Unlike Ross, I am unashamedly a cat lover; nay, I consider myself an animal
lover per se and make no exceptions.
I have, over the years, travelled to many corners around the globe and on
each occasion have come across top notch birders who also have a pet cat [or
two]. That tally includes top birders here in Australia.
The current anti-cat thread is an old chestnut that keeps raising its often
nonsensical head on an almost regular basis and appears to become more
radical with each reincarnation: de-sex ALL male cats; round them up and
send them back to England; shoot all feral cats; shoot, or in some other
way, do away with ALL domestic cats; etc., etc., ad nauseum, ad bloody
nauseum.
"Feline phobics" tend to overlook a number of salient points. You yourself,
Ross, hinted at one of their oversights. There are infinitely more cat
lovers than birdwatchers in Australia and politicians work on the greatest
ballot return for the least effort. Cat lover votes outnumber birdwatcher
votes by a significant margin. Indeed, if it came down to the mass genocide
of cats in Australia I doubt that even all birders would jump onto the
bandwagon of these drastic measures.
And of course cats are not the root problem, people are. People,
specifically Europeans, brought the cat to Australia. Europeans are
responsible for far more habitat/fauna destruction than any other introduced
species to these shores. In terms of destruction, how would a canal estate
development [a solely human activity] equate with the damage caused to
wildlife by feral cats?
It would seem to me that those serious about safeguarding our native birds
against the menace of this European pet malady should first consider a
campaign to eradicate all irresponsible Australian cat owners: castrate all
macho males; ship them all back to England [these people have to be Poms, no
self-respecting dinky-di Aussie would ever release a cat into the wild].
Or we could simply exterminate all the Australian ferals - the gays and
lesbians; the Communists and anyone else who votes left of the Political
Party we favour; the Vegans and the Greens; the Jews, Moslems and all other
hair-brained, half-bake quasi-religious groups [the "God Squad" springs
immediately to mind].
Without these irresponsible feral humans surely the problem of feral cats
will be immediately eliminated.
Oh dear! I suppose I'll now get another bollocking from Bill.
Cheers
Julian
P.S. I also maintain a birdtable and regularly feed wild birds. Most
unscientific and Bolshie of me although I doubt I am alone in practising
this heinous indiscretion.
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