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
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
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>>>
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