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/PageNavigator/2016Feb_Australia_Cats.html
