Megalania

Got to think of litterigation! How about duct taping it behind my car? OK for the $10?

bondipom

Cats even get AIDS.

dracupg

A few years from now and we will all be up to our armpits in cane toads anyway.

Megalania

Jees, you Poms are streets ahead! What's the cat's lawyers name?

PeteY

And hopefully all these rampaging cats everyone takes over to aus to wreck the natural wild animal population will eat themselves a tasty little cane toad and die a horrible horrible death.

Not that i passionatly hate cats or anything......

Megalania

Have you secured the import rights?

PeteY

ALL CAT OWNERS PLEASE READ

Have a look at this, and maybe do some research before you take your orrible moggy to aus.

It is important to note that pet cats are just as dangerous as feral cats. The average pet cat kills 38 native animals a year. When you consider this, and recent statistics showing that in small section of the desert in central Australia, cats are responsible for killing something like 4 million native animals EVERY YEAR. And that's in the desert! Imagine the damage that occurs in bush lands.
There are 3 million domestic cats estimated to be in Australia, with another 18 million feral cats. 3.8 billion native animals are killed EVERY YEAR by cats, both feral and domestic.

Responsible Cat Ownership means you must do the following:

Keep the cat locked indoors at night time
Keep the cat well fed
Ensure a bell is placed around the cat's neck

http://winsoft.net.au/~craig/noxious.htm

Megalania

Problem is, the cat's are already out of the bag. Still, keeping down the numbers of hand fed cats is essential. Yer can't shoot 'em but yer can fence post 'em.

sashimi

ALL CAT HATERS PLEASE READ

Tim Flannery, one of Australia's foremost scientists and the director of the South Australia Museum recently published a book called Beautiful Lies where he, amongst many other things says that, one of the most enduring lies is that cats are responsible for the decimation of wildlife. The by far most important reason is the deprivation of the natural environment.

There is no proof whatsoever that feral cats have eaten any indigenous animal race into extinction. That in many places e.g. Kangaroo Island, feral cats and indigenous wildlife live side by side without the wildlife suffering. He says that by far the biggest threats to indigenous wildlife are loss of habitat caused by landclearing and the ensuing destruction of the environment as well as the huge sheep populations which also ruin the original Australian environment. He agrees that cats take many birds, and if you want a garden with many birds don't have a free roaming cat. But to put the blame on the cats for the decimation of the indigenous mammals is wilfully shutting one's eyes to the real killer - man and all the damage he does to the environment with his destructive way of life.

So before you go bandying those huge figures of mammals supposedly killed by cats, feral or not, maybe you should read up and get some information.

sashimi

bondipom

We hate cats for reasons other than their wildlife slaughtering capabilities.

I am not alone

http://www.gorillamask.net/archive/000097.html

Houdini

I'm going to sit on the fence on this one; some cats are nice, some cats aren't, just like, some burgers are nice some aren't. It's all in the way they're prepared.

PeteY

Ok....well firstly Tims views are always there to cause debate, some people would even go so far as to say he will write anything to cause a stir, even if he does'nt beleive it himself. He is also a cat owner.....

Try these :

http://www.feralcat.com/sarah1.html
http://www.messybeast.com/TED-feralcats.htm
http://www.env.qld.gov.au/nature_con...l_animals/cat/

This ones especially notworthy.
http://www.ea.gov.au/biodiversity/th...ap/cats/5.html

And i know these links largely pertain to feral cats......but where do you think feral cats come from?

Anyway. This posting of links could go on all day, there is so much on the web that would point towards either of our arguments being correct.

The reason I don't like cats? I will cite two.

1) Last spring, a saw a cat climb a tree and knock a great tit nest box out of a tree. The cat then played with the chicks for a few minutes and walked off, leaving them there limping around, a couple half disemboweled. I had to then go out and finish the job with a brick. Nice.

2) Was round a friends house in May just gone, when her cat brought a dead mouse in. Things was.....it was a dormouse, one of Britains more endangered animals. Yes, the cat did have a bell, and its food bowl was still full.

sashimi

I agree, we could go on all day, finding links supporting our opposing points of view. And it wouldn't serve much of a purpose to continue.

I do know where feral cats originate from

I don't like cats knocking birds out of netst etc. that's why I don't let mine out. But my brother, I can tell you, is happy they have a cat, since it arrived they do not have a rat problem in the barn any longer.

What annoys me is this insisting it's the feral cats that are solely responsible for the decimation of Oz mammals, and everybody happily chooses to ignore the much larger prob of habitat destruction. It does seem rather odd that one of the driest countries on this planet is the third largest destroyer of forests.

But whatever, I suggest we agree to disagree, I have no specific beef with you, at least you keep the discussion civil.

sashimi

PeteY

Agreed

I understand fully well the benefits that cats can bring, such as companionship etc, all i was trying to illustrate in my first post, which I admit may have been hidden somewhat by my personal feelings about cats, is that cats should be "controlled".

What annoys me more than anything is seeing cats wandering about, no bell (even worse, no collar) etc. People should be responsible for thier animals and understand that they do annoy and bother others. Example......if i saw a dog wandering around and crapping in my garden, i'd go and give the owner a piece of my mind. Cats do it every day.....

Cheers

Pete.

mr mover

when we get feral cats around ,our property we just set the cat trap{spring loaded cage], place cat and cage under tarp.attach hose to exhaust pipe of car ,place hose end under tarp , cat goe,s nigh ,nighs.......no mess, ....... MM