







Australia's at war with feral cats. The government wants to kill two million free-roaming cats by 2020, a large chunk of the total wild cat population estimated to range from 2 to 6 million.



Some of Australia's areas have gone even further. There is also a council in Queensland's northeastern state that offers a $10 ($ 7) bounty per feral catscalp–a policy People for Animal Ethical Treatment (PETA) has lambasted as "cruel.



And Australia is not alone in the problem. A prominent environmentalist has proposed a car-free future in neighboring New Zealand, with either domestic and feral cats being controlled or culled. So why are the Antipodes so disliked by cats? Killer cats. The answer is simple: Cats are killers, particularly feral ones. At some point in the 17th century, the first cat is thought to have arrived in Australia. Their number has since ballooned, with today's population estimated to cover 99.8% of the country.



Although feral cats belong to the same species as domestic cats, they are forced to hunt for survival in the wild. A rare burrowing bettong hides on Kangaroo Island beneath a hollow log near the Cygnet River. Its species was driven by foxes and feral cats to extinction on Australia's mainland. A rare burrowing bettong hides on Kangaroo Island beneath a hollow log near the Cygnet River. Its species was driven by foxes and feral cats to extinction on Australia's mainland. " Australia's at war with feral cats. The government wants to kill two million free-roaming cats by 2020, a large chunk of the total wild cat population estimated to range from 2 to 6 million.Some of Australia's areas have gone even further. There is also a council in Queensland's northeastern state that offers a $10 ($ 7) bounty per feral catscalp–a policy People for Animal Ethical Treatment (PETA) has lambasted as "cruel.And Australia is not alone in the problem. A prominent environmentalist has proposed a car-free future in neighboring New Zealand, with either domestic and feral cats being controlled or culled. So why are the Antipodes so disliked by cats? Killer cats. The answer is simple: Cats are killers, particularly feral ones. At some point in the 17th century, the first cat is thought to have arrived in Australia. Their number has since ballooned, with today's population estimated to cover 99.8% of the country.Although feral cats belong to the same species as domestic cats, they are forced to hunt for survival in the wild. A rare burrowing bettong hides on Kangaroo Island beneath a hollow log near the Cygnet River. Its species was driven by foxes and feral cats to extinction on Australia's mainland. A rare burrowing bettong hides on Kangaroo Island beneath a hollow log near the Cygnet River. Its species was driven by foxes and feral cats to extinction on Australia's mainland. "

Feral cats have helped drive an estimated 20 mammal species to extinction since they were first introduced by European settlers, Gregory Andrews, national commissioner for threatened species, told the Sydney Morning Herald. That makes feral cats the single biggest threat to the native species of Australia, according to Andrews.





And that's important in Australia, an island nation that has been cut off for thousands of years from the rest of the world. An estimated 80% of Australia's mammals and 45% of its birds are nowhere else on earth in the wild. Native species for cats are easy prey. Cats are thought to kill more than 1 million native birds and 1.7 million reptiles every day across Australia, a spokesman for Australia's Environment and Energy Department told CNN, citing scientific research.



The brush-tailed rabbit-rat, which the government classifies as vulnerable, and the rat-like golden bandicoot are some of the other species under threat from cats.

” We are not culling cats for the sake of it, we are not doing so because we hate cats,” said Andrews.







"We must make choices to save the animals we love, who define us as a nation." Critics are unlikely. The government has pledged $5 million to support community groups that can target cats on the front line, announcing its plan to launch a 2015 cullin. But the plan came under fire–and it's surprising that among the critics are conservationists. Tim Doherty, a conservation ecologist at Deakin University in Australia, agrees that on Australia's native species, feral cats take a "big toll," but believes the cull is based on shaky science.





"When we set the target in 2015, we didn't know how many feral cats there were in Australia," he said, adding that some estimates put the number at 18 million at the time, which he called a "gross overestimate." "There is no reliable way to estimate across a continent, and if you set a target and want it to be meaningful, you need to be able to measure your progress towards it."

Another, more pressing issue is that simply killing a cat does not necessarily save the lives of birds or mammals–the cat must have lived in an area that has threatened animals, he said. On April 4, 2014, a feral cat in a Washington, DC neighborhood. On April 4, 2014, a feral cat in a Washington, DC neighborhood. And it took bounties to focus on a specific area, Doherty said. "Instead of a scatter gun approach, it needs to be concentrated," he said. While cats are a big issue, at the cost of other, more politically sensitive issues such as habitat loss caused by urban expansion, logging, and mining, the government had focused heavily on them.





"There's a chance that cats can be used to some extent as a distraction," he said. "We also need a more holistic approach and address all biodiversity threats." British singer Morrissey and Brigitte Bardot are also notable critics of the plan. Cats to go.' Calls were made in New Zealand to put an entire stop to domestic cats. The remote island nation, one of the last places on earth to be reached by humans, has announced a bold goal of finally becoming predator-free by 2050. Rats, possums, and stoats kill 25 million native birds every year, according to the government.



New Zealand has no native land mammals besides bats, which means a wide variety of birds— including the flightless Kiwi of the country— were able to thrive in a land without predators. Now, 37% of the bird species in New Zealand are threatened. Moreover, according to the country's Conservation Department, many of New Zealand's native birds are ground-dwellers, making them susceptible to cats.

On June 19, 2012, a keeper held two kiwi chicks in Berlin's hands. On June 19, 2012, a keeper held two kiwi chicks in Berlin's hands. In 2013, renowned New Zealand economist Gareth Morgan drew the ire of cat lovers— including the then-Prime Minister John Key, himself the owner of a cat called Moonbeam — when he launched a "Cats to Go" campaign, encouraging cat lovers to avoid replacing their pet when they die. "Cats are the animal world's only true sadists, serial killers torturing without mercy," he said, adding?





For comment, CNN reached out to Morgan. Two years later, then-Conservation Minister Maggie Barry urged authorities to begin dropping stray cats to save native bird populations and called for pet cats, which according to the New Zealand Companion Animal Council amounted to about 1.134 million, to be limited to one or two per household.



And last year, in New Zealand's South Island, Omaui, a small coastal town, considered banning new domestic cats in the area–although it has since backtracked on its plan. "We are not cat haters, but we want our environment to be rich in wildlife," said John Collins, Chairman of the Omaui Landcare Charitable Trust, last year in August. Source: https:/www.cnn.com