New Zealand has announced plans to eradicate feral cats by 2050, as part of efforts to protect the country’s biodiversity.
Speaking to Radio New Zealand on Thursday, conservation minister Tama Potaka said that feral cats are “stone cold killers” and would be added to the country’s Predator Free 2050 list, which aims to eradicate those animals that have a negative impact on species such as birds, bats, lizards and insects.
Cats had previously been excluded from the list, which includes species such as stoats, ferrets, weasels, rats and possums, but Potaka used the interview to announce a U-turn.
CW: harm to animals
Sadly no, there’s really no humane solution that can outpace their population growth. Unfortunately culling is the lesser of two evils, cats are apex predators in these environments and they’re a significant contributor to the extinction of native fauna. It should have been a priority a long time ago.
It’s horrible. It isn’t even practical to shoot them so they get baited and (IMO) we don’t even have a good solution for baiting them since the agent most commonly used also kills other (native) mammals and dissolves into waterways very easily. Plus it’s a really unpleasant death.
I’m surprised there isn’t a viral option like there has been for feral rabbits, but I guess that was a pretty miserable death too.
Release the Bird Flu it’ll be fine I promise
Just need to introduce dogs as a predator to the cats
But then the feral dog packs will grow even more powerful.
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I mean its worth a shot right, what could even go wrong.
Which are 3 species of bats, 1 of which has not had a confirmed sighting since 1960’s!
Learned this like 2 days ago, odd that it became relevant on HB. And they said pub trivia nights are a waste of time and money