Should there be a BOUNTY on feral cats ?

[Ziege]

Dear Dave, sorry to trigger you about your Mrs' cats.

However it is entirely different to banning firearms, and in so many ways I can think of 3 off top my head definitively right now but above all is that a cat is a sentient being, it will kill things without instruction to so so or without having to be operated/manipulated by another sentient being.

It's also different because unlike firearm owners, cat owners are largely and disproportionately irresponsible. I would happily say at least 99% of cat owners are irresponsible and not feel like I'm exaggerating at all, whereas 99% of firearms owners are very responsible.

[DaveZ]

Still, the point remains, you're happy to punish everyone for the actions of the irresponsible. There needs to be tougher penalties and enforcement by local authorities on roaming animals. Most councils don't care, even if they have rules that prohibit roaming animals, it's really quite ridiculous.

When I lived in town, we had peoples cats in our yard all the time, the council had rules that stated roaming cats would be impounded. When I inquired, the best they could do was loan me a trap. They had no interest in dealing with the trapped animals after I caught them, nor even the facilities to impound them, so essentially the rule was unenforceable.

Now I'm out of town and don't have an issue with cats. However, some renters moved in to the block next door and we constantly had their dog visiting and s**ting on our lawn, stirring up our animals. We caught it, had it impounded and the owners instructed to keep it on their block. The second time the pound people assured me they would not give the dog back to its owner until they had the facilities to keep it locked up. The third time they came and picked the dog up (all in a one month period) I told them they would not hear from me again. I don't know what happened to the dog after that, but I do know where it is buried.

Yes there will always be people who are irresponsible, but legislating away the rights to enjoy every thing that can be misused/abused is not a path I want to be pushed down. Education about the damage done by these animals would be better, and penalties and enforcement for those that can't do the right thing.

[Die Judicii]

we have 2, and they never leave the house except on the rare occasion she takes them out on the lawn on a leash.

All well and good with best intentions no doubt,,,,,,,,,, but,,,,,, would you have children and rear them the same way ?
Only to be let out of the house on rare occasions,,, but on a leash.

Not much quality of life there eh.

If you did that to children, the welfare mob would be on you like a ton of bricks.
Where is the equality, ???
And the "irresponsible / fanatical" animal lovers lobby seems strangely quiet when it comes to things like this.

[Ziege]

Most illegal guns are not from law abiding people, most guns on the street come from criminal activities.

Moreover cats in the environment conversely come from pets, there really isn't any reasoning that away, I personally think it's cruel to own an animal and not give it enough space to live as it was intended to. People with border collies and Kelpies in small city yards for example. Can't see how a cat is a happy pet if trapped indoors all day every day when left to their own devices travel in excess of 20km a day and upto 50km in a day.

But whatever they really are superfilous creatures, people would be better off captive breeding native species and working within some breed and release programs for endangered species than owning something that causes such issues. Plenty of fuzzy cute native animals that would benefit from intensive breeding and repopulation.

[DaveZ]

You could say the same for pretty much any animal we keep in captivity really so what's the answer? Every activity us humans undertake has an impact on the lives of other animals around us, you can't avoid it. Would you rather the cat had an awesome free range life at the expense of thousands of other animals? The difference with a child is that you can educate a child about what proper behavior is, not really a thing cats are into.

[Ziege]

No lol, I would rather the cat didn't exist in Australia. How the hell you got that other assumption together I will never know.

[DaveZ]

I see your point Ziege, I really do, but what animals that we keep are truly allowed the freedoms they would have in the wild? A dog in any yard is restricted. The cattle/sheep/pigs/chickens that we eat are restricted, many even more-so than my poor cats. Any household pet is restricted. Don't you have pets? If you do, they are restricted. I respect your point of view, mine was similar for a long time, but I've come to realize that simply banning something,no matter how superfluous, just because some people do the wrong thing, only results in people being punished when they don't deserve to be, and soon enough we will end up with no freedoms at all.

[DaveZ]

No lol, I would rather the cat didn't exist in Australia. How the hell you got that other assumption together I will never know.

That response was not directed at you

[Ziege]

No don't have pets, and the rest depends on your ethos, I don't believe in protecting crops or making sure crops are protected from invasive pests, in that crops are just consumables, I think much the same for livestock, if I kill pests like foxes Im not doing it for the sheeps sake, I'm doing I for the sake of the $$ their damage represents and for the environmental protection it offers in regards to small marsupials, reptiles and amphibians etc.

[DaveZ]

No don't have pets, and the rest depends on your ethos,

I agree with most of what you're saying, all except having the government legislate away all of my freedoms, there has to be a better way.

The view on how the rest of our captive animals are kept shouldn't be any different to how pet animals are kept. A restricted animal is a restricted animal, some people just put blinkers on when it comes to their food because they just don't want to know. There are plenty of people who will get up in arms at the sight of a dog on a chain yet happily chow down on a factory farmed pork chop and not bat an eyelid. Double standards? Of course it is, but we have to realize that nothing we do in this world is perfect, but we can try to make it better.

[AJB]

Ive killed heaps of cats and yes i have one as a pet it has never killed a thing stays inside allways . It s**ts itself when ya take it out side runs straight back inside there not a problem with a responsable owner and i dont think twice about nailing any cat thats out prowling its as simple as that

[Die Judicii]

you can educate a child about what proper behavior is, not really a thing cats are into.

As you said,,,,,,,,, I think you just hit the nail fair and square on its head.

[Grandadbushy]

This debate could go on forever because it is a personal thing how we keep our pets ''But'' the responsibility of that falls right back onto the owner like it's no different to caging a bird as keeping a cat locked in your own house or yard ,Why do you cage a bird ? well it's probably because it will wander away no different to a cat and if the neighbours cat eats you bird you blame the neighbour for letting the cat wonder, now if the neighbour had their cat tied up and your bird went over and the cat ate it your neighbour would say it was your fault for letting your bird out, you see it's up to the owner to keep their pets from roaming so as not to cause harm to other animal's and destruction to the natural fauna, this thing of ''It's cruel to lock up animals'' is easy to fix '' don't have one '' if you don't like it, There are plenty of responsible people that own pets, you don't hear them whining about locking them up at night or keeping them confined after all what proper animal owner would want their animal harmed or lost . Most animals adapt to enclosures just like people they adapt to their surroundings the only thing you can't take out of them is the instincts and with cats it's ''killing'' even for no reason same with a lot of animals , So if you want a pet ''YOU'' look after it ,if you don't then expect some one to collect the bounty for it . Now don't get me wrong this is aimed at the ''Drong-go's who don't look after their pets not the good kind animal lovers that do love their pets enough to look after them and a shout out to those animal owners. ''you want a gun '' then you get a licence and keep the gun locked up. ''You want a pet'' you get a licence and you keep it locked up, I hear the Drong-go's say a gun kills people ,well so do dogs , ''then cats don't kill people'' ''OH'' but what about all the little animals they kill don't they have a say or are you Drong-gos forgetting the feelings of people who live to watch nature and it's little animals seeing uncontrolled ferals killing them, farmers leaving their farms ruined by ferals , family birds killed by roaming cats, some people need a large dose of reality ,get their head out of their proverbial and look at the damage being done by domestic animals mating with wild animals or going wild themselves , if you don't know about this then look it up and see the damage being done , come on people lets get some common sense and start regulating these ferals so again ''Yes'' a cat bounty

[AJB]

[Die Judicii]

I hear the Drong-go's say a gun kills people ,
lets get some common sense and start regulating these ferals so again ''Yes'' a cat bounty

The "Drong-go's" are WRONG, WRONG, yet again.
I've owned firearms (guns) for a total so far of 51 years,,,,, and have watched them closely over this time frame,, and not one of them has "kills people".

People kill people,,,,, but NOT guns,,, left to their own devices they are harmless entities.

[GQshayne]

In my last post I commented on why the pet cat is a problem. It has nothing to do with responsible cat owners at all. The problem is that scientists are talking about the solution to the feral cat problem being biological control. Now we are a select group of people on here, many of us have hunted cats, and we know how hard it can be. They are an apex predator, with incredible senses, they remain solitary except for breeding, and hunt for fun. Hard to trap or poison with a bait effectively (to obtain proper reduction in numbers anyway), so the answer does seem to be biological.

And that will affect domestic cats. But we are the only continent that does not have a native small cat, so we have to do something. And soon.

[Grandadbushy]

Exactly DJ but i'm not sure the Drong-gos would understand that, I to have a camera on my gun safe and have never seen any of my rifles go walkabout to do harm to people or animals but I've seen plenty of cats, dogs and pigs doing the walkabout thing harming most things in their area, and to be honest I would crap myself if I saw one of my rifles climbing out to go for a walk let alone to harm anybody.

[Die Judicii]

In my last post I commented on why the pet cat is a problem. It has nothing to do with responsible cat owners at all. The problem is that scientists are talking about the solution to the feral cat problem being biological control. Now we are a select group of people on here, many of us have hunted cats, and we know how hard it can be. They are an apex predator, with incredible senses, they remain solitary except for breeding, and hunt for fun. Hard to trap or poison with a bait effectively (to obtain proper reduction in numbers anyway), so the answer does seem to be biological.

And that will affect domestic cats. But we are the only continent that does not have a native small cat, so we have to do something. And soon.

The same issue raised its head when the calici virus was released.
But,,,, owners of pet rabbits were able to get them inocculated/vaccinated against the calici I believe.
Surely this could also apply to "responsible" cat owners if they exist.

[Grandadbushy]

GQshayne good point mate but that alone may have problems of it's own like depending on what they use and what type , we have to be careful what we release into the bush it could escape and have adverse effects on other species ''not saying it would , but could'' I think that that combined with bounties would be the way to go, this would send a message to cat owners ''free of charge'' and tighten the grip the cats have '' all ferals'' on our fauna it's a major problem, them and fox nearly wiped out a lot of species around Australia and as you said the scientists might be onto something , here's hoping

[TassieTiger]

So, we need something that’s more apex than the feral cat...I got it. Polar bears! They are doing it tough up north - send em down south for a while and feed em cats early on in their holiday and screw it / bring their cuz Grizz down for the hotter more northern places.
No more cats and something proper to hunt in a few years - win, win and...ergh

[Blr243]

GDB. when u mention the strong instinct of a pet cats desire to kill it reminded me of an incident a few months ago on a hunt. I had noticed a feral cat hanging round my quarters and to avoid any stuff up I asked the owner about it to ensure it wasn’t his before I shot it ... he said it’s feral but don’t shoot it because he had been feeding it and it was sort of a pet that came around occasionally....I started to feed it too but it was very wary of me and kept it’s distance Occasionally it would eat sardine pieces out of my hand but once after it took the sardine it quicklychomped on the end of my finger very aggressively... I don’t think it made a mistake. It was feral , wild, primitive and aggressive and it needs to be to survive ..... there was a part of this cats thinking that was don’t fight a fully grown man....but another wild killer part of it just couldn’t help itself at having a chew on me ....and that is the true natural killer instinct of a cat ........ any others I see on my favourite hunting location I will be adding them to my 243 photo album

[Grandadbushy]

Yep Blr keep that album going mate and yes ''instinct'' the only thing that can conquer ''fear''. Your story reminds me of us having a cat or I should say we had our daughters cat, it was a desexed and chipped female but still it killed consistently we had bells around her neck but she still killed anything I wanted to enter her into my 22-250 album but was out voted but low and behold 2 nights ago a wild dog snuck in and took her off the veranda and killed her , it was running away with her in its mouth to eat her but was disturbed and dropped her, some may think it was cruel I call it karma.

[Ricochet]

I'm still waiting for a feral moggie to cross my path while out shooting. A while ago I saw a big fluffy ginger around the corner from the house but I wasn't armed and it bailed pretty swiftly.

A cat outdoors = Furry weapon of mass extinction.

[Ziege]

Every cat I see we here dies on the spot, being on the farm me and the old boy rarely leave the house without a bang stick of some sort.

Poor fox last time, had the 22 and subsonics and he popped up about 65 yards away and before I get a clear shot with him sitting (licking his balls) he was easily 85 yards away, anyway, tagged him with first one, then 7 shots later he stopped limping away from me. I think only due to the sheer weight of the lead hahaha... But yeah always have a firearm on hand, the dividing reserves around the whole property with the neighbours connect directly with creeks that run through town, so all the local cats and ferals and other crap siphon out.

[GQshayne]

So, we need something that’s more apex than the feral cat...I got it. Polar bears! They are doing it tough up north - send em down south for a while and feed em cats early on in their holiday and screw it / bring their cuz Grizz down for the hotter more northern places.
No more cats and something proper to hunt in a few years - win, win and...ergh

They could catch brumbies too!!!

[GQshayne]

The same issue raised its head when the calici virus was released.
But,,,, owners of pet rabbits were able to get them inocculated/vaccinated against the calici I believe.
Surely this could also apply to "responsible" cat owners if they exist.

Maybe so.

It would still seem odd though. Most feral species that are a problem, think dingoes, foxes, tilapia & redfin etc, are illegal to keep as pets. So we would be spending millions of bucks trying to control feral cats, while other people are breeding more of them!

[Ziege]

Agree Shayne, let people keep their existing pet, but no more cats, make it illegal to breed them not own them, problem would soon dwindle down and leave mostly ferals in the midst. Then release the cat calici and be done with it. In the meantime I will keep visiting the outskirts of the property and shooting the neighbours moggies as they come to snoop around the reserve.

[TassieTiger]

5000 wild horses about to be drinking lead on Monday...
https://www.2gb.com/podcast/mass-shooti ... or-monday/

[Oldbloke]

5000 wild horses about to be drinking lead on Monday...
https://www.2gb.com/podcast/mass-shooti ... or-monday/

I think probably a good thing.

Yeh, I saw a post on face ache. Obviously frustrated environ guy from NPs. He quoted a greenie who was saying basically that they shouldn't shoot brumbies in NPs as they are rare and might become extinct. Lol Better to fence them out. FMD.

[Grandadbushy]

A little bit of misinformation there or should I say not telling the whole story , horses like stallions will breed with their own kin ie mother son , son sister , father daughter which means there would most certainly be inbreeding in these brumbies so keeping this so called ''oldest Australian blood line'' is a little bit out there , as far as carcasses laying around ,well these people probably haven't seen the bodies of horses that have starved up there laying around , these horses when starving will turn to eating their own kind ,something most people don't know and there would be huge suffering to these horses during this period , As I said in my post earlier you shoot half the mob and you are back there in a few years to do the same at the cost of tax payers because they'll breed up again . So if they cull 5,000 horses and leave 3,000 mares you will end up with the 5,000 again in 2yrs - 3yrs at most depending breeding ratio, real good economics hey, sounds like a treasurers report, if these clowns would stop playing on peoples heart strings and say it as it is there would be no problems make it practical and humane beats dying from cold and starvation from drought and overbreeding