As a regular reader of this blog, I know you’re an animal nerd and probably on all of the same pet-news alerts as myself. So you no doubt will have seen the recent barrage of pro-native, anti-cat sentiment being pushed by the major media over the last few months.
It almost seems inarguable – cats are the greatest threat posed to biodiversity, and we must eradicate them all immediately!
Let’s take a look at some of the ‘science’ being used to push this cat-free nation ideal shall we?
On Wednesday Environment Minister Greg Hunt announced the new commissioner would be Gregory Andrews – a former diplomat who currently works for the federal Environment Department – as part of a CSIRO-backed review of the dire health of native mammals.
‘Curiosity’ has been developed and trialled by the federal, Victorian and West Australian environment departments, with a private biotech company, for many years. For it to be rolled out widely it would need to be commercialised and registered with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.
The independent review, launched on Wednesday, provided the first comprehensive assessment of the status of more than 400 native land and marine mammals. It found that 56 species, and 36 subspecies, were threatened with extinction, with feral cats the greatest threat to native mammals.
….
The curiosity bait contains a toxin that halts the flow of oxygen in the blood and is considered a more humane way to kill feral cats. It is implanted into a small piece of meat shaped like a chipolata sausage.
So basically two details came out from this media push – that there was an ‘independent review’ of animal species in Australia and that a new bait dubbed ‘Curiosity®’ (containing the toxicant paraminopropiophenone, or PAPP) was going to solve the problem of feral cats.
The report was entitled ‘The action plan for Australian Mammals 2012’ and it claimed to ‘review to assess the conservation status of all Australian mammals’.
It was published by the CSIRO, with its major financial sponsor being the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and the North Australian Hub of the National Environmental Research Program.
It was authored by:
– Dr John Woinarski: National Conservation and Science Manager at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, who also works part time for the North Australian Hub of the National Environmental Research Program (fancy that!).
and
– Dr Andrew Burbidge – Chair of The Western Australian Threatened Species Scientific Committee
The CSIRO, Australian Wildlife Conservancy and The Western Australian Threatened Species Scientific Committee have already been working on a project funded by the national government (via the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre) namely PAPP baits for fox and dog control.
The fox product (FOXECUTE®) contains 400mg PAPP and the dog bait (DOGABATE®) will contain 1000mg of PAPP. A strong safety feature for the fox bait is that the 400mg fox dose is sufficient to slow a dog down (so probably reduce risk of finding several baits) but is less likely to kill larger dogs. So fox control can be tackled more aggressively than is presently the case. In addition the IA-CRC is working to supply an injectable antidote of methylene blue, to be called “BLUE HEALER®” which can recover a working dog even if near death. However, as the baits for dogs will kill quickly, the antidote must be administered within half an hour of bait ingestion. At present only an injectable (I.V.) form of the antidote has been proven to work. Oral forms of the antidote for on farm use are not yet proven to be reliable.
Animal Control Technologies (the makers of the new PAPP baits) also make DOGGONE® and FOXOFF® the 1080 baits widely used in dog and fox management in Australia, and are under huge amounts of pressure to come up with a more ‘humane’ and less ‘poisonous’ (ironic) way to kill feral pests, as government tightens restrictions around throwing poison into the environment willy-nilly.
While they also have a new target in their sights – feral cats.
Rigorous trials at Newhaven in Central Australia and in the Kimberley region aim to inform future control approaches and kerb numbers of feral felines.
CEO of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Atticus Fleming, says there are indications that wild cat numbers are currently on the rise.
“Estimates are that there are between five and 15 million feral cats across Australia,” he said.
“Densities are high in Central Australia.
….
“We don’t currently have a method that is effective at removing cats from the landscape.“What we need to do is work out how we can more effectively trap or bait cats and possibly into the future work out a biological control.”
Notice who’s being quoted there? Atticus Fleming CEO of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. He says cats are ‘on the rise’ and that they need to be removed from the landscape.
So who is the Australian Wildlife Conservancy?
…the Australian Wildlife Conservancy is Australia’s largest private conservation organisation. One solution pursued by the AWC has been to purchase suitable habitat for native animals, remove cats, foxes and other non-native species from the land, and fence it off.
The AWC now manages 23 such properties covering around 3 million hectares, much of it fenced, and the results have been breathtaking. One out of every five wild Greater Bilbys left in Australia and one-third of all Numbats now reside on fenced AWC land.”
…
AWC implements the largest non-government fire management program in Australia (EcoFire, in the Kimberley)
And then this;
Environment scientist Dr John Woinarski told Background Briefing a compelling story of how just 30 years ago mammalian biodiversity in the Top End was so rich that when they went trapping for research, they caught too much native fauna.
‘It was really laborious because we were catching so many animals, so many different species of animals. It was effectively a paradise for a zoologist.’
Those were the days.
Fast-forward 30 years and Dr Woinarski and others have watched appalled as a biodiversity collapse has unfolded right in front of their eyes. They looked everywhere for the culprit. They modelled fire, weeds, feral buffalo and it didn’t fit. The answer was right in front of their eyes, but they couldn’t see it.
It was the feral cat. They had erroneously thought cats had been in the Top End for hundreds of years, since jumping off Portuguese ships in the colonial era. If they had been there that long, they couldn’t be the cause of the sudden collapse.
Unfortunately, the assumption was false—feral cats were new arrivals. The native fauna didn’t stand a chance.
John Woinarski, another representative of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (and if you remember, one of the authors of the ‘independent’ report) saying cat numbers are on the increase and that new methods for killing them need to be developed.
So the two main authors of this supposedly ‘independent’ report include ‘Australia’s largest private conservation organsiation’ who is focused on purchasing land for fenced sanctuaries, and whose core business plan is eradication of cats and foxes…
…. and the government agency responsible for developing and testing the poisons used to do so.
Unsurprisingly, given this information, the report’s findings state the biggest threat to wildlife in Australia is;
1. Predation by feral Cats
then
2. Inappropriate fire regimes
3. Predation by Red Foxes
and that foxes are…
… the third most pervasive threat and is one threat where there have been significant improvements made over the last 10–25 years via broad-scale control operations such as ‘Western Shield’ (Possingham et al. 2004) in Western Australia and ‘Southern Ark’ and ‘Glenelg Ark’ in Victoria (Robley et al. 2009), via the dedicated efforts to prevent the establishment of Red Foxes in Tasmania, and via the many local control operations around subpopulations of threatened animals.
Without this work, it is probable that this threat would have scored as high as or higher than ‘Inappropriate fire regimes’.
Without this work, it is probable that the conservation status reported here for many native mammal species would have been profoundly worse. However, refinement of fox control technology so that it can be more widely applied is required. Again, a significant allocation of resources is needed.
Removing foxes from an environment has been shown to increase the number of feral cats in that same environment.
Feral cats have been in Australia for more than 100 years but mammalogist Professor Tim Flannery said their devastating impact on native wildlife has grown since recent pest management programs have decreased fox populations.
“As we have started to drive down fox populations by using bait… the next largest predator, the feral cat, has popped up because it [has taken] advantage of an ecological niche that has opened up for it,” he said.
…
‘As we’ve got better at controlling foxes, in a sense that has unmasked the feral cat as a threat,’ says Professor Chris Johnson, professor of zoology at the University of Tasmania.
‘Part of the reason there is that foxes are really good at controlling cats, they’re aggressive to them and they control their numbers, and cats avoid foxes.’
‘So where you have got a lot of foxes you tend to not have too many cats, and it looks like foxes are a big problem, and of course they are, but if we managed to knock the foxes down, the cats can come up, so in a sense we solve one problem and buy another problem.’
We have an ‘environmental protection’ industry with a history of widespread fox control, now writing a report which says cats were the problem all along and cat numbers have now skyrocketed for some unexplainable reason and we need to develop major cat control programs and ‘eradicate’ cats in areas of ‘biodiversity significance’ (ie. to fence it off and bait).
We need to recognise more the value of islands to Australian biodiversity — to enhance biosecurity for those biodiversity-significant islands that currently have no cats, to attempt to eradicate cats where practicable from islands where they are present, and to ‘maroon’ on cat-free islands some highly threatened species that, because of the impacts of cats, may not persist on the mainland. For other highly-threatened mammals, there is a need to establish a mainland refuge network of large cat-proof exclosures. ~ John Woinarski
It’s genius! The same industry has effectively CREATED a new problem, then put together an ‘independent report’ identifying the new problem, while simultaneously being the major provider to the perceived ‘solution’ to it… which is more killing obviously.
The newest barrage of media shows EXACTLY why cats are being targeted;
“Cat-owners and local governments should be more effectively regulating the keeping and management of pet cats.”
“Many in our community see cats as inoffensive and desirable pets. It is an illusion. Every domestic cat is one day away from going feral.” ~ John Woinarski
…
Fenced areas that kept out feral cats were necessary to save the most critically endangered mammals in the short-term, nut for native mammal populations to recover sufficiently, Dr Burbidge said feral felines needed to be eliminated from the entire continent, something that was likely to be achievable only through a genetically engineered disease that killed or sterilised the pests.
…
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has called for research into a virus to eradicate feral cats… Mr Hunt said the government endorsed a dedicated eradication program, the use of “island arks” that exclude invasive species, and a research into a “safe and targeted form of biological control”.
Domestic cat owners would likely be required to immunise their pets against the disease.
“In many cases the feral cats are domestic cats which have escaped and over one or two generations morphed into a far more savage beast,” Mr Hunt told ABC Radio.
“We have to make sure that anything we do is safe and targeted because there are plenty of examples of biological controls which have not just failed but have been deeply counterproductive.
…
Charles Darwin University professor of conservation biology John Woinarski, a co-author of the study, said a virus was “probably the long-term solution that we’re looking for” but urged “stopgap measures” such as tall fences.
…
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt told Radio National’s Background Briefing program he heard Mr Manthey’s call for a national threatened species and feral animals summit, and that he would host the summit before the middle of next year.
Mr Hunt wants the states, territories, and all the stakeholders to sign on to a 10-year national plan to eradicate feral cats.
This is the kind of rhetoric which makes people go crazy. Cat haters on one side and cat lovers on the other. The kind of media-hysteria driven publicity that you simply can’t buy.
The development of a new fox bait – boring.
The development of a cat-killing poison? You sir are on every news channel in the country!
The development of a new virus to wipe out foxes (hangon, if we can do the mammal biocontrol thing so easily, why haven’t we done it yet given we’ve worked on foxes for decades) oh well doesn’t matter because it’s boring anyway.
The development of a new virus to wipe out cats? HOLY SHITHELL HOLD ON IT’S GONE NUCLEAR!
If the Australian Wildlife Conservancy want to keep acquiring property through donors and government gifts, it HAS to get attention – and simultaneously re-write history to show under the stewardship of conservationists with bucketloads of government cash, things have gotten better somehow – and simultaneously worse, send mo money now.
However, this is just the same old discussion – killing stuff to save other stuff – wrapped up in brand new packaging to keep people in jobs and the government money pouring in.
A lot. A fucking lot.
Tony Peacock used to be CEO at the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre, ‘Australia’s largest integrated invasive animal research program’ . He’s now got a new gig at the government funded Cooperative Research Centres Association, ‘a not-for-profit organisation operating to promote the pursuit of science’.
The Invasive Animals CRC has been given $72 million dollars by the Cooperative Research Centres Association for programs which includes partners; Animal Control Technologies and the CSIRO (!) and it will…
… release new products currently in the regulatory pipeline, such as new wild dog, fox and feral pig baits and delivery systems
There is big, big money in killing if you can keep people thinking it’s a good idea. The feral animal industry in Australia may have just completed the biggest, most high profile con-job in memorable history.
I have read the link to SMH and the article called “Curiosity” the cat bait (poison) to “protect native animals”. The article is ridiculous, and completely one-sided.
There is plenty of evidence that in many cases, a balance can be achieved in regard to the various wild animal populations, without resorting to aggressive and CRUEL practices such as poison, as suggested by the wildlife fanatics.
The money would obviously be better spent on looking after domestic animals, in particular those which are homeless or at risk.
There is only one way to return nature back to it’s natural balance and that is to stop killing the dingo. Let Australia’s land apex predator do what nature intended. Man should stop farming on unsustainable land, should stop clearing land and should stop killing everything that moves.
If they want to protect our precious wildlife then we need to provide “wild” areas for them.
Yup. But that’s neither popular, nor profitable… new cat killing devices however, get government grants, cushy jobs and great professional acclaim!
The answer is not to “stop farming” at all. There will always be Dingoes, Kangaroos, and other wild animals which DAMAGE PEOPLE’S PROPERTIES, however, it is obvious that we should have good DOGS to protect properties. The laws about security and dogs need to change, overseas they have ALWAYS had dogs for protection, not only in URBAN properties but also RURAL properties. Australia has huge areas of rural land, much larger that the other places such as the towns.
Humanity, the worst and most destructive predator our planet has ever seen….. Do we place limits on our own behaviour, in order to coexist peacefully with other species? Like hell we do! You only have to look at the ridiculous, scientifically-unfounded shark cull aka slaughter, decided upon by a man who does not even know that sharks are a protected species. Morons ahoy!
What makes them say feral cats have only been in the top end for 30 years???????
And here’s another good question – how does the ABC fit into this picture? The saturation of articles on this is mind boggling – most of course just rehashing the same crap from the same one or two ‘experts’. Take a look here:
in SIX DAYS there are NINE stories (that are listed here – maybe there’s more!)
WHAT is going on and what are we going to do about it?
Cats have been in Australia for at least 500 years having arrived with Dutch and Portuguese ships in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. How long do you have to be here to be considered a native? And given studies have shown that over 50% of cats diets consist of mice and rats, what cost to the ecosystem when those species have no predators?