The Australian government has become the topic of discussion among all cat lovers since they have declared a ‘cat holocaust’. According to reports, the island has decided to airdrop poisonous sausages across hectares of land to kill millions of feral cats.
The idea behind this is to get rid of the feral cat population which is reportedly responsible for the extinction of around 20 mammal species.
The sausages will be made of kangaroo meat, chicken fat, herbs, spices and poison, and the cats will die within fifteen minutes of eating it. The planes deployed for this task will be airdropping 50 sausages every kilometre in the cat-infested areas.
According to the national commissioner of threatened species, Gregory Andrews, feral cats are the single biggest threat to Australia’s native species. A study published in the journal Biological Conservation showed that cats kill about 377 million birds and 649 reptiles every year in Australia.
The Australian government’s plan to eradicate cats has received a lot of backlash from people. Reportedly, more than 160,000 people signed almost half a dozen online petitions to stop this from happening.
Conservationists have argued that the government are putting the entire blame on the cats, and are overlooking other factors like urban expansion, logging and mining which also reduce biodiversity.
People have expressed their disagreement to this idea on Twitter as well.
“Ah shit, here we go again.” – Australia after going to war with their animals again. Welcome to the Great Feral Cat War of 2019. Not to be confused with the Great Emu War of 1932. pic.twitter.com/bY3m2Nc6HP
— Amanda (@TheCompleteFool) April 27, 2019
WTF Australia?! It is 2019 & that's the most humane way to reduce feral cat populations?! Australia wants to kill millions of cats by cruelly & recklessly airdropping poisonous sausages like some f*cked up, ill thought out cartoon of death.
— briebrie (@The_Brie_Brie) April 28, 2019
https://t.co/V4pWaIpJaN
Trap, neuter, and release programs are a humane and extremely effective way to tackle feral cat overpopulation issues. Causing cats to suffer and die by lacing food with poison is a cruel and unacceptable solution.https://t.co/FotBIvUhKj
— Animal Justice (@AnimalJustice) April 27, 2019
Screw you Australia. There are better solutions to your feral cat problem than death by poison. https://t.co/GvWBMa609C
— Linda Zimmerman (@lzinla) April 27, 2019
That's the stupidest and most horrendous idea I ever heard for feral cat control. WTH? Who else might ingest this stuff🤔? Someone from Australia should call The American Humane Society for info on ferals. Catch, spay and neuter, release. X killing!
— Kymiah LeFavor (@KML_4change) April 28, 2019
All my cats were once feral kittens. It breaks my heart that Australia wants to destroy the entire feral cat population b/c they kill other animals. If you wouldn’t have let the population get out of control, then you wouldn’t have such a dire situation! #TrapNeuterRelease
— MAC (@BlueLadyMAC) April 27, 2019
What do you think?
