The Australian Government plans to kill over 2 million cats, with a $3.6m fund established to wipe colony cats off the face of the earth.

This high risk initiative includes a number of cat eradication programs including baiting, shooting, dogs and traps.

If you object to this please consider contacting your local Australian embassy or consulate or, if you're Australian, your local authorities suggesting that funds could be better and more humanely used on TNR or other programmes. Stiff penalties for those who abandon their pets would be useful, too.

There are also many online petitions, including this one: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/303/5...ustralia/#sign

Others can be found here: http://www.veggieboards.com/forum/15...eral-cats.html

Twitter accounts you could contact include:

https://twitter.com/greghuntmp

https://twitter.com/tscommissioner

https://twitter.com/envirogov

Emails include: ThreatenedSpeciesCommissioner@environment.gov.au

Greg.Hunt.MP@aph.gov.au







Against Hawaii SB2450 aimed at killing feral cats "by any means"

‘There are many responsible colony caretakers providing humane population control of the species through TNRM (trap neuter return manage) I would urge you to support these responsible colony caretakers who have been doing the county's and state’s job for them for years by taking on the personal responsibility of controlling populations. It is humans that have created the over population of cats by being irresponsible owners and dumping, abandoning and casting off owned animals to become free roaming.’

There’s a petition here: https://www.change.org/p/clarence-ni...etition-letter

Please consider contacting senators Nishihara and Wakai to state your opposition to the plans, and to give your support to TNRM programmes and penalties for those who abandon their pets.

Senator Clarence K. Nishihara can be contacted at sennishihara@capitol.hawaii.gov

and here: http://clarencenishihara.com/contact/

Senator Glenn Wakai can be contacted at senwakai@capitol.hawaii.gov


Their twitter accounts

https://twitter.com/sennishihara

https://twitter.com/glennwakai

Well I have contacted them and told them I fully support them eradicating these pests. It is a pity there is not a feline version of mixy they could release into the wild (after vaccinating the pet population first of course.)

I hate they are doing it, Australia in particular because logistically i get how big the problem must be but i understand why. Native animals must come first.

Right now, the lives of millions of Australia’s cats are on the line.

In July 2015, Minister Hunt and the Department of the Environment announced plans to kill two million cats by 2020 in a misguided attempt to save wildlife. Habitat destruction not cats has caused dozens of species in Australia to go extinct and endangers many more. Rather than focusing on the hard work of protecting the bush, Mr. Hunt has waged war on cats.

Hunt’s plan is not only unsound, but also ineffective and inhumane. Cats cannot be eliminated through killing. Decades of failed attempts to wipe cats out have proven this. Surviving cats reproduce quickly and fill the void, otherwise known as the vacuum effect.

The plan will only cause cats to suffer and die needlessly, with little change in the cat population and no benefit to wildlife. And it’s not just the cats who will suffer. Poisons and barbaric traps are cruel and do not discriminate. Other species will be caught both literally and figuratively in the crossfire.

It is time for Australia to embrace ethical, sound, and proven methods. Leading Australian conservationists argue in favor of nonlethal means of protecting animals in the bush. In urban settings, the humane and effective approach is to de-sex alley cats and return them to their outdoor homes. When cats are de-sexed, populations stabilise and then decline.

Australians are banding together to ask Minister Hunt to end his department’s plan to kill millions of cats. Join us.
Sign the pledge and declare that you want the government to do better by our nation’s cats.

http://getinvolved.alleycat.org/site...alia_Cats.html

p.s. It looks like Hawaii has decided against the proposal.

The domestic cat is also a pest. The last place I lived in was infested with the things due to so many people having 5 or more cats. The local wildlife was consequently decimated. Why can't cat luvvies stop at one or two? Just hoping that we eventually get something like the Australian Cat Act 2011 here.
In the meantime Go Australia!

You do realise that myxamatosis causes dreadful suffering for the affected animals.

link

I've killed quite a few rabbits with mixie so I am well aware of the effects. What's your point?

That I'm not sure what you're doing posting in the pets forum, when you manifestly have no compunction about causing dreadful suffering and inhumane death to innocent creatures.

Fortunately, such a barbaric practice is illegal in the UK, and has been since 1954. But then we do have decent civilized standards. .

unfortunately it is a problem at least the government are trying to do something about the issues unlike the government here that ignore the problem with breeding and the number of dogs and cats.

We really need to euthanize a lot more and put in strict breeding policies, have a breeding licence and heavy penalties for people caught breeding animals without a licence. Not a couple of quid more like 5 to 10k so it is not worth it to all the money grabbers that use animals as breeding machines.

We also need to hit the kennel club where it hurts too over most of the breed standards until having a pedigree dog actually means something where it is bred of good standard, good lines and good temperament.

Just moved to a very rural area. I see one cat occasionally which is 'shared' between two of the neighbours. But apparently there used to be five - which mysteriously disappeared. In fact I was warned against getting cats when I moved in. People suspect the nearby farmer who doesn't like cats in the vicinity. He says cats spread disease and are a danger to his livestock.
http://www.netvet.co.uk/sheep/toxoplasmosis.htm

http://www.rmla.com/html/-toxoplasmosis_cats.htm

It is cruel and unnecessary. I vote we avoid Australian Holidays and products in protest.

Mankind is the biggest killer of them all. No one does anything about that.

Just wish I had that choice to make...

Strange that considering the number of farmers who keep several semi feral cats to keep down the rodent population, who really do spread disease, and that the main danger to livestock is dogs, which farmers can legally shoot if they see them worrying their livestock.

I wondered this too. Personally I would be happy for him to have a cat or two to keep down the rats which hang round the nearby barns. But it seems he considers cats the bigger menace.

From your link:-