Culling, curfews and ceilings: Australia 'declares war' on its cat problem

Feral cats have long been recognized as a major threat to the continent's native wildlife. But now the government is also exploring ways to control domestic cats.

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< p class= "css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Invasive species are the main drivers of biodiversity loss in Australia, according to a new United Nations report released this week. And feral cats are the most invasive of the country's landscape, killing around two billion animals a year, according to Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

The Australian government has announced this. week when he "declares war" on these cats, releasing a draft action plan that includes measures such as creating programs allowing recreational hunters to shoot wild cats and euthanizing some cats captured in nature.

It's not entirely new – the Australian government also declared war on feral cats in 2015 – but the recent proposal contains new elements . Officials are also considering placing more limits on domestic cats, such as keeping them indoors at night, capping the number of cats each household can own and creating more cat-free suburbs.

“This consultation document will ask very important questions, such as: “Should we have a curfew for cats? 'Should local governments have more ability to restrict cat ownership in their area?' ", Ms Plibersek told local media yesterday.

Many local governments in Australia have already imposed strict restrictions. restrictions on cats, some of which made international headlines. The ironically named Mount Barker in South Australia limits each household to two pet cats. Other local councils require pet cats to be kept indoors or have designated suburbs as "cat containment zones" where animals must be kept indoors at all times.

Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the northwest of the mainland, imposed a ban on bringing other cats to the island and required all residents to sterilize their pet cats, measures that authorities hoped would eventually lead to the extirpation of the island's population.

Although these pet management strategies are generally local, they may be limited by weak or different laws at the state level. Under the government's new proposal, states would create consistent laws while local governments would be empowered to more easily create cat-free suburbs.

A few months ago, I spoke to Sarah. Legge, a professor at the Australian National University and one of the country's leading researchers on the impact of cats, said Australians were generally more accepting of these measures to contain domestic cats than people in many other countries. /p>

"Maybe our job is unfortunately easier in Australia because we've lost so much species," she said. "The public is much more supportive of cat management, including pet cat owners."

A domestic cat kills an average of about 186 mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs per year. compared to the 748 that a feral cat can kill, according to Ms Legge's research. However, because domestic cats are concentrated in higher densities in the suburbs, the total number of animals they kill per hectare in the suburbs is greater than the number feral cats kill in the bush.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The impacts of domestic and feral cats “feed off into each other,” Ms. Legge said. “Pets can become strays, and...