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...

[Die Judicii]

Jolcrin >
Added to the above, I had also noticed in that fibreglass tank, and the other larger circular poly water troughs that were located in other paddocks on the property a disturbingly frequency of dead (drowned) birds.
And by far the vast majority of them were "Willy Wagtails".
I've often seen them and other varieties actually hit or flop into the water, and quickly take flight again, mostly on hot days.
I'm guessing that is a way of cooling down and taking flight before getting water logged.

But it was sad to see that many fall victim. Perhaps over doing things.

I started putting an appropriately sized tree branch in that covered half the diameter of the water with the butt end out over the rim.
That seemed to save quite a few birds, cos after doing that the number of dead birds in the water dropped dramatically.

Quite often the cattle would dislodge the branches, but I would reposition them when doing the trough rounds.
The troughs that were against or through a fence line were great as I could tiewire the branch in place.

[Jorlcrin]

We dont have any fibreglass tanks around that might fill with water, but we also dont see many(if any) dead birds around for any reason.
We dont keep any open tanks/troughs around the house, as they are a great place for mosquitoes to breed, if not being regularly refilled.

Our local Willy Wagtails are often taking a dip in one of the sandstone bowls I carved to hold water years ago, but I dont believe we ever see birds getting trapped in our troughs, either.
I know when we had an open-topped high tank, it wasnt unusual for Pee-Wees to be dumb enough to end up drowning in there, but we havent used open-topped tanks for over 30 years.

The 10 litre bucket I keep under one of the rainwater gutter downpipes, I just leave a slotted piece of alloy(Think it might have been a shelf support in a past life) in the bucket, and that seems plenty good for any frogs or skinks/gekkos to use.

We dont lose much in the way of our wildlife to 'Death by Misadventure (Drowning)'.

Back to the cat issue, our local Apostlebirds always alert us when a cat appears, so I get roped in to nail the furbag, before one of the Apostlebirds decides to give Puddin the 'Peck-O-death'...
Apostlebirds are fiesty little gate-keepers, as well as being serious ******, as well as being partial to Chilli peanuts..

Many years ago, I saw an amusing sight(for me, at least)...
Working on something near the shed, and see a ginger cat, walking slowly towards the power shed, from an old dam about 700 metres distant.
I grab the rifle out of my car, and stand in a good spot, for where he'll come around the side of the shed, and I'll have a clear field of fire.
Puddin jauntily strides into view, and shortly afterwards, I realise that he's NOT alone.
Unbeknownst to Puddin, his walk towards the house from the old dam, he'd been stalked by a pair of Wedge-Tailed eagles, and one was about to introduce himself..
Puddin stops when he sights me, I fire, and Mr Wedgie does a hard right turn, accompanied by a LOT of flapping.
Wedgie #2 follows suit with the hard flapping, and they both depart at speed.
Puddin does his very best effort at dying on the spot due to severe ventilation issues..

Right up till his last breath, I seriously doubt dear Puddin realised that I wasnt likely to be the nastiest thing he was going to encounter that day..

Brightened my day, at least.

[Die Judicii]

LOL, That would have really been a spectacle to behold.
And, the Apostle birds are a fantastic bunch, and they also tame down with people they know.
Tame as in,,, for wild birds.

They are also phenominal when there's a snake or goanna hanging about.
Before shifting into town, our resident brood/mob/flock got to the stage of flocking around and some in particular would stand on the toe of
my boots while I was feeding our Guinnea Fowl with mixed grain which the Apostle birds also enjoyed immensely.

I actually miss those little buggers.

[Wapiti]

This morning I walked out yawning and stretching, to be harassed by the resident squadron of noisy-jacks.
These birds are completely wild, but if I haven't thrown out some mince or chook feed early enough, they fly at me from above or behind and land on my shoulder or head, and pull my hair to tell me of my tardiness. They are cheeky buggers!
As do the tiny splendid wrens, they land on the BBQ seats, take a crap, and peep peep cheep cheep because the love their mince and they want some.
I made a feeder for them that only they can get into, and get their mince bits.

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Here's the mince feeder, it's 50mm mesh at the top so the little wrens and willy wagtails jump through, but the chooks and squadrons of noisy jacks, magpies and butcher birds can't bully them away because they can't reach their beaks through the 25x25 mesh around the bottom. Just tacked together. Real simple to make.

[Damo300]

My cats a good one wapiti.
He is a feral cats kitten, but he's been raised correctly by our family.
Desexed wormed microchipped and tattooed.
The parents were destroyed.
Siblings all rehomed to good homes.

These cats were lucky the kids found them.



I'm hunting a black feral around at a friend's house on ocassions.
It's not there all the time, and this things been trapped before because it will not go near a trap. This one's a lead poisoning statistic.

[Wapiti]

Nothing wrong with cats as pets and managed, like anything else, mate!

But they might even be worse than foxes and cats, even dogs to a degree, because they climb and live where the birds do, decimating the little buggers.
Feral dogs get the most kudos around here when a hunter gets one, because they almost never do. Because dogs rip up a graziers animals, and can ruin 20 years of breeding pain and cost in a few days, even a night.
Which is why DJ is such a boon to the community here he lives in.

But the damn feral cats, or those wretched city mongrels let out during the day by the uncaring owners to ruin the native birds and reptiles, they should be higher on the list. "My cat doesn't kill anything, I feed it kitty-cat every night, it's never hungry"

I remember one night out spotlighting, we saw this huge ginger feral cat sitting on a log around 50m or so away, nonchalantly licking its paws and preening its ears. I had taken out a 300RUM Sendero for a bit of a kick along, and lined it up with a 130gn Speer HP, the ones with the huge hole in the tip, probably going 3500fps.
My wife was watching through her scoped 308, she reckons one minute it was there, next it seemed to explode in 360' circle in a reddish puff.
Her eyes were wide as dinner plates, she had never seen something so violent in a fraction of a second.
I actually was concerned it was too close because like a d*ckhead, I had it set at 2" high at 100 to get a longer PBR.
Me, I never saw it be converted into individual atoms, the rifle is quite lively when it goes off, but I could hear the drawn out plop, plop, plop as the bits rained down. It never knew what hit it, as we all set out to do.