pretty bloody oredictable if you ask me. We go and wipe out the harmless Indian mynahs, every man woman and child in the country putting the bloody boot into them seems like, and now they wanna talk bout wiping out native species that do no harm as well, like the noisy miners, For bein noisy, or the magpies, for scaring their bloody kids. Clever bloody country, yeh right
and the whole time the useless buggers donT wanna hear a thing said anout theire useless bloody cats. keep em inside? Naw thatd be unAustralian! How unfair to little sweetums!
this country's woldlife is in a great big bloody mess thanks to the idiots who have been running things all these years, but everybody else has been doin a fine job of ruining there own patch on their own
and whats worse, you now nave these groups of bloody cat loving fools who are advocating to let their cats run free outside and set up there own little kitty neighbourhoods.thats right, the cat nuts now want the freedom, to dump their cats out in the bush in huge numbers so they can become part of the ecosystem, and i bet you all anything that they are doing it right now regardless of the illegality of the situation. They WANT these feral cat colonies to grow and take over the ever dwindling Aussie bushland, even if they wont come out and admit it. No they say they are all for TNR to control outdoor cat populations, even though it does no such thing, just a locense for cats to run around freely and for cat nuts to go out and feed them so they can set up local feral communities for there own fun
so now we, that is any Aussies that genuinely care about our wildlife, or whats left of it anyway (not damn much far as i can see), have two serious entrenched enemies We are up against- firstly the feral and the free roaming or outdoor cats, which are so far out of control amd good,luck to anyone who thinks otherwise, but now the looneytunes cat nuts who if they had there way would turn our bush i to a big rabid moggie playground. Reckon even the dingoes would be wiped off the map in sjort order if that were to happens.
See, the cat lovin fools dont like it that now people have started waking up to the situatiin amd seeing the harm their pets are doing, and they dont like people going out and blowin away the murderous little buggers to try and protect the wildlife they are preying on 24-7. And this is how they are fighting back.
well now its up to us to get serious too and let em know this isn't acceptable. Right, we have finally begun to acknowledged that there is a serious problem with peoples pets and wildlife in this country, but that is not the time to become complacent. No now its time for all of us to start putting in the hard yards, and getting our wildlife back to healthy levels, and letting the weak politicians and the cat loving nutters know that there will be NO GOING BACK to the days of lax pet supervision and murderous moggies roaming the bush
We are starting to dislike cats and dogs since the S.E.Brisbane Curlew family in our neighborhood suffered so many casualties to roaming cats around our area.
The Curlew bird is a bit dumb, because they freeze in the presence of danger. They lay flat on the ground and play dead. Such an easy toy for a dog to pick up and mangle (I haven't seen that actually happen, but I have seen a dead Curlew with puncture marks around its neck and told about what happened) but the cats are the ones that prey on the baby chicks, I have seen that. We have now seen this new mating pair suffer through the loss of 7 chicks. 6 were taken by cats and one suffered a broken foot while escaping. We called animal rescue and they took the injured chick away. We didn't hear back from them. This mating pair of Curlews is young, less than two years old. They are with their surviving chick from the 4th pair of eggs. The chick is three and a half weeks old and we think large enough to be left alone by a cat, but now it is being noticed by dogs.
The biggest problem we have with dogs is their STUPID owners.
A new resident (old lady with old dogs) has moved nearby. She felt the need to bring her dogs up to our property line to tell us that she is from the bush and knows whats what and her dogs would never harm the Curlew family living in our front yard. She has come over three times and the first time was enough for the Curlews to freak out and they left for a week. There were two chicks then but when they came back, only one Curlew chick. So a week later, just when they are settling back into their routine is when that woman came back the second time. "Look my dogs are friendly they just want to say hello" so I asked her (my Father shouted) to move on her way. Again the Curlews left our front yard, but they came back to visit at midnight (yes we feed them wombaro insectivore mixed into mince beef because we know the chicks have been preyed on by cats while the parents were just metres away hunting bugs in a bush for the chick.) . after a week they came back and were relaxing in the morning, she comes back, now this is the third time we see this old woman walk closely to our front property line and the Curlew family has had enough. They have left our front yard.
The Curlews are not tame, but they do come closer if they see us in the front yard gardening and will gladly catch a worm or bug that we occasionally throw in their direction. In this last 12 months they have nested two times in our front yard and the other two times brought their 2 day old chicks with them and began a routine of sleeping in several spots in our front yard.
They are hunted by cats when they go walkabout each night.
It is unfortunate that this silly old woman and her old dogs have invaded the daytime sanctuary of our front yard for this Curlew family.
One of the parent Curlew was hatched in our front yard, he stayed when his parents and sister moved away and now he is trying to start his own family.
Wildlife Rescue came and took the injured chick away.
Dang cats...they always dinde their way way into our back yard...gotta finds a way to keep them out of the back yard, and eradicate them from the wild.
Wimmera mally region, Vic.
Major myna, Mel.Kie & Lightuningbird, I feel your pain.
Some councils hire cat traps. My local Mitre 10 had cat traps for sale for a while. About $90.
I've written to the Pet Food Association (or whatever it's called ) & suggested they have warnings on their packaging about the risk posed by cats to Australian wildlife. After all, there are graphic warnings on cigarette packs so why not on pet food packaging? No answer to my letter which is perhaps an indication of the responsibility level accepted by this industry organisation. Not good modelling for our younger generation, I would have thought.
Photos of cat-mangled wildlife along with beautiful shots of unmangled wildlife could be printed & distributed to neighbours together with encouragement for cat restriction. However, denial is a common characteristic of many free-ranging-cat owners I've met so it's important to keep expectations realistic.
Perhaps such photos could be sent to the local media highlighting the need for cat control.
Get together with other wildlife friendly neighbours (if there are any - seek them out) & lobby your local councillor for cat control.
The wildlife-friendly road is long & arduous. Be prepared for slow progress & setbacks. But never give up. Our wildlife depends on peoples' persistence.
Woko i appreciate your efforts on behalf of wildlife awareness & protection, but do you honestly believe the pet food companies would give your suggestion a second thought ? their entire business model is based on promoting the mangling of our wildlife! Unless the government stepped in and MADE them take a step like that theyll happily brush off any complaints and keep,doing what they do without the slightest worry. And the chances of any money grubbing industry loving Aussie govt doing something like that are slim and none.
its a bloody outrage really, the utter hypocrisy of our country’s attitude to our wildlife, making a big show of our natural environemnt and its inhabitants while doing abosolute buckleys about protecting them from from everbodys out of control cats & dogs
and since so many people are so selfish about insisting their pets freedom comes first, why on earth have we not domesticated Aussie animals and made them available as pets? Think about it, wallabies and echidnas roaming freely in the backyards and parks, and doing no harm to our birds. What oossible objection coild there be? And that way we could ban people from owning non native pets, or at least we could ban the dangerous ones that do the most harm, the bloody cats and dogs. It would not be a problem if people had the sense to keep goats or chooks or lambs. Maybe it is time we banned those bad pets outright eh?
Yea i think it might be time for a seriois move like that. No more of this beating around the bush weve been doing all this time, its time for wildlife lovers to step up and demand banning these bloody animals since people are too incapable and too selfish and cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Forget about the pet food industry, it is time to target the whole bloody pet industry!
in the meantime i have to look at getting hold of one of those cat traps sharpish while theres still a bird or two left in my local bush bloody hell!
Not a hope in Hades in the short term, major myna. But at least the idea is out there. After all, smokers & tobacco companies fought tooth & nail for decades to preserve their right to give us all lung cancer. Now in some places smoking is banned not only within restaurants but outside them, too.
My biggest concern about being forced to take a long term view on cat control & eradication is that by the time eradication occurs there won’t be any wildlife to protect from these pests. Hence the need for a multi-pronged approach with the emphasis being on habitat protection & restoration. Then your vision of echidnas in backyards would have a better chance of becoming a reality.
In the meantime we need to do what we can each do within the limits of our capabilities & resources. Go to it friends!
But companies are never willingly going to do anything to fix the problems they help create. Calls for pet food companies to lift their games will just keep falling on deaf ears. We nave to appeal to the legislative bodies directly, and lobby the government and the bloody poloticians if we want this change, and be a bloody nuisance to those useless buggers until they are forced to start paying attention.
I dont think we can afford to take a long view of the situation any more, the long view now os that either the situation and oublic attitudes change drastically soonish or else therell be nothing left worth saving. No more time for this “she’ll be right mate” nonsense, now its time to put up or shut up, either your for making a serious effort to save our wildlife or youre against it, i’m sorry but the situation is that serious now.
And I’m serious about emcouraging domestication of Australian wildlife to replace the most deadly and damaging pets people are so irresponsible aboit. Like i said, goats and chooks dont worry me, but we have to seriously comsider a blamket ban on cats and dogs, as well as completely eradicating the ones that are occupying the bush, and not stopping till they are completely wiped out. If the CSIRO had any guts they would do the right thing and release the cat flu or whatever it was that they cooked up specially to wipe the bush clean free of the little vermin.
Yeh i know this wont be the most popular suggestion right now, but thats why we need to make more people aware of jist what these little mongrels are doing out their to our native soecies. I am sure the more people realise just what nastiness their pets are committing on the poor little fellas out there, the sooner it will gain widespread approval needed to change things for the better.
we gotta do what we can do, but now is no longer the time to let them dominate the issues any longer. Its time we made our voices heard for wildlife while there is still wildlife left to speak up for!
I can’t disagree with any of that. We certainly live in a cat- friendly culture which needs to be changed, & rapidly, to a wildlife- friendly culture.
I do hope Birds in Backyarders, at least, will take up the cudgels & become activist in protecting & restoring our wildlife & its habitats.
By the way, when I contacted the SA Minister for the Environment about out cat culture he suggested I contact the Pet Food Association or whatever it’s called. My next step is to inform him of the irresponsibility of that organization. However, I expect that he will do nothing to improve the situation given that he wants Kangaroo Island wilderness to be opened to tourist developments.
So, at this stage I’ m left with thinking globally & acting locally.
My family made our selves our one cat tap, we found them very expensive and needed one quickly.
the cat population has declined in the town. Iv notest a lot more native wildlife, even animals not seen befor like echinaceas. Robins, blue rens and thorn bills have also increased. Although, sparrows and starlings are decreasing (yay) this is because of the re-balance of the environment, and birds of pray returning arfter a long drought.
Wimmera mally region, Vic.
Woko unbelievable! classic political buck passing bs!these corrupt pols are as bad as the bleeeding cats, no wonder hed make such a pointless suggestion. he just wants to keep the catlovers o nside. i bet his biggest "contribution" to the environment was killing afew mynas in public to satisfy th bloody minded morons Lightuningbird it is great to read some good news on this forum, well done keep the bloody things ruunning scared. ieven got a good response from myloca council but have been too ill to follow yet
Not unbelievable, major myna. Rather, it was to be expected. Few, if any, environment ministers have ever had any understanding of environmental issues & have always paid obeisance to Earth wreckers.
Anyway, I wish you a speedy, cat-inspired recovery. We need everyone firing - metaphorically speaking, of course.
As far as I know, Cat-Owners are not allowed to let their cats out of their property at night, but I think the cats still get out because how hard is it to keep your cat in your own property at night unless it is inside?
Hey Spoonbill. I think you’ll find that different councils have different laws/regulations about cat control. Responsible cat owners either don’t have a cat in the first place or, if they do, keep it confined. A few cat owners build cat runs attached to a window or door so that their cats have a race to run up & down. Sadly, there are few responsible cat owners, at least in my experience.
Even more sadly, the television media colluded with the destruction of our wildlife by frequently featuring in their news bulletins stories about local fire brigades rescuing cats from trees & drains. I even read a news story yesterday about a guy who has been charged with throwing his girlfriend’s cat over a balcony. While I don’t recommend this approach to changing our cat culture it seems a shame that there aren’t more businesses & people charged with habitat destruction because surely the ultimate cruelty is the wanton extinction of wildlife species which depend on this habitat.
Hello Woko. You are definitely right about different councils having different laws, but (in my opinion) the laws are not tight enough, as who is going to be able to control their cat at night while they are inside sleeping?
It is very sad that there are few responsible cat owners. Maybe there is some way to educate these people who own a cat on the effects on local wildlife if they let their cat outside at night.
Hopefully something can be done.
It’s a horrible dilemma, Spoonbill. By the time we get a wildlife friendly culture there will be little wildlife to protect from marauding cats. So there’ll be little point in controlling cats. However, we can but try & keep hope alive. Good people such as yourself could so worse than contacting local councillors & state & federal politicians as well as writing to the media, posting great photos of wildlife & modeling wildlife-friendly behaviour by having indigenous plants in their gardens.
thank you Woko, and let me tell you folks a jab of the old flu shot might not be a bad idea this year, if your up for it. they had to put my poor old mum in isolation in hospital for a week, thats how bad we got it. and no, it wasnt the bird flu, i have enough cockies and kookaburras hanging around me on a daily basis that I must be immune to that by now, but it wouldn't surprise me if the bloody sickness originated with one of me neighbours bloody wanderin cats, spreading their poison around the local bushland at all hours.
anyhow i mainly came to show you folks this article and see what you think:
Ku-ring-gai Council starts feral cat trapping program
this is EXACTLY the kind of thing we should have been doing all along from the word go, i reckon. ANd even now they still worry about offending the little darlings whose free roaming pets and dumped animals have been doing so much bloody damage to our native animals all these years. just look at some of the details, unbloodybelievable: Ku-ring-gai councillors have gone against the recommendation of staff and implemented a feral cat trapping trial, A council report, which also recommended against the installation of the scheme, etc.
these councils have to be forced kicking and screaming into doing the right thing by concerned citizens putting pressure on them, it is a complete farce. even the most harmless and cat sensitive scheme like this one faces opposition from the useless bloody councillors who dont want to do a thing about the cat problem except pat themselves on the back for having high rates of cat registration, with this kind of attitude its a bloody wonder this country has any of its wildlife left today. you just wouldnt believe it
It’s a start but three months would seem hardly long enough to do the job. And I hope the trappers view as feral any unsecured cat.
Too bloody right Woko, and its like pulling teeth to get anyone to do even that much!
the problem is that dogs and cats have a whole lotta loudmouths that will kick up a fuss at any suggestion of laws or regulating their pets and the damage they do. So the only answer is that we the folk who care about our endangered wildlife have to get even LOUDER and refuse take any old bs for an answer. We have to get as active and aggressive and willing to shout out our dissatisfaction at the way things are going as any of the dog lovers and cat loonies.
folks, the good thing now is that if you see a cat or cats running around loose, call your local council and you should be able to get a ranger to come out and trap them for you. they will kill the cats unless they find out the owners details on the collar or a microchip, then they charge the useless buggers a fine to get the little killers back. Not too bad! So one thing we have to do is make use of this service as often as bloody necessary! That will help us get our point across
And if any cat lover tries to shout you down don’t be afraid of being as loud and annoying in response, let em know that we’re not gonna take it anymore!
Ah, major mynah, I like your style, a style, among others, sorely needed to combat the ravages of cats on our native wildlife. Little is achieved without passion, something which you have in bucketloads & which, incidentally, need to be tipped over any unsecured cat.
Some would say your tone is a tad on the raucous side but I would argue we need a variety of approaches to our furry feline friends from the silent, stealthy local exterminators, through the carefully calibrated scientific methods, to the tub-thumping, politician-harassing activists who won’t let up until the last cat is secured behind its double wired, tightly managed enclosure. We are a diverse nation & need a diversity of strategies to preserve our wildlife diversity.
well thank you for the nice words Woko, and I agree with your stance in general. but as the situation gets more dire the required action will only get more drastic. i've watched the beautiful abundance & variety of bird life in the bush around me decline steadily over ht e past 20 odd years to a handufl of angry cockies (and they are a bloody handfull al right, I have the scars to prove it) and a few stalwart pigeons and doves, and the die-hard kookaburra clans (they aint goin anywhere, i hope).
Used to be I'd look outside any hour of the day and see all the colours of the rainbow out there, galahs, all the different rosellas, king parrots, lorikeets, magpies, cockies, and even those much maligned darlings the indian mynas out there feeding and hanging out together, splashing in the bird baths, making a lovely racket. occasionally i'd even hear a black cockatoo screaming out overhead. now they're all gone, like i've said, and the bush is mostly silent most of the day. I'm trying to plant some more native fruit trees and berries and callistemons so on, but i doubt it'll do much good at this stage
the biggest part of the problem is human activity, no doubt, but the damage done by irresponsible pet owners and their little killers is a big part of this too, and its something we can all do something about. And finally it looks like we may have started getting serious in this country, instead of wasting time and resources on silly bloody distractions like wiping out the indian mynas, which has achieved absolute bugger all except for killing a shedload more birds along with the rest
here are some articles my fellow Birdsinbackyarders might find interesting:
https://nypost.com/2019/04/26/australia-is-killing-millions-of-feral-cats-with-poisoned-sausages/
https://www.inverse.com/article/55319-australia-s-poison-sausages-kill-millions-of-cats
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-is-trying-to-kill-millions-of-stray-cats-by-airdropping-poisoned-sausages-2019-04-26/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-cat-cull-sausages-wildlife-outback-a8888071.html
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/242430/20190427/the-reason-australia-wants-to-kill-millions-of-cats.htm
And they are even starting to wake up in New Zealnd- and of course getting the expected pushback from the cat nuts:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/382671/cat-lover-says-plan-to-ban-felines-was-hidden-by-southland-council
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111071294/cat-ban-looks-unlikely-for-omaui-residents