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Threatened species commissioner appointed to helpsave native wildlife |

To: Denise Goodfellow <>
Subject: Threatened species commissioner appointed to helpsave native wildlife | Environment | theguardian.com
From: Carl Clifford <>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2014 17:20:24 +1000
Perhaps we should be promoting the eating qualities of cats. I have 
inadvertently eaten kitty kebabs in Beijing and found them to be quite tasty.

Carl Clifford

> On 2 Jul 2014, at 17:12, Denise Goodfellow <> wrote:
> 
> 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
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Birding-Aus mailing list
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