David, except for your last para you make my point. To stop all the
interstate/inter-council/inter-shire confusion and bickering the feds should
bite the bullet and take control, making the keeping and breeding of cats
illegal across the whole country on urban, private,and government land, and
in national/state parks. A great start could be made by neutering domestic
cats and shooting and baiting ferals. Impose hefty fines for owners not
conforming _ and there are plenty of shooters who would be willing to take
on the job given a suitable bounty, as with goats.
The real problem lies with lily livered legislative authorities who fear a
backlash from cat lovers. Which would be better? A bit of a whinge from cat
lovers for a while or an unresolved and ongoing cat problem ? There really
is no contest is there ?
Tony.
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
david robertson
Sent: Friday, 4 July 2014 5:51 PM
To:
Subject: Cats
Control of cast is a very tricky question, primarily because it is a State
responsibility not the Commonwealths (apart from on Commonwealth land).
No two States have the same classification of cats between domestic home
cats, feral cats in the Outback and those in between. The latter is bogged
down because in law those in between could be regards as 'property'. To
molest them in any way could be a tort and might, just might, result in a
law suit for damages to property.
Complicating matters even further is that control of cats, if at all, is
variously split between the States equivalent of the Department Parks and
Wildlife and the States' Department of Local Government. If it falls to the
latter then it is usually hand balled to individual Councils or their
equivalent.
Some Councils in Adelaide have cat by-laws regarding registering, micro
chipping, numbers permitted but for all practical purposes this is purely
voluntary. No animal health officer could or is capable of rounding up cats
to check whether they comply with the by-law.
In the longer term one has to consider what might happen if one removed a
predator in the food chain. Do feral cats keep foxes in control by
competing for the same food supply? Look what happened in India when the
vultures were almost exterminated. Feral dogs multiplied, human rabies
cases increased, and so did leopards because dogs is their favourite food,
and if there wasn't a dog handy then a human would do.
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