05-01-2019, 03:32 PM
Australia wants to cull 2 million feral cats. There are a lot of arguments for and against and we can go into that issue in this thread.
However my real focus this time is the method. The plan is to drop poisoned sausages for the cats. They are supposed to die in about 15 minutes. I don't know how humane the death is, but humane or not, there will be a lot of dead cats lying around.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...88071.html
My first thought was to ask what else could eat those sausages. They may end up directly poisoning a lot of other animals.
There are birds that would eat sausages and probably a lot of other things.
What might eat the dead cats? Anything eating a poisoned cat will probably be poisoned as well.
If a dead cat is not eaten or if a sausage is not eaten, the poison can end up in the environment. Water and soil could be contaminated.
As a cull method it can't be controlled or contained. Once the poison is put out there it could continue to kill other wildlife for years to come. It would be almost impossible to clean up the poison once it has been deployed.
This seems to be a poorly thought out idea. It might seem efficient, but it doesn't look at the possible consequences of using poison.
The cull itself is a controversial choice. There is no doubt that the cats are a problem for local Australian wildlife.
However, things that humans do also have effects on wildlife. Protecting wildlife needs to be balanced and it needs to protect wildlife from all sources of danger.
The cat population needs to be reduced and possibly removed from some areas. The need to remove the cats doesn't justify cruelty and cruel methods. There needs to be a humane solution. There also needs to be a safe solution, one that does not do more harm than good.
However my real focus this time is the method. The plan is to drop poisoned sausages for the cats. They are supposed to die in about 15 minutes. I don't know how humane the death is, but humane or not, there will be a lot of dead cats lying around.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...88071.html
My first thought was to ask what else could eat those sausages. They may end up directly poisoning a lot of other animals.
There are birds that would eat sausages and probably a lot of other things.
What might eat the dead cats? Anything eating a poisoned cat will probably be poisoned as well.
If a dead cat is not eaten or if a sausage is not eaten, the poison can end up in the environment. Water and soil could be contaminated.
As a cull method it can't be controlled or contained. Once the poison is put out there it could continue to kill other wildlife for years to come. It would be almost impossible to clean up the poison once it has been deployed.
This seems to be a poorly thought out idea. It might seem efficient, but it doesn't look at the possible consequences of using poison.
The cull itself is a controversial choice. There is no doubt that the cats are a problem for local Australian wildlife.
However, things that humans do also have effects on wildlife. Protecting wildlife needs to be balanced and it needs to protect wildlife from all sources of danger.
The cat population needs to be reduced and possibly removed from some areas. The need to remove the cats doesn't justify cruelty and cruel methods. There needs to be a humane solution. There also needs to be a safe solution, one that does not do more harm than good.
![[Image: IMG_9091.JPG]](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rtQnRVnpHuw/Upv4HXYM20I/AAAAAAAAAqo/K5MmSTvkZdA/w296-h229-p-no/IMG_9091.JPG)
Catherine
