1993Zebra wrote on May 30^th, 2013 at 4:30pm:



Fair enough.

How do you think you’ll do it?

Bait?

miketrees wrote on May 30^th, 2013 at 4:50pm:



I’ll mention what I want.

1993Zebra wrote on May 30^th, 2013 at 4:37pm:

My dog is either inside, in my damn backyard or in the house, unlike those damn cats! Think I will make a shangai!

bobbythefap1 wrote on Feb 17^th, 2012 at 1:59pm:


I've always shared my space with a cat, I've never owned one, though I pick up the tab for food and vet bills.


http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2781/2781-h/2781-h.htm#link2H_4_0011

People have shared their space with cats for thousands of years. Now some freedom hating morons think they know better. But councils that have banned cats are getting overrun with rodents.

Cats are not 'great predators of marsupials', or birds. That's not to say they never kill them, but rodents are their niche market. A feral cat will charge a rabbit and take its head clean off in an awesome display of speed, skill and ferocity. It'll half heartedly hone its skills stalking a bird or a bilby. If the bird or bilby is sick or old they might be caught and that's the environmental benefit of cats.  They might also catch a pidgeon or a twentyeight parrot which are so slow it's a wonder they've survived this long, but they do and well.

Note, the feral animals that compete with native animals for the same foods are the threat. Cats predate on rabbits and other rodents in preference to anything else. A pal of mine used to shoot out on the nullarbor plain. He had his quota of Kangaroos to cull and shot cats when he could. When the farmers noticed the dead cats (and the effect) he was told off roundly, "whaddya think keeps down the rabbits mate?"

Birds fly, cats don't. That's what makes a cat a very poor predator of birds. A good predator is another bird and Australia is full of excellent raptors. Butcher birds too are very ruthless killers of other birds. All small marsupials are much better at climbing than cats. Cats are slow and ponderass climbers. Possums scoff at cats. Cats climb to escape danger, not to pose a danger.

Cats have lived in Australia almost as long as dingoes. Cats are a totem animal of indigenous desert people who respect them very much. They established themselves here way earlier than Europeople settlement, (.

Environmentalism 101, the top predators are the most vulnerable part of the food chain.

For example, The east african savannah, perhaps the richest graceland on the planet, supports a wide range of animals. But it's wall to wall with wilderbeeste and zebra, not cats. The grazing animals are always on the move. When they have young they can run almost within the hour. Cats have young, they have to stay put for a year to raise them. Just as true for a moggie in the bush as it is for a cheetah.

So why has the cat got such a reputation in Australia? Classic scapegoating! Controlled burns of bush to reduce the risk of fire to human settlements takes place in Spring. When the bush is still a bit wet and wont burn too fiercely> That's the theory anyway. Mostly prescibed burns turn into raging fires. They try to do too much at once. Setting the fires by aerial bombing.

What they are trying to burn is the dead plant material on the forest floor. They call it 'fuel', you could call it mulch, you could call it food. If you extract timber and you extract the mulch and you don't fertilise, (which of course you don't because to fertilise the forest of Australia would use the worlds remaining phosphate reserves in a year), you continuously erode the forest capability to support itself and its critters. Apart from which if you burn in s

You can't hurt the pussy. 

gizmo_2655 wrote on May 31^st, 2013 at 1:25pm:


I know, I blame the Egyptians. Once they were declared Gods there was no turning back...

bobbythefap1 wrote on Feb 17^th, 2012 at 1:50pm:

Lol- smoking crack makes people dream of rivers of blood!

 

(Not really, it just makes them psuedo-hardcore!!)       

Grey wrote on May 31^st, 2013 at 2:59am:


Is any consideration ever given to these native animals in controlled burning? Does it even help that much when we have so many arsonists on the loose? It's bad enough for our bush creatures when the real bushfires hit them, but it's too much of a struggle when they're subject to fire unnecessarily.

They have to cope with cattle now being reintroduced into national parks trampling everything flat, alongside hunters, predators and overly zealous humans.

We really don't have much respect for animals here. Australia is one of the world leaders in creating endangered and extinct species of fauna (and flora).