New Zealand has announced plans to eradicate feral cats by 2050, as part of efforts to protect the country’s biodiversity.
Speaking to Radio New Zealand on Thursday, conservation minister Tama Potaka said that feral cats are “stone cold killers” and would be added to the country’s Predator Free 2050 list, which aims to eradicate those animals that have a negative impact on species such as birds, bats, lizards and insects.
Cats had previously been excluded from the list, which includes species such as stoats, ferrets, weasels, rats and possums, but Potaka used the interview to announce a U-turn.
Feral cats cause the ultimate destruction to local wildlife. They are so common, one of the worst invasive species. And New Zealand’s an island with precious endemic wildlife not found anywhere else in the world. So yeah - it’s about time! Bravo NZ for doing the right thing.
Edit: They need to do this in Hawaii too!
Absolutely. Those cats are destroying boobies. Unforgivable.
With everything deadlined to 2050, I think that is the new end of the world
That’s just where you put programs that sound good but no one wants to spend the money to actually accomplish them. 2050 might be the end of the world, but it’d be because all the stuff we needed to do to head it off were given “we’ll get to it eventually” deadlines.
Why just not eat them?
Honestly, cat is just pretty gross. Did not like at all, even before I knew what it was. Incredibly greasy, very unpleasantly gamey, weirdly stringy, do not recommend.
My grandma use to sell cat meat saying it was rabbit and people liked it back then
I’ve never had cat, but have heard that mountain lion is really good. Supposedly, during WWII, lots of house cat was eaten in the UK and was called roof rabbit.
What kind of cat did you have and what were the circumstances?
What kind of cat did you have and what were the circumstances?
“Cat” (it was cooked, I assume it was a shorthair since there were ample feral shorthairs around), and it was part of a banquet-thing I was at while visiting friends - except sea cucumber (which is revolting it has the exact taste and texture of a loogie) the rest of the food was very good!
(edit: I am not sure british wartime cooking is a great metric to base “Tastes-Goodness” off of)
I’ve had raccoon, which was terrible. Never had the chance to try cat.
Sea cucumber is supposed to be a delicacy, but never had it. Sea urchin is amazing in my experience, but someone here on Lemmy said it was awful. It may be a preparation or freshness issue. I’d like to try sea cucumber.
Never had raccoon, have had opossum and it was… passable. Not something I’d seek out but not bad in a stew.
I can see not liking sea urchin, personally I’m not big on it but it’s not, like, bad bad. Just not my thing.
I’ve had sea cucumber several times and no, man, I encourage you to try it just so that you can share my pain. Cat was deeply eeh, don’t recommend, but sea cucumber is “I have dreams about how bad it is” levels of bad - and whats worse, people really do claim it’s a delicacy! So you can’t just duck under the table and hoark it all out onto your shoes without being rude.
I’d rather snort lines of raw durian than eat sea cucumber again. Seriously if you ever get a chance go for it, it’s spectacularly horrible. You gotta try it.
That sounds terrible. I’ll definitely give it a try.
Darkness
Humanity hungers
Humanity is overrated
whats up with all the cat hating nazi’s here ?
toxoplasma gondii spotted
Well for one they probably like kiwi and kakapo more, one are endangered and another one is critically endangered. And this applied to cat that roam outside and have no dependency on human.
Ironically if anything, house cat kill for fun and will kill everything that move and smaller than them, so kinda like nazi. And i said that as a dad of 4 cats. Cats are cute, and i wish it doesn’t come to this, but other animal deserve a chance to live too.
I feel so terrible
Are you a feral cat?
Not sure if it’s a cat, but definitely feral.
No, probably just someone with empathy who recognizes the shit situation humans created and how it’s going to play out in the lives of New Zealand’s cats.
and yet inexplicably isn’t vegan
Save the kiwis!
All domestic cats should be fully indoor cats. Any domestic cats found outdoors should be killed. Nasty little disease spreading song bird killers.
It’s unfortunately far more than just birds. They kill billions of reptiles, fish, amphibians, and mammals each year. Not to mention their toxoplasmosis has been found in ocean otters (just an example of something far removed from the daily goings of a cat) and in the soil and ground water, as well as our foods. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7033973/
Very true.
Not sure why this is such a controversial take. House cats should indeed not be outside, unless they are on a leash.
Because people have an extreme case of the feels for cats and judge their morals purely based on what’s cute, and are fine with the deaths of cows and other animals but not pets. A disturbing amount of people care about the fully arbitrary distinction between pet and animal
Best summary of thread
Cats are remarkably capable predators, and cat owners are remarkably irresponsible.
Letting your cat be an “outside” cat is bad enough for the environment. Not spaying/neutering said “outside cat” is how we get feral cats everywhere.
That said, I dont love the vague “eradicate feral cats” language. Would greatly prefer a broad spectrum spay/neuter/tag program to naturally reduce their population.
Predator-free NZ was always destined to ruffle some feathers though.
look up austrialian cat plague…at a certain point exterminating them is the only realistic option
I don’t think just spaying is enough. It’d have to be capture or even worst case euthanize. Leaving cats and any nonnative predator is especially harsh on local species each second they are in the wild because new zealand is one of the few places with flightless birds like the kakapo, which are critically endangered (just one step away from being extinct in the wild)
Spaying and neutering and releasing is more effective because then they still compete for the same resources, pushing reproduction down. I wonder if they can use that she other methods to get the population down to zero.
That’s when you are trying to control the population. These are invasive species, worse than that, invasive predators. Eradication and control are two different things.
Neither of those solves the problem entirely, but an eradication aims to keep the population of invasive species much lower than control. Any amount of invasive predators, especially as effective as feral cats, needs to be controlled.
Feral cats and pet cats are just two different things, like feral pigs and wild pigs. Even pet cats need to be tightly controlled, every bird a pet cat kills is multiplied in aggregate, these things we love are absolutely brutal.
Yes that’s why I said “I wonder if they can use that
sheand other methods to get the population down to zero.” Zero means eradication.I’m sorry, that’s totally fair, I don’t mean to sound dickish. They can’t hit zero. Australia is a model for how bad invasive cats can get, and the cat is already out of the bag, so to speak. They either target aggressive goals, which are primarily culling mixed with chemical and some limited physical spay/neutering programs. But when you are talking bang for buck, it’s really easy to look to culling primarily.
Spay nueter programs are much more expensive and usually donor funded. You gotta do a lot to an animal to even modestly safely remove it’s sex organs, especially females. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pop up in NZ, privately funded, in addition to the other programs. Desexing is still is the best way to deal with an active colony with a food source, you are right.
New Zealand has no native predators, and cats are extremely good predators.
These aren’t house cats that got lost, these are cats that are entirely wild and are now an invasive species. TNR would still decimate the local fauna while waiting for nature to take its course.
They also can’t be housed like you might do with a house cat turned stray.
as much as I love house cats, in New Zealand, the feral cats are an ecological apocalypse.
As someone who donates significantly to spay/neuter efforts (in the U.S.), these irresponsible people piss me the fuck off. To the extent that I have cut people out of my social circle over the issue.
My fucking neighbors just keep letting their outdoor only cats reproduce and get mad when they meow for kibble. It’s the worst. My county has a well funded TNR and last litter program, but they don’t give a shit. I’ve done TNR of at least 8 or 9 cats and they just keep coming.
These aren’t even the completely wild and feral cats or anything (since the shitty neighbors feed them from time to time) although I’m sure their offspring has made some feral cats by now. It’s horrible.
they gotta put thiel on that list
Rats are already on it.
I adopted mine, got her spayed, and she absolutely never goes outside. Not that she would, she’s too much of a chicken shit to bother trying to get out.
Is this gonna be like Australia’s war against the Emus? That they lost.
NZ is quite a bit smaller!
But cats are smaller too which either makes it easier for the Kiwis or more like the Australia/emu situation.
Umm feed them. Then they’re not feral, their babies.
Profoundly disconnected from reality moment
yes but leave it to politicians to do everything in the worst possible way
Yeah, well fed house cats never bring home dead mice and birds.
🤦♂️
I keep mine indoors… and our city sterilizes feral cats and lets them go again if they cannot be adopted timely
A much humane approach that limits the harm a cat could do in the wild
That’s not harm reduction. Letting then go is ecocide. And it isn’t even humane. Feral cats are feral, they can’t be adopted. Better to humanely put them down.
they are not even been added to the kill list for 25 more years… it’s either not that urgent or this is just virtue signaling from politicians
ps: x for doubt on any “humanely” thing proposed by politicians
limits the harm
Harm reduction isn’t really sufficient when every single feral cat kills presumably hundreds of criticially endangered birds per year, is it?
they are not even adding them to the kill list for another 25 years… can’t be that urgent, or politicians always solve issues in the worst possible way
You misunderstand, the project aims to have them eradicated by 2050, not starting to eradicate them in 2050. The project isn’t called Predator Free 2050 for no reason.
Ah, I see… thanks for the correction
If the cat is a strictly indoor cat and is bringing you dead mice and birds, you may have a problem with mice and birds in your house.
If the cat is a strictly indoor cat
Well… yeah. Nowhere near the point, but you said a thing that was true.
Well, Polly had it coming
Do us all a favor and go try to hug a feral cat.
Thats how you get MORE feral cats lmao
I am a big fan of cats. However, if they live outside, they are feral. And they should not be allowed to keep living outside.
My preferred solution would be for people to take them in and feed them, but you definitely should not be feeding them while they are still living outside. Outdoor cats cause a lot of destruction to the ecosystem by overhunting small animals such as songbirds, even to the point of extinction.
Big fan of removing cats from my country in general, they are blight on the native wildlife.
It is not personal but they should all be gone. Boom in mice and rats for a bit after
The dairy industry is significantly more damaging to NZ’s ecology than some feral cats. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be addressed, but there are measures already in place. It’s important to keep perspective and not be distracted by media.
It’s possible to do two things at a time. Cats and dairy are not mutually exclusive.
Too bad they ain’t much good eatin.
Brings back the horrific scene I came across at 14 of a cat arm in a pot.
Had a friend from Hong Kong tell cats don’t taste good but dogs do. I took his word for it.
Never had cat, but it can’t be that bad, can it? Guessing it’s tougher meat than we’re accustomed to, but I’d guess it’d still make passable stew meat. Or play up the toughness and make it into jerky.
Might as well get some usage out of them.
General rule of thumb is “don’t eat things that eat things”. Obviously, there are exceptions for survival cases, but the range of pathogens, parasites, and prions one can contract from eating a predator is much, much wider than that from eating vegetarian animals.
Huh. TIL. I always just assumed it was a taste/texture/difficult-livestock-to-manage kind of situation. I wonder if we could offset its potential to carry pathogens by like letting it cure up in a brine or something before cooking it.
There’s also the “each step of the food chain requires 10x more initial input energy” issue with predators. Here is mostly why we eat the animals we eat
With fish it is the opposite. Fish that dont eat fish arent usually very good eating. And most fish that eat fish are even cannibalistic of their own species
Right, good point. I should have specified “mammals”.
Biological magnification still occurs with fish though.
Mercury, it’s what’s for dinner.
Cats must only be indoor pets. We can easily separate pet mice and rats from their feral counterparts and we need to do the same to cats. And I am a cat person big time.
If you care about cats and/or if you care about the environment, you keep your pet cats indoors. Simple as.
A lot of reactionary, super-sensitive, chronically online children in this post wailing into the void because they’re imagining some kind of housecat Auschwitz.
You can’t claim to care about the environment and be fine with feral cats eliminating some of the most unique biodiversity on the planet. You midwit pussies out there have to make a choice.
Same.
Love cats.
Keep them in doors.
Outdoor cats and feral cats are walking, prowling ecological disasters.
+1 for indoor only cats. Those cunts are ruthless - they can’t not murder wild animals and we’ve got a lot of native birds here so keep em indoors.
As somebody who (1) loves the beauty of the natural world and (2) lives in the USA, I’m hearing that NZ might be a most excellent place to retire, or even move to earlier.
