If you ask me

If you ask me, there are a lot of so-called animal lovers, in the world, who need a damn good shake up and they would do well to learn about the true principles, and mechanisms, of conservation. It would also be an excellent idea if they actually learnt how nature really works  and here is a news flash for them: Walt Disney was only a movie maker and not a naturalist.

If you are not willing to do that, that is to learn the truth about nature and gain a true understanding of conservation, biodiversity and the measures necessary to stop extinctions, then please just shut the hell up.

A case in point is the recent reports of outrage, in the world’s media, by animal lovers about Australia’s plan to cull feral cats.

Not only have these people been railing against the Australian governments plan to cull 2 million cats by 2020, but there has been a hate campaign conducted against Australian hunters who are shooting feral cats and this has been conducted on social media websites, and in the general media and even spurred on by has-been celebrities like Bridgett Bardot.

The hate campaign has been, to put it mildly, disgusting with these cat lovers offering vile language and even death threats against the hunters, but not just the hunters but their wives and children, as well – how sick is that? And they somehow think that they are morally superior?  One of these sick individuals even claimed to have killed a hunter’s dog in revenge and as if that was justified by the deaths of feral cats – that cat lover really does have a mental problem!

But let’s put the unacceptable behaviour of these self-proclaimed ‘good’ people aside and look at the issue of why we are killing feral cats.

Quite simply, Australia’s wildlife is unique – and because Australia was isolated, for millions of years, animals, birds and reptiles evolved here that you cannot find anywhere else in the world. All of our mammals are marsupials while most of the mammals, that evolved elsewhere in the world, are placentals and if you don’t know the difference, I suggest you do some reading. The point here is that where placentals compete with the marsupials the marsupials usually lose.

So in Australia, the huge and growing placental populations, which are all feral and of which feral cats are just one species, will eventually replace our unique wildlife if we do not intervene. The ferals are here because of human action so we humans have a responsibility to fix, or at least reduce, the impact of this mistake. We cannot leave this to nature because, as happened elsewhere in the world, the placentals will win and Australia’s unique wildlife will disappear. The notion that ‘mother nature’ will sort it out for us is totally naïve and delusional.

The scientists at the CSIRO have estimated that there are probably around 15 million feral cats in the Australian bush but that the numbers could be as high as 25 million. In addition, EACH one of these 15 millions cats eat around 5 native animals, birds or reptiles EVERY SINGLE DAY. So the death toll, among our native species will be around 75 million, but could be as high as 125 million, animals/birds/reptiles EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Feral cats have already been directly implicated in the extinction of some Australian native species, are known to be a threat to 123 bird, 58 marsupial, 157 reptile, 27 rodent and 21 frog species. Recent studies show that Australian mammal extinctions are 40% higher than previously thought and Australian already has a bad track record with animal extinctions. There is absolutely no doubt that the feral cat is a huge part of this problem.

So, to all of those selfish cat lovers out there I say this: by agitating against the cull, by spreading hate against hunters, by regurgitating misinformation about the problems that feral animals truly present, by doing these things you are just adding to the problem. Accordingly, I suggest that you just back off and let Australians get on with the job of culling feral cats, by any means possible, and allow Australians to do this quickly. Frankly, culling 2,000,000 (two million) cats is far from ideal and the goal should be to cull every single feral cat; all 15 (or 25 million?) of them.

Frankly, I have no love for cats, either domestic or feral, and the thought that we might lose any more species because of an introduced species that has NO place in the Australian bush, makes me very angry. And when I read the inane, stupid and selfish comments of the cat lovers who oppose culling cats, it just makes me even angrier because many of those same complainers are responsible for this problem by not keeping their cats locked up.

So, for all of those self-proclaimed, and uneducated, animal lovers out there, please take the time to learn something about real conservation, stop vilifying hunters, stop agitating against the feral cat cull and, if you really want to do something worthwhile, make sure that your mongrel moggies are restrained and not out slaughtering the local wildlife.

If you have read this far, you might also want to read:

Animal Liberation is NOT Conservation.

The Animal Justice Party and the Feral Cat

What do you think? Please feel free to comment.