Joondalup cat ‘rescue’ update

What a topsy-turvy world we live in, when someone who advocates for cat’s lives to be respected and protected is howled down by cat lovers – while the ‘cat welfare’ group advocating to use killing as a tool to manage their population is lauded for their efforts. It would be funny if the cats weren’t dying from their betrayal.

An update came through from the Cat Haven last night saying they have trapped seven cats at the Joondalup site. Apparently, while they were there, the compassionate people who had been regularly feeding these guys arrived and more than thirty cats showed up for food.

Now they were going for edgy and urgent, but the cats really gave the game away. Keep in mind each cat who is trapped will be assessed for temperament. If it is more than a few months old, it will almost certainly be killed as ‘unadoptable’. If it has FIV it will be killed as unadoptable. If it is a untame adult it will be killed as unadoptable. But are these cats ‘suffering’ where they are?

Sure, they’re playing now – but what about the trains! And the DANGER!

Have you ever tried to stomp near a community cat? I have – trying to snap some pictures of the wee beasties yesterday. Luckily I had a long-range lense with me as most of the shots were taken from more than 30m away. From behind the railway wire. Because anything else caused these guys to scuttle off into the bushes.

Although living more than 20m from the railway lines and on an elevated retaining wall, adult cats could easily move from one side of the tracks to the other. And I find it hard to believe that any of them sit still on the tracks waiting to be mowed down by a train very often. These cats are street smart. They chose this location because of the relative safety of train track fences, low shrubbery and a rarely trafficked car park.

Is it the life we’d have chosen for them? Of course not. The tameable kittens should definitely be moved into safe care. But it is a life, be it an imperfect one – and the untame adult cats are at far more risk inside the Cat Haven’s walls than they are from living outdoors.

But! they’ll eat native things

Along with the claim that these cats are unable to stay where they are on humane grounds – is the claim that their very existence threatens to disrupt the ‘natural environment’ of Joondalup’s native creatures. I guess these environmentalists mean this ‘native environment’?

Give me a home, where [absolutely nothing] roam

Even from above the ‘natural habitat’ is pretty hard to find.

But that proves nothing, I hear the environmentalists blurt, cats go everywhere!

But they don’t. Colony cats are known to stay around reliable sources of food. Restaurants and fast food places – of which there are many at this location – mean the cat’s ‘territory’ looks something like this at the most;

Why are cats going to expend energy trekking to far off places, in the Perth heat, to chase around native animals – when each evening there is a buffet of human provided scraps and handouts available in the Joondy carpark?

Taking back compassion for cats

These cats are in the perfect location and situation to become a TNR’ed colony. The Cat Haven should be lobbying for these cat’s rights to live free from harrassment and persecution. However, their defiant efforts to the contrary reveal, not only how far we are from No Kill in WA despite “Getting to Zero” and its ilk, but also just how wedded they are to killing in the face of alternatives. There is no excuse for culling cats in 2012. To do so is to betray the cats and that is unforgivable.