Which pet, Cats Vs Natives

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Dingo

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Found this thought it was an interesting thought.

http://www.snakeshow.net/default.html?nature_links_crocodilians.html~mainFrame

Some people may not like this story; here it is anyway.


Some cat keepers believe that it is only natural for cats and foxes to take our fauna as they fill an ecological niche. Is it an ecological niche for cats to push our lyrebirds towards extinction? They are already doing this to our dunnarts, hopping mice, bandicoots and other small marsupials and various other native creatures. How much fauna do cats kill? We don’t know exactly however, there are some sound figures on what cats can and do kill. So for anybody to say that we need more research into cats so that we can find out is just nonsense.

Sunday Mail Adelaide 13/08/2000 Kellie-Jo Lamb an environmental scientist with Western Mining Company, showed a cat which contained:- 24 painted dragons, 3 bearded dragons, 2 earless dragons, 3 striped skinks, 1 zebra finch and 1 mouse. All but one was a native animal. That’s over 10 000 native animals per year. If cats take only one quarter of this estimate it is a national disaster; but you can be fined for having one native animal.

Those who knew Melbourne in the 60s and 70s would remember the skinks on the paling fences in the summer. There were finches, Grey fantails, Restless flycatchers, Pardalotes, Silvereyes, Willy wagtails and Pee wees (mud/magpie larks). The Willy wagtails and Pee wees always nested within view of each other, a kind of symbiotic relationship; now we hardly ever see either and seldom do the red robins visit us anymore.

Poison garden sprays are taking their toll on much wildlife but cats are also a disaster. Keeping a cat in at night does not help much at all. In the daytime cats kill the remaining lizards and native birds. Cats and foxes have already done the damage at night and, the only bell that will stop a cat from killing wildlife is a cowbell.

Keep a native animal without a licence and you can be fined. Export one out of the country and you can go to prison; even if it is not rare or has been bred in captivity. Cats are bred indiscriminately and you don’t even have to account for the kittens; but we must account for all native animals that we breed. Why? What is wrong with native animals? Instead of cats, should we not be breeding native animals by the millions? Instead of a licence for native animals, why not a licence for the exotics? Don’t you think we have it all back to front?

We now know how to breed most native animals. You can feed your Bilby on cat food and birdseed and we could have them as pets across Australia. We should breed the mini kangaroos like Pademelons, Potoroos and Tammar wallabies.

The Northern Quoll Dasyurus hallucatus will become extinct on the mainland from eating poisonous cane toads that have invaded the Northern Territory. The public must catch quolls and breed as many as possible. We must learn fast, these quolls are different to the other quolls; the males only live for about a year; this makes it even more urgent. If the public don’t help the Northern Quoll we may never see them on the mainland again. Remember they are our quolls they belong to the citizens of Australia; not the government.

Why not breed up the Cassowary numbers before the gene pool gets too narrow. We should have thousands in stock for when we rid the rainforest of the feral pigs. At no cost to the government we could breed up the numbers of many types of native animals. Government departments could then focus on the feral animals like; cats, foxes, pigs, rabbits, fire ants, gambusia, cane toads and Clear Fell Woodchip Companies etc.

We Australians are far too out of touch with our wildlife. When given a pet, a child will love any animal. What better pets, than a beautiful pair of Potoroos or Pademelons to mow your back lawn?

Not all Australian animals will make good pets, but there are many that would. We must however, make sure that by law, we don’t get drongos out there breeding them into pink poodles. We must preserve their genetic integrity. If we do that we will always have a viable gene pool for times of disaster in the bush. A minimum cage or pen size would be a ‘legal must’.

Some Australians don’t want us to breed these animals back into their millions because some are rare and they’d prefer us to keep cats; like for example, Hugh Wirth of the RSPCA. It takes all types i guess.
 
i would love to keep a roo or wallabies but damn qld laws means i cant even keep hopping mice
 
Yeah its BS i should get herp credit from npws for killing cats lol
 
Are we able to keep Bilbys and such in QLD? I hate how we can't have so many of our native wildlife up here; sugar gliders, crocs, wallabies, etc. I agree wholeheartedly with this post. Too many dog and cat breeders. I have both a dog and a cat (both inside though mother, of course, let's them both outside) and tI have saved blue tongues from that dog on numerous occasions but my cat only seems to very rarely grab an asian house gecko. Though my dog is a Jack Russell so it's a big instinct thing.
 
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Cats and Cane toads exist in Northern Queensland, Northern Quolls still do too.

Cane toads do not exist in the west kimberley.... Cats are in low numbers..... theres not many Northern Quolls there.

-H
 
Allowing ppl to keep native animals and discouraging destructive feral species would be guaranteed to save many species.

The only thing is it will never be a politically viable thing to do due to the number of irresponsible owners who are allowed to vote.

I have heard this topic a few times but never really heard any alternate views(other than from complete idiots who claim of their cats rights to kill wildlife etc.). Is there any good reason why ppl should keep cats etc. instead of native animals?
 

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I actually think cats have a minimal impact compared to humans on native wildlife.

Forcing owners to keep their cats contained will be a huge step in the right direction.

It's strange though, you all get angry over cats killing native wildlife but in the chit chat fish thread someone openly admitted to spearing a protected species of shark and I was the only one who expressed concern. Really, I think the majority of people on this site care about snakes and lizards, not native wildlife.
 
Midol, you'd be wrong if you thought that, but admitedly not everyone extends the same conservation values everything.
The Quoll population in N-QLD has been declining for many years now, but is possibly being saved by the fact that dingoes are still present (preventing mesopredator release, which would result in many small animals going extinct). Also, cats were introduced to the western Kimberly before captin cook 'discovered' australia. They were introduced by the Dutch or some other traders and this can actually still be shown today using molecular techniques.
I don't even know why we have cats in the country to be honest.......IMO all cats should be de-sexed and no more imported. Sure, there would be an illegal trade, but the people who owned them wouldnt allow them to roam the streets.

I can actually vouch for quolls being very good pets, I know a bloke in the territory who kept them for a number of years, just had them out running around his house, like cats.......only native to the area....
 
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As good as alot of natives are as pets we need to remember they are not domesticated animals. They will never be as good at being a pet as dogs and cats. It is sad but from my experience with native mammals they just don't make affectionate pets and that is what most people would want out of small cuddly things.
 
Banning them all together isn't an answer though, it isn't a feasable solution which we can aim to achieve.

Aiming ti restrict cats to their properties (ideally indoors but baby steps) is a much better solution. A licencing system and in order to get a licence you have th show the enclosure you have for the cat :) It'll cost money, sure, money well spent though :)

Same deal with dogs - though they're already restricted to your yard.

Anyone neighbouring rainforests and such already are not allowed cats :) That's one step in the right direction.

Banning them, whilst it might sound like the ideal solution, will never work. Responsible ownership is.

A Hugh Wirth is a tosser who needs to contract a disease, a fatal disease.

ETA: You'll find most cat lovers, as in real cat lovers (showies and registered ethical breeders) won't approve of roaming cats either. So you'd hurt the responsible and the irresponsible would keep going.
 
i reckon cats should be banned froam raoming and you should have to pay for and use a license to keep and breed cats and hand it in each year just how we have to with our herps
 
i reckon cats should be banned froam raoming and you should have to pay for and use a license to keep and breed cats and hand it in each year just how we have to with our herps

I think in most places (atleast in the NT) roaming cats are banned and there are hefty penalties if your animal is found raoming. But as of yet i don't think anyone has been prosecuted. Think about it, how would you enforce a law like that, no matter how good intentioned it was the law was going to fail from the outset.
 
Waruikazi, it's because those who make the laws are morons.

Compulsary microchipping will help, that way they can identify cats.

Ban pet shops selling kittens (impulse buying) and restrict cat breeding to the registered ethical breeders.

ETA: Or at least restrict pet shops selling kittens, personally I want it banned but baby steps ;)
 
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