NZ to eradicate pet cats? Purr-ish the thought!

[Reader]

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/20644021/nz-to-eradicate-pet-cats-purr-ish-the-thought

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Gareth Morgan has a simple dream: a New Zealand free of pet cats that threaten native birds. But the environmental advocate has triggered a claws-out backlash with his anti-feline campaign.

Morgan called on his countrymen Tuesday to make their current cat their last in order to save the nation's unique bird species. He set up a website, called Cats To Go, depicting a tiny kitten with red devil's horns. The opening line: "That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.".............

Morgan's campaign is not sitting well in a country that boasts one of the highest cat ownership rates in the world.............

"Imagine a New Zealand teeming with native wildlife, penguins on the beach, kiwis roaming about in your garden," Morgan writes on his website. "Imagine hearing birdsong in our cities."................more at link.....

 

[Nova]

From the same link:

And the science remains unclear. Some argue that cats may actually help native birds by reducing the population of rodents, which sometimes feed on bird eggs.

That won't help his cause.

Why not just keep cats inside? They live longer that way.

 

[Herding Cats]

All my kitties are indoor; and yes, indoor cats survive longer than do outdoor kitties.

Ban cats? Dude has to be whacked. natural born killers? Not hardly. Simon won't eat it if it didn't come out of a can; and Simon, if faced with the thought of actually hunting, especially to eat the carcass afterwards, would rather starve. It's not that he's anti-hunting...just doesn't know how. And won't learn. LOL.

No, cats have a place in the grand scheme of things. Dude's bonkers.

Best-
Herding Cats

 

[jjenny]

Well he can keep right on dreaming. Because that is not going to happen.
I do, however, wish that people would keep their cats indoors.

 

[Ausgirl]

I kind of get his point (being that there's similar movements here). NZ is sort of unique, as birds and lizards were basically the dominant species before man arrived - and cats have decimated the wildlife to an extent that simply does not happen in eco systems where mammal predators evolved too.

Many of the birds that are on the brink of extinction there actually move in slow motion, like a loris.. they evolved as flightless and slow because there were no predators.

Stoats are another major problem in NZ, however, and are just as responsible for native wildlife loss. But people don't get so emotional when they round up and cull the feral stoats..

Maybe rather than asking for no cats, he'd be better off asking for stricter legislation on the keeping and breeding of cats. I'd support something like that.

I'm a cat lover too, but I can't place the extinction of whole species below my own desire for a pet..there has to be a way to deal with both.

 

[jjenny]

There is a very easy way to deal with it. If cats are kept indoors, then they are not going to harm the bird species.
If he really wants to make a difference, he should go for convincing people to keep their cats indoors.

 

[Ausgirl]

Yup, but imo on a legislative level rather than simply appealing to individual good will. Ie, laws about roaming cats, round up and culls of straying animals, fines for allowing cats to roam, etc. Change takes time - and a big government stick would help those endangered species who just don't have time to wait.

 

[Nova]

It just so happened that the Science Channel's MUTANT PLANET ran its "New Zealand" episode today, so I have a better idea of the problem. But flightless birds such as the kiwi are also at risk from feral pigs (as Ausgirl mentioned) and even weasels (also non-native). (How and why Europeans brought weasels to NZ I don't know.)

So even if outdoor cats are eliminated, it may only leave more prey for other predators.

I agree that the unique fauna of NZ should be preserved, but exterminating cats is not the only option.