Feral Cats In Australia.

[Johnny_Revolver]

Often, people in other countries express a desire to hunt the feral cats in this country for what ever reason. Here`s what I know about them. I read in one of Len Beadell`s books, Len is an author any student of outback Australia should seek out, he was in the 50`s and 60`s a real pioneer, and basically a road builder. Len was a surveyor and adventurer given the task of building roads in the most remote areas of the country, the Gunbarrel Highway to name one, and the roads in the Womera area used by the british for the infamous nuke tests in the 50`s. An Aboriginal elder in Western Australia told Len that ` the !!!!!cat was the first non native animal in this country, and was here before the white fella.`

This is highly plausable, as the Dutch were sailing up the west coast of this country in the 1600`s and quite possibley earlier. Its highly likely a cat or cats were dumped / swept over board, or left on the mainland by food and water gathering parties. Apparently the Aboringine`s found them delicious. The first British settlers found themselves homesick... !!! for??? They left a wet, dreary, overcrowded, polluted and cold dump, and arrived in paridise! Anyway, they were homesick, so they brought rabbits and things, and the rich folk brought foxes to hunt, as in fox hunting, and both of these animals took hold here like wildfire. Particularly the rabbit, with only the Dingo and the wedgetail eagle as predators, there was no stopping them, soon, there was a massive plague of rabbits. By plague, I mean countless 10`s of 1,000`s gorging plains bare of fodder and draining waterholes dry.

Combine that with a drought, and you had a real disaster on ya hands. Then, in a bit of thinking staight out of the `there was an old lady who swallowed a fly `dept, in around 1900, they released a few hundred cats into the wild at Cobar in western New South Wales. This had incredibley little effect on the bunnies, but wiped out many MANY native species of smaller animals such as Bilbies and Biltongs. Even today, the house cat is still being dumped, abandoned or just walking off into the scrub and becoming wild, killing native birds and small mammals. Far enough, if what that old black fella told Len in the 50`s was true, they were here in a small number as many as 400 years ago, but it`s been the latter white people arriving here that have made cats into major major problem. Ì`ve seen all manner of feral cat. The dead ringer for Tiddles next door, to the boof headed monster with a coat of indiscribable colours that`d give a pit bull the heeby jeebies.

Regardless, if I see one in the bush, it`s history if it sticks around long enough.

[Sav .250]

Feral cats are vermin and should be treated as such! Fire away!!!!!!!!!
They have become a major problem in a lot of places around the globe
just look at Wisconsin for example and what the DNR has come up with.
Responsible pet owners are not the problem that`s for sure but rather the
ones that think kitty needs to "run" all hours of the day and night.
Cats are killing machines in their own right so that being said Kitty beware!

[1wildbill]

I know FL, among other states, has major problems with imported species of animals and plants. Feral cats, (and yes "Tabby" is feral when it roams), are also the number one "problem" non-native species of animal in the United States, (source: one of those TV channels like Discovery, National Geographic, etc.). My neighbors have a cat that roams and their yard is littered with dead birds, just one small example. You bet the feral cats kill game birds like crazy too.

Because of past experieces, I personally would not kill much of anything that was not threatening me or mine directly, (and of course I would not kill my neighbor's cat). I make some exceptions though: crows, starlings, rats, snakes, etc.

I used to hunt, but I no longer do. However, I have no problem with people that do hunt, and would not be bothered by people that hunted feral cats anywhere they are a problem.

A big headache in my neck of the woods and south are feral pigs that tear up fields of crops. Domestics and domestic/wild boar mixed. They are dangerous to humans also.

Coyotes are a problem over pretty much all of the North American Continent. They are native, but were confined to a small area of the SW U.S. by wolves. Then the "the white man" came and eradicated wolves in the lower part of the continent. This allowed an explosion of the coyote populaltion and they are in Central Park NYC now, in other words, everywhere. Studies have shown that the more coyotes that are killed by people, the more pups they have in each litter. I personally admire the coyote. I guess the lesson is, "Don't mess with Mother Nature".

Non-native species of plants and animals are a world wide problem. I think the U.N.'s time would be better spent working on this and forget world wide gun bans. Yeah, sure.

[Sav .250]

1Wildbill:
Good luck with your neighbors cat.

[ezearln]

Feral dogs and cats have become a plague throughout most of the western states here, the truly scary thing with the feral dogs is they have little to no instinctive fear of man as do their wild brethren! They can and do wreck havoc on both livestock and wildlife and pose a serious threat to humans encountering them in the wild.
The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of irresponsible pet owners who dump their pets thinking "Fluffy" will find a good home on some ranch or farm they see over the hill. This is the farthest from reality you can get. Usually "Fluffy" winds up in the belly of a more efficient predator, under the wheels of a vehicle, or dies a death of slow starvation. Those few that do survive and adapt are at epidemic populations and sad as it is this means either hunting or trapping them. A new program recently adopted to help with existing feral/stray in urban areas cat populations is a spay/neuter and return to their "Pride" program that as strange as it sounds is working! The programs success is tied to a fact that while the domestic cat is gregarious (similiar to lions) they normally won't allow outsiders into their clan if there are limited food resources, as the cats are live trapped spayed/neutered and returned their numbers don't increase and they have proven they actually decrease over the lifespans of the prides members.