Hi all
Many years ago I had a cat. One day it brought home a Forest Kingfisher. I
never kept another. But there was another reason for my not wanting to own a
cat. I lean red that the children of Aboriginal relatives coming to town for
boarding school or shopping, had discovered the delights of kittens, either
through advertising or classmates. Next thing kittens were being taken back to
outstations in Arnhem Land. On a camping trip to the East Alligator in the
late 1970s I awoke, one night to find half a dozen pairs of cat eyes watching
me and my friend. Combined with the habitat clearing brought about by too
frequent or destructive fire cats appear to be a major reason for the decline
of mammals and some birds in the Top End. Down south the presence of foxes
(and rabbits) may muddy the picture, but neither exist here in the Top End.
Perhaps the overt keeping of cats should be delegitimised like cigarette
smoking. That doesn’t necessarily stop people from smoking, but it may mean
that cats are less attractive and have less status than our native wildlife.
Denise
On 2 Jul 2014, at 4:27 pm, Kim Sterelny <> wrote:
> Folks
>
> I have talked to quite a few ecologists about this at ANU, and the message I
> hear is much more mixed, suggesting that cat impact varies a lot from place
> to place, because cats do not only eat native animals, they eat a lot of
> rats, mice and rabbits. That said, there is a lot of variation in opinion.
>
> It is a while since I reread any of the work in WA on numbat reintroduction
> but at one stage their experimental manipulations on small mammal populations
> showed a large impact from fox control, but much less from cat control.
> Anyone kept up to date on this?
>
> I'll come clean on this: I do have a domestic cat in inner Canberra where we
> rent, which takes a lot of rats (over 30 in one month) and no birds; I also
> have a bush property, and I would never keep a cat there (not until too old
> to hunt, anyway)
>
> kim
>
>
>
> Kim Sterelny
> Philosophy Program
> RSSS, ANU
>
> e-mail
>
>
> ANU Contact Information
> Philosophy Program
> Research School of the Social Sciences
> Australian National University
> 0200 Canberra, ACT, Australia
>
> phone
>
> 61- (0)2 6125-2886; messages: Philosophy Program
>
> 61-(0)2 -6125 2341,
> fax 61-(0)2 - 6125 3294
>
>
>
>
> On 02/07/2014, at 4:43 PM, Greg and Val Clancy wrote:
>
>> I am with you Denise. There are a few responsible cat owners who keep their
>> pets in doors or in a run in the yard but the majority don't. With the
>> millions of domestic cats in Australia the toll on wildlife must be great.
>> People are usually aware of the impact of feral cats on native wildlife but
>> don't realise that their moggy is also a major threat. Any cat not in the
>> owners house or cat run should be declared 'feral' and be eliminated. Years
>> ago the NSW government produced a green paper on companion animals which
>> called for serious and much needed controls on domestic pets, including
>> cats. The pet food industry lobbied the government and the end result was a
>> lame act, particularly with respect to cats. My aging mother-in-law, who
>> had the early stages of dementia at the time, was being disturbed at night
>> by a neighbour's cat. The Council ranger said that they could only act
>> after it was established that the cat was a nuisance and that my
>> mother-in-law would need to keep a diary on the movements of the cat. I
>> don't blame the ranger as he has to work within the legislation but the
>> control of cats is like the human over-population issue, the elephant in the
>> room.
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Greg
>>
>>
>> Dr Greg. P. Clancy
>> Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide
>> | PO Box 63 Coutts Crossing NSW 2460
>> | 02 6649 3153 | 0429 601 960
>> http://www.gregclancyecologistguide.com
>> http://gregswildliferamblings.blogspot.com.au/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Denise Goodfellow
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 4:02 PM
>> To: Carl Clifford
>> Cc: Birding Aus
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Threatened species commissioner appointed to
>> helpsave native wildlife | Environment | theguardian.com
>>
>> I challenge prominent Australians to stick their necks out and call for
>> control of all cats.
>>
>> Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
>> PO Box 71
>> Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2 Jul 2014, at 2:56 pm, Carl Clifford <> wrote:
>>
>>> Nice to see that the Government is doing something about feral cat control.
>>> What the results will be, who knows. An awful lot of bait will have to be
>>> laid for effective control.
>>>
>>> http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/02/threatened-species-commissioner-to-combat-decline-of-native-wildlife
>>>
>>> Carl Clifford
>>> _______________________________________________
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