As the feral cat problem in Australia continues to grow, the WA Government has ramped up its efforts to manage the issue.
Five community organisations have been allocated $500,000 funding between them to improve feral cat management in the state.
WA Environment Minister, Matthew Swinbourn, said feral cats posed the greatest threat to many of WA’s most threatened native species, which is why the state had delivered the nation’s first Feral Cat Strategy to crack down on their devastating impacts.
“We’re empowering community organisations to protect some of our State’s most vulnerable species, including the chuditch, hooded plover and numbat, which are being pushed to the brink of extinction,” he said.
Feral cat caught on camera with a brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa). PIC – DBCA
Warren Catchments Council received the largest share of the latest funding, receiving more than $180,000 to expand ethical feral cat management across new areas of the Warren region. The project aims to protect the region’s unique threatened fauna, which includes numbats, woylies, and western ringtail possums.
Australian Wildlife Conservancy was awarded nearly $140,000 for a project that will address crucial knowledge gaps in the genome sequencing of feral cat populations, and will assess the feasibility of new genetic biocontrol technologies.
Many grey nomads are reporting seeing a dramatic increase in the number of feral cats they come across on their journeys through Australia … and, not surprisingly, WA is not alone in taking action
Last year, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) recruited its first-ever dedicated control team to address the problem in that state.
Feral cats originate from former domestic cats who were lost or abandoned and have reverted in some degree to a wild state. They kill millions of native animals every year and are a key factor in Australia having the worst mammal extinction record in the world.
Iconic animals under threat from feral cats include mammals like the dusky hopping mouse, the yellow-footed rock-wallaby and the stripe-faced dunnart; birds such as the plains wanderer, the grey grasswren and the hooded robin; and reptiles like the endangered Barrier Range dragon.
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Start by a nationwide ban on cats. We don’t need them and the damage they do is horrific. The number of feral cats getting around the city suburbs is also out of control.
Hear, hear!
One of my favoured memories seen within my village was a feral fox carrying a feral cat in its mouth.
Would have made a good meal for the littleuns.
Mate open your eyes.
The feral cat populations are exploding partly due to the actions of some state governments doing everything they can to strip the law abiding public of there firearms.
Keep an eye on the population of other feral animals (foxes, pigs, camels) in the coming years when no one is allowed to possess firearms.
Wake up you idiotic governments, guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
I love all animals but i do believe cats especially un spayed should be kept indoors at night and huge fines appliedl otherwise.
Do you “really” think spayed cats do less damage? They do not lose their instinct to kill!
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire
Cat lived a double life. Every morning when his family left for the day, Cat would go on an adventure.
Breakfast was a lap of milk followed by fresh bird from the park, or the dog’s food next door. Lunch was perhaps a nice lizard or two – followed by a date with his long-distance girlfriend. In the afternoon, Cat nappe in the sun before returning home where his dinner was waiting for him.
Every year the cats of Australia wipe out just as many animals as this country’s most devastating bushfires.
Nearly 2 billion little lights are snuffed out every year, right under our noses. The stray feathers in the backyarc and the dead lizards on the doormat may seem few and far between but they point to a very real and urgent ecological emergency.
Since their introduction in the early 1800’s, cats have hunted over a dozen native Australian species to extinction.
And many people see them like dogs, for instance, a baby sustitute, ‘part of the family’.
You feed them, pick up after them, laugh when they ruin your good furniture, clothe them despite their coat of fur and heavier skin
Seriously, grow up and stop humanising animals.
Well said
have only seen a few in the wild and have shot a couple
Like introduced bird’s, put in a cage with a run outside or put roller’s on top of your fence perimeter.
All cats should be kept inside or in fully enclosed runs. They are predators and must be enclosed.
It’s time to consider a biological control like cat flu. Domestic cats should never be let outside a house or enclosure. We need to stop shooting out dingos and calling them ‘wild dogs’ – they help control cat and fox numbers.
We recently traveled from Townsville across to Broome south to Geralton and back. In the 13000 ks of travel we would have seen at least 8 live feral cats while we were driving, 3 of them coming between Julia Creek and Richmond. They were casually walking along the side of the road and made no effort to dive for cover. Would have seen about the same number or more flattened on the road,big cheers. The cats aren’t to blame just the irresponsible owners.
All of the money will be eaten up in Admin and planning – put a bounty on cats and let the hunters fix the problem’
Spot on
In the early days when we started travelling around Australia in the 1990’s, we saw a few, and were able to shoot them in remote areas.
So, we are unable to do that now, as the government has taken our riffles off us, and now we take photos of them.
All cats registered and mandatory de-sexing.
Any cat caught and not registered put down.
Graham, i agree with you & with all the other comments in some form or another
$500k is peanuts. It’s a massive problem on a national scale.
As with Cane Toads & many other introduced species, its too late!
The CAT’S OUT OF THE BAG.
Open up the feral animals control to the shooting clubs and encourage farmers to allow clubs access to clean up their properties. National Parks also need to be involved so that those safe havens are cleaned out at the same time. Spot lighting has proven to be a very effective means of control, cats are nocturnal as are foxes and rabbits.
ALL cats must be confined inside or in a secure cat run when outside. They must not ever be allowed to roam. Plan for eradication of domestic cats by setting a date in the near future, beyond this date you are unable to keep a cat as a pet.
Totally agree with the problem of feral cats & that all pet cats must be kept contained. There needs to be some sort of solution as long as they don’t disperse more 1080 baits or some other biological control that could potentially affect other species.
Simple fix, apart from reg breeders, compulsory neutering of all animals, cats and dogs. free traps provided by councils or state Govt, pig traps too
I live in a semi rural area of the Gold Coast, but previous similar residences in other states are included – it’s not just abandoned cats that are the problem – domestic cats allowed out at night are killers and hunters by nature. So many people take the view
that its “not my little pussy” – I catch about a dozen every year and unashameably take them to the pound much to the chagrin of owners. There’s a LAW – just do the right thing.
And Councils – PROSECUTE before returning the cat to owners.