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.
Well, I’m not a feral cat and I did date a guy who are cat years, but I don’t know he doesn’t wear it anymore. It’s just a costume I used to identify as a furry or human Pup but now it was just so I could work at a bar a leather bar it has nothing to do with dogs and people thought so they wouldn’t even go to a bar. They wouldn’t even try to understand that what you do at a bar as you meet someone you make a conversation you buy a few drinks you drink a few shot Jell-O shots and then you go home and then you call it an evening, but I don’t know. I guess I got so frustrated that it’s a bit of dog just to proof to prove that it has nothing to do with it. I can’t stand puppy stuff anymore. I’m I mean all it was was well when you get older you still need to work and the best place for working in the evenings is to be a bartender or doing clothing and we all get older when we lose our looks so we have to try something new and it has nothing to do about feral cats or anything, but it’s just saying someone wants to see something interesting. They want to see a show a dance performance a comedy event you know everything is a costume at least that’s how I always saw it not a lifestyle just just a costume.
Cats are remarkably capable predators, and cat owners are remarkably irresponsible.
Letting your cat be an “outside” cat is bad enough for the environment. Not spaying/neutering said “outside cat” is how we get feral cats everywhere.
That said, I dont love the vague “eradicate feral cats” language. Would greatly prefer a broad spectrum spay/neuter/tag program to naturally reduce their population.
Predator-free NZ was always destined to ruffle some feathers though.
Umm feed them. Then they’re not feral, their babies.
yes but leave it to politicians to do everything in the worst possible way
Yeah, well fed house cats never bring home dead mice and birds.
🤦♂️
If the cat is a strictly indoor cat and is bringing you dead mice and birds, you may have a problem with mice and birds in your house.
I keep mine indoors… and our city sterilizes feral cats and lets them go again if they cannot be adopted timely
A much humane approach that limits the harm a cat could do in the wild
That’s not harm reduction. Letting then go is ecocide. And it isn’t even humane. Feral cats are feral, they can’t be adopted. Better to humanely put them down.
they are not even been added to the kill list for 25 more years… it’s either not that urgent or this is just virtue signaling from politicians
ps: x for doubt on any “humanely” thing proposed by politicians
Most people have not seen a feral cat and assume that they are just domestic cats living rough. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Savage predators loose in the bush and Australia has millions of them.
australia aiming to be more evil than north korea
To the people thinking “oh poor kitties”. In New Zealand, cats are like terminators (or more accurately, Predators from those movies). Pretty much everything evolved to be incredibly easy pray for cats. Sure, it sucks that cats have to die, but they’re an incredibly invasive species that hunts the native species to extinction. They should’ve never been imported in the first place.
New zealand is extremely prone because its home to flightless birds and other similar species that never grew up against land predators of this nature. That’s why cats and even rats are especially dangerous. These flightless birds have no real way of protecting their young and even themselves.
It’s sad for cats because we see them as companions and pets, but new zealand holds a lot of critically endangered species that simply cannot exist anywhere else
Time for them to catch up in evolution’s arms race or be left behind with the other failures like the dodo and the dinosaurs
Not how evolution works.
Survival of the fittest? No? Am I a slider? Did I land on a world where natural selection isn’t one of the evolutionary pressures on the ecosystem?
One of yes. Along with gene drift and flow, and genetic mutation. But our imperialist, capitalist societies really love to lean into the survival of the fittest as the end all, be all of evolution and life. There’s a whole lot more to the complexities of nature even if our “might equals right” societies don’t see it.
I wouldn’t bother. If they’re this simple and loud about whatever they think they comprehend of evolution and natural selection concepts, you know them and their cat are ironically nature’s food in the first 48 hours detached from society’s teet. Lucky for them, we keep getting better at keeping the weakest around. Mike Judge does a good film about it.
All domestic cats should be fully indoor cats. Any domestic cats found outdoors should be killed. Nasty little disease spreading song bird killers.
Not sure why this is such a controversial take. House cats should indeed not be outside, unless they are on a leash.
Because people have an extreme case of the feels for cats and judge their morals purely based on what’s cute, and are fine with the deaths of cows and other animals but not pets. A disturbing amount of people care about the fully arbitrary distinction between pet and animal
whats up with all the cat hating nazi’s here ?
