Tanya Plibersek says domestic cats are also part of the problem, alarming cat lovers who argue the new rhetoric unfairly targets much-loved pets.
to 20 of them. There are about 200 more animals on Australia’s list of threatened species list that are vulnerable to predation.But animal welfare advocates argue the government’s plan doesn’t address the more pressing problem in urban areas, which is that stray cats that are not de-sexed and have no one to contain them.
Asked about her rhetoric, Plibersek said: “This isn’t an attack on Fluffy. This is a defence of Australia’s precious wildlife... [Cats] are one of the reasons Australia is the mammal extinction capital of the world. If we don’t act now, our native animals don’t stand a chance.”A Sydney Morning Herald article from August 1976 raises fears about cats killing native wildlife.“If they’ve been declaring war for that long, clearly that’s failed,” Vesk said.
Another local rescuer, Tania Katsanis, said all levels of government had left individuals, vets and charities to deal with unowned cats in cities and allowed local cat populations to boom. Chief executive of the Cat Protection Society, Kristina Vesk, is concerned about violent language being used about cats.“In these programs, most people feeding one to two stray cats will take ownership of them if the cat is de-sexed, microchipped and registered for free.”
“Some people who are socially isolated, or not as well-off, they consider the relationship with cats to be meaningful. If they can’t afford these things [such as de-sexing and containment], they’re going to be very distressed.” “The reasons for that are twofold: welfare of the cat and welfare of natural wildlife,” Vassarotti said. “There’s really significant research that suggests [indoor] cats live longer, are less likely to be injured or susceptible to illness … About half of cat owners contain their cat anyway.
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