even themselves.
It's sad for cats because we see them as companions and pets, but new zealand holds a lot of critically endangered species that simply cannot exist anywhere else
All of Oceania is this. There's a lot of unique land animals that evolved with no threat. European colonisation really fucked that entire region and the ecosystems within.
On average, each roaming, hunting pet cat kills more than three animals every week. The numbers add up. On average, over a year each roaming and hunting pet cat in Australia kills 186 animals. This number includes 110 native animals (40 reptiles, 38 birds and 32 mammals).
That's for Australia's 3.7M pet cats that aren't kept indoors 24/7. So that's approx 407M native animals killed each year by cat lovers that don't responsibly take care of their cat—71% of cat owners. Factor in other contamination and habitat destruction, you can expect that to be closer or even over half a billion native animals killed each year.
So, yeah, Oceania countries will hunt and kill cats. And anyone that doesn't keep their cat inside or at least bell it's collar, is a real piece of shit. Certainly doesn't give a fuck about animals and the environment. It's a totally different part of the world to Eurasia where it's fine to just have strays all over the countryside because they're actually a part of the functioning ecosystem.
Source: https://biodiversitycouncil.org.au/resources/the-impact-of-roaming-pet-cats-on-australian-wildlife
That's pet cats and doesn't count the damage that feral cats do.
Here claims that Australia’s Cats Kill Two Billion Animals Annually, with feral cats killing 1.4 Billion.
I've personally scraped up native birds and possums that were killed by neighbours roaming pet cats. Most not eaten. And some just paralysed and left that I called WIRES wildlife rescue for. It's heartbreaking. These poor little critters didn't deserve an ending like that.
Cats like hunting. Please keep your kitty inside.
Cats must only be indoor pets. We can easily separate pet mice and rats from their feral counterparts and we need to do the same to cats. And I am a cat person big time.
Same.
Love cats.
Keep them in doors.
Outdoor cats and feral cats are walking, prowling ecological disasters.
+1 for indoor only cats. Those cunts are ruthless - they can't not murder wild animals and we've got a lot of native birds here so keep em indoors.
If you care about cats and/or if you care about the environment, you keep your pet cats indoors. Simple as.
A lot of reactionary, super-sensitive, chronically online children in this post wailing into the void because they're imagining some kind of housecat Auschwitz.
You can't claim to care about the environment and be fine with feral cats eliminating some of the most unique biodiversity on the planet. You midwit pussies out there have to make a choice.
I wish "middlebrow dismissal" had become a more common term. It basically means a knee-jerk rejection of an idea without seriously engaging or investigating it. A "cache dump of prejudices" rather than argument.
This thread is absolutely filled with people who think they know better than kiwi conservationists that have studied and discussed this topic in depth.
Most people didn't read the story, and don't actually care, they are just feeling emotions and need to vomit it out. Even if they did read the story, most people don't really understand things like ecology anyway so it's unlikely to change their emotional reactions.
It's still weird to dismiss the insane destructive power of the domestic shorthair. Killing is practically their only pastime
The "baby-fication" of pets is an incredibly damaging culture. People don't see dogs and cats for what they are and it causes problems in the lives of animals and humans alike.
Feral cats cause the ultimate destruction to local wildlife. They are so common, one of the worst invasive species. And New Zealand’s an island with precious endemic wildlife not found anywhere else in the world. So yeah - it’s about time! Bravo NZ for doing the right thing.
Edit: They need to do this in Hawaii too!
Most people have not seen a feral cat and assume that they are just domestic cats living rough. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Savage predators loose in the bush and Australia has millions of them.
Yep, there's a wild difference between "feral" city/suburbia cats, and actual wild feral cats.
I used to live in a pretty rural area in Hungary, butt end of suburbia, backing into the endless fields of wheat and corn, interrupted only by small patches of "woodland" (really just a dozen or so trees occupying a small area, enough to block the view but not big enough to house any larger animals, it's mostly birds, rodents and feral cats).
There used to be maybe ten colonies of feral cats in my immediate area, and those fuckers would fuck you up proper. They hated humans, and would cross half a field, a four lane road, and a canal just to attack you. Many a times I had to run from the bus stop to home to avoid a trip to tetanus and rabies land...
Cats have the exact same right to bring extinction to this world as we do.
I'm sorry, I read this headline like a Dr. Doofenschmirtz plan, ahahahahahaha
All domestic cats should be fully indoor cats. Any domestic cats found outdoors should be killed. Nasty little disease spreading song bird killers.
Not sure why this is such a controversial take. House cats should indeed not be outside, unless they are on a leash.
Because people have an extreme case of the feels for cats and judge their morals purely based on what's cute, and are fine with the deaths of cows and other animals but not pets. A disturbing amount of people care about the fully arbitrary distinction between pet and animal
Funnily enough I just got recommended to rewatch this old vid from tom scott
Meow, meo meow meow mao meow, meow meow mrrp meow. Meow meow meow meow meow... 😿
The dairy industry is significantly more damaging to NZ's ecology than some feral cats. I'm not saying it shouldn't be addressed, but there are measures already in place. It's important to keep perspective and not be distracted by media.
It's possible to do two things at a time. Cats and dairy are not mutually exclusive.
We are the extinction event