australian letters This is a weekly newsletter published by the Australian bureau. sign up To get it by email. This week's issue is written by Northern Territory-based reporter Julia Bergin.
No amount of gentle coaxing, harsh training, rehabilitation, or punishment will allow a cat to ignore its killer instinct. Like wild felines, even the most tame felines will threaten potential prey if they spot them.
In Australia, feral cat populations are managed with significant federal government funding, time and resources, but the management of livestock, particularly pet cats, is the responsibility of state and local governments.
But there is growing pressure from local councils and animal control groups to unify efforts to monitor both populations. Domestic cats reproduce just as quickly, eat just as much, and can cause just as much damage to native wildlife as feral cats.
Nell Thompson, executive director of the Australian Institute of Animal Control, said if the country was serious about cracking down on feral cats, the Australian government should stop distinguishing between the treatment of feral and domestic cats. “Both are national issues,” she says.
This challenge is more relevant to humans than cats, she added. Ms Thompson said her current approach suffers from a lack of communication with cat owners, a lack of funding from the government and insufficient data collection.
Alice Springs City Council, in the heart of Australia's desert, has a dedicated team to look after its cats. The City Council has imposed heavy penalties for roaming domestic cats (an $880 fine for “leaving animals on the loose”), installed cat traps and surveillance cameras, and installed cat traps and surveillance cameras. The use of enclosed enclosures is encouraged.
Further afield, in indigenous communities, cat populations are rapidly increasing. Despite dedicated ranger programs in place to hunt, feed, kill, and in some places eat feral cats, the annual growth rate of domestic cats is as high as 250%, he says.
That's because in indigenous communities, feral cat hunters often double as domestic cat owners and keep stray kittens as pets.
Dr Brooke Kennedy, a Kamilaroi woman who is leading research on cat husbandry in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, says the difference between killing cats and keeping cats is that all female animals “give birth” before giving birth. He said it is rooted in cultural beliefs that people should experience it. It's dead. As a result, the community had no qualms about killing the mother cat, but the kittens were saved.
As part of his work in the area, Dr. Kennedy traveled from house to house collecting data on pet populations, gender, and owners' preferences for neutering their animals.
“How many dogs do you have? How many cats do you have? Are they sexed or not? Do you want them to be desexed?” she asked. But the answer was always: next time. “
“Come back. They've had a bunch of kittens, and now they're happy that the cat has been desexed,” Dr. Kennedy said.
Brooke Lankmore, a former conservationist and current chief executive of the non-profit Rural and Remote Indigenous Community Animal Control Group, says these repeated household surveys accelerate desexing programs and increase reproductive rates. He said the project had succeeded in raising awareness in the community about the effects of releasing cats. Loose to the environment.
“Each of these communities is like a dripping faucet, and if there were no veterinary services there to desex companion animals, they would become a source of population for our remote landscapes. ” said Mr. Lankmore.
Various local councils, as well as some Australian states and cities, are considering mandatory sex programs and caps on the number of animals per household. In reality, however, the implementation of the “two-pet policy'' was haphazard, rigid, and had little effect.
So how do we balance the negative environmental impact of domestic cats with the owner's right to decide whether to keep and desex their pet?
Dr. Kennedy is clear. Efforts to strengthen veterinary access, desexing, and education will fail unless we invest in sustained relationships with Indigenous pet owners to ensure they are included in the process.
“Relationships are so important,” Dr. Kennedy said. “If I come in there and suggest we get rid of their cat sex, they'll think about it. Conversely, if I come tomorrow and say, 'Hey, stop sexing their cats,' they'll think about it. I would say it pisses you off.”
Thompson urged urban policymakers in big cities to approach animal control in the same way rural animal control nonprofits do in remote Indigenous communities. The goal is to issue fewer orders, better utilize cat demographic data, pursue greater follow-through with pet owners, and become part of a national organization. – Sector Conversation.
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