This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A $1m donation to the fight against feral cats could help to double the size of the world’s largest cat-free sanctuary or help genetically neuter cats, conservationists say.

Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford have pledged to match every donation made to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy up to $1m before the end of the financial year, hoping to create a $2m fund to eradicate Australia’s cat plague.

Feral cats kill one million native birds every night. They have caused the extinction of 20 native species and cover 99.8% of the continent.

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In May, the AWC completed the world’s longest cat-proof fence, creating a cat-free sanctuary that is being repopulated with endangered native mammals such as the bilby and burrowing bettong.

Now it is running a campaign for the Cliffords’ donation to be matched by 30 June.



The conservancy’s chief executive, Atticus Fleming, said if that target is met it would be enough to double the size of the cat-free sanctuary.

“There are very few gifts of this magnitude,” he said. “Hopefully, it will have a catalytic impact and inspire other parties to come to the table. It’s a game changer in terms of building momentum.”

The AWC is also working with the CSIRO on genetic technology research, and will use the funds to develop a genetic way to neuter feral cats.

“We want to help feral cats breed themselves out of existence by only having male babies,” Fleming said. “It’s such cutting-edge technology. We’ll have to wait a few decades. But if we don’t start now, it’ll take even longer. We’ve got to get cracking.”

Jane Clifford said she hoped the funding drive would become a grassroots campaign.



Australia completes world's largest cat-proof fence to protect endangered marsupials Read more

“We’ve been involved with AWC for a number of years and we know we need something that can solve the problem,” she said. “Cats just decimate animals every night. They kill 2,000 native animals a minute. That’s mind-blowing, really.



“It could be a really great grassroots campaign. I think there are so many people who are interested in the environment, who want to do something, but don’t actually know what to do. Here’s a great Australian thing to do – help save a numbat, a bilby, a mala.”

The AWC is already planning to extend its existing fence, which surrounds the former Newhaven cattle station.

The 44km fence has created a 94 sq km cat-free area. The second stage would extend it with at least 135km of additional fencing to create a 700 sq km sanctuary.

Over 10 years, conservationists will then reintroduce 11 species of endangered marsupials, bringing numbers up from as low as 2,400 individuals in some species to 18,000.