Junk Science

One widely quoted feral cat survey was conducted by David Paton, a zoologist and “one of the most vocal anti-cat campaigners in the country.” (8) Paton made sweeping estimations of predation nationwide, stating that cats kill 3.8 billion animals and birds annually. It turned out that his statistics were flawed and based solely on information from members of bird-watching societies. Dr. Paton’s research was publicly discredited in 1994, but the damage was already done to pets, strays and ferals throughout Australia.

“Poorly researched surveys using unrepresentative and inadequate samples are well recognized worldwide as the source of much wrongful vilification of cats.” (9) In fact, this occurred in the U.S. last year. Wisconsin hunters used scientifically discredited statistics from the often cited Stanley Temple/John Coleman research to bolster their case for shooting outdoor cats. Despite the fact that Temple admitted his numbers were just “a guess”, special interest groups like the American Bird Conservancy continue to use these findings to promote their anti-cat campaigns.

In Australia, “very little original research has appeared since the 1980’s that sheds any new light on the impacts of naturalized species. Indeed, what research has emerged, even when it has been funded by farmers and the "pest" control industry, has had to work hard to draw any connection at all between naturalized species and environmental damage. Government agencies have spent millions on feral predator research and have found no conclusive evidence that cats are a threat to the Australian ecosystem. According to the Department of Environment and Heritage ‘Convincing evidence that feral cats exert a significant effect on native wildlife on the mainland, or in Tasmania is scarce… There is no evidence of feral cats causing extinctions in mainland Australia or Tasmania’.” (10 )

In addition, a 2002 study conducted by the government’s Department of Conservation and Land Management, Western Australia reported: “The evidence for early impacts of cats causing major and widespread declines in native fauna is considered tenuous and unconvincing.” (11)

The truth is- most environmental damage is caused by man: pollution; mining; pesticides; industrial development; farming; and road building. Habitat destruction is considered the number one cause of the decline of species. In 2001 “Australia was the biggest clearer of woodlands and forests of any developed country on Earth…more than 100 football fields are destroyed every hour in Australia.” (12) Moreover, “Every day Australian drivers kill about 40,000 native animals on the nation’s roads.” (13)

Fueling the Fire

Constant battering of cats by the media, government agencies, environmentalists and ailurophobes began to take its toll in the 90’s and continues today. Efforts to curtail the “devastation” caused by owned outdoor felines now takes the legally sanctioned form of curfews; compulsory sterilization; limitations on number of cats owned and trapping of “nuisance” pets in neighborhoods.

Some areas even offer monetary incentives: “In 2004, the Richmondshire, Australia Council placed a $5 bounty on dead feral cats. Richmond Mayor John Wharton said the bounty only would be paid to Richmondshire residents and instead of bringing in the cats' scalp as proof of kill, hunters would be required to produce the carcass. ‘I can see kids here picking up a bit of pocket money,’ Wharton said. ‘We like to think we're leading the way in wildlife conservation’." (14)

Pet cats that roam freely outdoors are also subject to abduction, poisoning and a variety of abuses often ending in death. Abandonment has been on the rise for years and “some of the methods of disposing of unwanted cats are horrific. The Hobart-based animal welfare group Feline reported that in Devonport, Tasmania the City Council offers free disposal of 'unwanted cats'. Cats are put into hessian bags and left in a small metal box at the council depot until they are collected and destroyed. Cats dumped while the depot is closed may be subjected to extremes of heat or cold and must suffer unimaginable distress. The Council claims it lacks the manpower to hold onto the cats in case the owners show up, giving any cat-haters license to dispose of somebody's pet, knowing that the owner has no way of retrieving it.” (15)

In 1996, parliament minister Richard Evans called for the total eradication of cats in Australia by the year 2020, and demanded that the government unleash a fatal virus on wild cats that roam the Outback. He also called for a law requiring pet cats to be neutered so they will eventually die out.

“Evans believes there are 10 million to 12 million feral cats in Australia - each of them, on average, killing three native animals a day. If those estimates are accurate, that means a mind-boggling massacre of about 12 billion native animals a year.” (16)

“In fact, if cats had done even a quarter of the damage claimed for the past 200 years, there would be no small native animals of any description left in Australia. While there is no denying that cats kill wildlife, cats are also convenient scapegoats for wildlife depletion due to human activities.” (17)