Eight-year-old ginger cat Juniper may look cute and fluffy, but looks can be deceiving.
“She was an efficient hunter,” says her owner, Hugh Fathers, a pensioner living in rural Australia.
“I don’t know how prolific — because I never saw all of their kills.”
Australia has a cat problem. Its population of just over eight million feral and domestic cats is thought to kill billions of native creatures each year, many of which are endangered.
Birds, rodents, and even red-bellied black snakes were some of the preferred prey items for junipers, says Mr. Fathers.
“Occasionally she’ll park them under the bed, which is a nice place to find them. Certainly not something I was ever happy about, but I had to understand that she was a cat and that’s part of what cats are.”
This “part of what cats are” is why advocates say Australia needs to get a grip on its free-roaming cats.
A typical domestic cat like Juniper in New South Wales will kill more than 180 native creatures each year, data from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub suggests.
And their feral feline cousins, whose population ranges from two to six million, are even more voracious, each killing about 790 wild animals a year.
The total number – about two billion mammals, birds and reptiles – is approaching the estimated amount of wildlife lost, injured or displaced in the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfire disaster – each year.
At a recent two-day “cat symposium” in Perth, experts outlined the extent of this cat crisis and discussed solutions.
According to Prof Sarah Legge of the Australian National University, cats were “the main contributor” to the extinction of two-thirds of Australia’s 33 mammal species lost since colonization.
“That’s a massive extinction rate… You don’t see that repeated anywhere else in the world. They’re still causing the decline of mammals today,” she told the BBC.
“There are eight species that only survive in cat-free areas, either on islands or fenced-in areas on the mainland.”
Across Australia there are low level regulations for cats such as microchipping and registration. And concerns about the impact of stray cats have prompted almost a third of municipalities to implement cat-free zones, cat curfews or containment rules.
However, restrictions vary widely and there are no containment laws at all in Western Australia or the most populous state of New South Wales (NSW).
Prof Legge believes that while many Australians already understand the need to reduce the impact of cats, a standardized approach would be very helpful.
Many municipalities would also like to expand the restrictions, but cannot because the overriding pet laws are set at the state level.
“If you’re a pet cat owner, it’s really confusing because it’s just a patchwork of different rules depending on where you are. The next step would be to try to harmonize all these laws and make it easier for local governments to put them in the litter box.”
The Tweed Shire Council in northern NSW is one of the few areas in the state to designate some suburbs near sensitive wildlife areas as cat-free.
Pam Gray, director of the pest control programme, says such blanket bans are very effective, but the council’s hands are tied when it comes to further action – which she says the cats themselves also need.
“Unfortunately the NSW Companion Animals Act is the most important piece of legislation we have to regulate cats. There are some (local) restrictions that can be put in place… but actually enforcing them is very complicated.
“It would be good to see a similar level of legislation regulating cats as we currently have for dogs or horses…you need to keep it on your property.”
Around 30% of Australian cat owners already keep their pets indoors or in specially constructed cat enclosures, sometimes referred to as “Catios”.
Promoting a responsible attitude through awareness is key to curbing cats’ destructive habits, says James Trezise, director of the Invasive Species Council.
“A lot of people say, ‘well, my cat doesn’t eat animals’. Well, that’s because they only bring back about 15% of all animals killed.
“A lot of the effects of free-roaming house cats are out of sight, out of mind.”
Last year, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) presented a possible future model for the entire country.
As well as a mandatory cat registry, it has expanded cat containment suburbs across Canberra and imposed a curfew on all cats born after July 1st.
Existing free-roaming cats were allowed to remain at large “to allow for a fair and gradual transition,” ACT Transport and Urban Services Minister Chris Steel told the Canberra Times newspaper.
With the cats in retreat, native species can recover “in a spectacular way,” says Prof. Legge.
“Boodies (burrowing bettongs), stick nest rats, western bandicoots, russet hare wallabies, banded hare wallabies… Increase in population size very significant.”
And containment benefits cats, too, says James Trezise.
“It has been estimated that domestic cats that are safely contained, or [with] controlled access to nature will live up to 10 years longer than free-roaming cats,” he says.
This longer lifespan comes from reduced risk, says Prof. Legge.
“You won’t get hit by a car, abused by a dog, or get sick. As long as you provide a behavioral environment at home or in the cabin, the cat is better off.”
Perhaps this point makes it clear that Juniper from Hugh Fathers is unfortunately missing at the moment. Would he consider a replacement?
“I only live in a three-bedroom cottage, so I really couldn’t have an indoor cat,” he says. “But if I was in a situation where I had a big enough house or the finances to house a cat, no drama. I personally think it’s a great idea.
“While it takes away some of the ‘feline’ when it comes to protecting Australian native animals from cats, I’m all for it.”
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