Cats are bad, m'K?

[Wapiti]

Dogs been a bit agitated around the bird feeder out near the little house turtle dam once more. Rowdy was very insistent I come out and have a look. Eventually I spotted this little female, half grown, cleaning up the small kibble put out for the currawongs and magpies.
Couldn't get it with the thermal, was just too fast and melted away like a Star-Trek matter transporter. And it's on the 243 which is a little bit destructive around the farmhouse. So out with the .22 with the Olight.
Got away from me a few times, propped once in the light but I missed, so out with the trap with some smelly, irresistible tuna cat-food.
Nothing to brag about, but very effective, the trap.

Cats are so very destructive to our natives, and although they don't seem to be much of a game animal to brag to your mates about, they are everywhere, killing our native birds and lizards constantly. They live in the same hollow trees 20 feet in the air, and on the ground, in the same places our native animals shelter in. Every cat removed is a huge benefit to what we have left to try and save.

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[Willie]

I have cats and am very fond of them....BUT since kittens, they have never been allowed to roam outside. I have a big house and the vet said, that there is enough room for them to run around inside. No cats should be allowed to roam outside imo.
By all means trap them and I trust that you humanely dispose of them once trapped.

[Die Judicii]

As the saying goes, Neighbours Cats make good hats,, and Gloves,, and fertiliser. A good cat is a dead cat. Normally i never miss an opportunity to send them off to another realm. Except this fuel crisis has curtailed my activities somewhat.

[Wapiti]

I have cats and am very fond of them....BUT since kittens, they have never been allowed to roam outside. I have a big house and the vet said, that there is enough room for them to run around inside. No cats should be allowed to roam outside imo.
By all means trap them and I trust that you humanely dispose of them once trapped.

Yes mate, one 22 subsonic through the head, straight down.
These animals didn't ask to be born, do what they do and be where they are. I wish I never had to kill anything, even to eat. Anyone who jumps at the chance to kill anything for no reason isn't going to meet me twice.
So, with that in mind, we need to ensure there is no suffering. If an animals head is too small or too far away to put a bullet through so lights out immediately, the person in charge of the bullet should take up golf.

[Blr243]

Agreed wap

[Die Judicii]

Granted,, “the cats didn’t ask to be born, and do what they do” But nevertheless the inescapable fact is that they do not belong in the natural scheme of things in the Australian countryside to begin with, added to the ever increasing damage they are doing to our native fauna, not to mention the already proven list of extinctions directly attributed to them. I say again, that i will never pass up an opportunity to vaporise them. And i will not apologise for saying or doing so.

[bigrich]

i've been out in the middle of nowhere and seen cats that look like the one next door , and massive ferals that have similar colouring to some wallabies i've seen , that've grown that way after a lot of feral generations . but if i can zap a feral cat i will . been lots of studies by CSIRO and others on the extinction of native species by cats and foxes . i saw a bilby on my last trip , i've seen kwolls on other trips . poor little buggars are easy pickings for these ferals

[bigpete]

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Used to hunt many cats with my old dog Jack,who would tree them and I'd shoot them with my longbow. Got rid of a couple of dozen easy this way

[Blr243]

I have started taking a cat cage trap on hunting trips. I usually set it on a dam or on the edge of a wheat stubble crop if lots of mice are present . Very much looking fwd to catching my first moggy

[bigrich]

I have started taking a cat cage trap on hunting trips. I usually set it on a dam or on the edge of a wheat stubble crop if lots of mice are present . Very much looking fwd to catching my first moggy

please give some pics and details on how it's made . sounds like a good idea

[Jorlcrin]

i've been out in the middle of nowhere and seen cats that look like the one next door , and massive ferals that have similar colouring to some wallabies i've seen , that've grown that way after a lot of feral generations . but if i can zap a feral cat i will . been lots of studies by CSIRO and others on the extinction of native species by cats and foxes . i saw a bilby on my last trip , i've seen kwolls on other trips . poor little buggars are easy pickings for these ferals :thumbsdown:

Sadly, we dont get Bilby where I live, but we often see a couple of varieties of Dunnart(Marsupial Mouse), and one night, I saw something run across the edge of the lights on the road, and describing it to Parks & Wildlife ranger, he thought I'd seen a Kultarr. Wish I'd had the chance too see that little guy up close.

My sister often fishes angry Plannigales out of her in-ground swimming pool, and installed a setup for them to climb out un-assisted since.

Both Plannigales and Dunnarts tend to be angry little tykes, but cute as a button, and they work hard on keeping the insects in check..

Had an amusing scene about 6 months back, when I started getting regular sightings of a tabby cat in one surveillance camera.
When I dropped a small pile of dog nuts to see if the passing dingo would stop for a few decent ID photos, I found the cat visited 6 times a day till she'd eaten the pile of dog nuts.
Took her 3 days, but she ate the lot.
Took a cat cage down, and set it up with a small pile of dog nuts inside cage, and sure enough, Puddin was trapped inside 4 hours.
Funny part was later the same night, when a passing Echidna did about 4 orbits of the trap, and I'd swear he was sniggering at the cat...

When I was a kid, we had 2 house cats. Both were well-fed, and wanted for nothing. Lost count of how many times those cats would have their nightly feed, and then go out hunting and return with a Gilberts Dragon, or bird etc.
There are a LOT of ground-nesting birds in this area, and are particularly vulnerable to cats.
They are hard-coded to hunt, and so they are devastating to our ecology, so the less of them the better.

[Die Judicii]

Jolcrin, Re the setup for the little critters to get themselves out of the pool,,, When we had our property i had a round fibre glass tank/trough approx 3 foot diameter under one of the downpipes of a shed that was most times full of water. I very nearly lost my Jack Russell dog because of it. She must’ve jumped in one day to cool down. Luckily i found her in time. She was absolutely buggered from swimming in circles and not being able to get a grip to get out. After that i lined it with Cyclone which folded over the top edge and gave something to grip on for anything else that jumped in. Prior to that i hadn’t realised the danger it posed.

[Jorlcrin]

Jolcrin, Re the setup for the little critters to get themselves out of the pool,,, When we had our property i had a round fibre glass tank/trough approx 3 foot diameter under one of the downpipes of a shed that was most times full of water. I very nearly lost my Jack Russell dog because of it. She must’ve jumped in one day to cool down. Luckily i found her in time. She was absolutely buggered from swimming in circles and not being able to get a grip to get out. After that i lined it with Cyclone which folded over the top edge and gave something to grip on for anything else that jumped in. Prior to that i hadn’t realised the danger it posed.

Yeah, sisters family set up some sort of 'Climb-Out' feature for the little tykes, and everyone in their family checks the pool multiple times a day for new village idiots.

Worst are the burrowing frogs(Cyclorana cultripes), who start laying carpets of eggs on the steps out of the pool.
Little buggers wont take NO for an answer, and refuse to use the 3 large ponds not 50 metres distant...
The burrowing frogs also keep ending up in the skimmer box, and so the family had to set up a more elaborate 'NO FROGs!' setup to keep the little guys safe..

It's funny; I've often see people talking about wildlife encounters like it's a 'Last chance to See' sort of situation, which I'm sure a lot of people around the world face.
In my case, it's more a case of the wildlife deciding to move into your house, and we then have to figure out the most polite way to suggest they 'Bugger Orf!'.
....or (more often the case) simply learning to live with them...