3 months ago, the Australian government announced a "war on feral cats", to kill two million cats by 2020. According to the Aussie plan, the government will shoot, trap, and put down cats with a “humane” poison.
This all out assault is being conducted to take back Australia’s outback and biodiversity from the outdoor cats who kill millions of animals every year.
Gregory Andrews, Australia's first threatened-species Commissioner told a local radio station that Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt "is declaring war on feral cats, and he's asked me to take charge of that program," Washington Post reported.
"We are drawing a line in the sand today which says, 'On our watch, in our time, no more species extinction,'" Hunt said. Across Australia, feral cats will be declared "pests". Feral cats kill roughly 75 million native animals every year. The Guardian has reported that Australia lost about 29 native mammal species since the Europeans arrived with cats, and has 1,800 species which are under threat.
Cats - strangers to the continent
The continent's native wildlife saw cats after its contact with Europe, and has not evolved to face feline predators. Even in the Pacific Islands, cats served as a threat to native wildlife. In Australia, cats can kill quolls, other indigenous wildlife unless checked by dingoes or Tasmanian devils. Similarly, North America has controlled its cat population with its coyotes.
Without them, a study published by Nature Communications suggests, 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion small mammals are killed by cats every year in the United States.
