Feral cats in Canberra. What to do?

Or perhaps feral cats are eating rats and mice? I would have thought that a healthy adult bird would be capable of escaping a cat, and if not, then there are a host of other reasons in which it may meet an unfortunate end.

Anecdotally, I see neighbourhood cats stalking birds all the time in my local area (seriously people – keep your cats indoors) but I have never witnessed a cat catch a bird, nor seen any evidence of a deceased bird. I have however seen plenty of vulnerable birds being pecked to death by crows, attacked by dogs, and flattened on the road.

Feral cats are easy to blame, but I suspect no one actually knows for sure what they feed on. They are likely to be opportunistic feeders.

Humans are by far the greatest threat to native wildlife.

Hmmm, you opened a can of worms here!
I too have spent many nights woken by fighting cats, I too live close to a nature reserve and I too notice less native birds in my area. Though I don’t see many feral cats in my street, just pets of convenience, I don’t really understand because I would think you would want to enjoy your pets company as much as possible, or why else have one?

Threepaws, Just look at Norfolk Island for an example, the nice folks there introduced cats in an attempt to control the Polynesian rat problem and to an extent that worked! But now they have a feral cat problem. And yeah most of the bird life there is extremely endangered, much already were listed as extinct, one of the breeds only has one breeding couple remaining. It is so bad that they have to lock much of the surviving birdlife in massive enclosures. Pretty odd for an island 34.6 km². They also serve an excellent example of how destructive rabbits can be (Philip Island).

I also recall an epidemic that was reported on TV over 15 years ago (I don’t know the details), I think it was in the Dubo area that they called in the army to shoot them, I remember seeing footage of solders armed with Steyr AUG’s and night vision, they showed a number of trees that had an estimated 100 cats, you could see the eyes reflecting the light. The report at the time indicated that over 10 species of Australian birdlife had been extinct by a direct result of feral cats.

Honestly, I love this country and I would like generations to come to enjoy seeing our wildlife and although there are many causes for its decline, I would put feral Cats close to the top, honestly Cats kill for enjoyment / sport not just food and that is where part of the problem is. Cats in Canberra should all be desexed and not free to roam the streets.
Ah but cats, dogs rabbits foxes etc. Are not the real problem. Bogans are! They require authorities to intervene and enforce laws that will help resolve the issue. Shame that no one has any backbone.

Sorry Cat lovers I’m a dog person and I think you guys are just straight up weird!

It’s a frustrating problem – the drain cats in Woden are sharing a similar fate. I wouldn’t call those cats feral as such – they are pretty friendly. I park in adjacent car park and I regularly see one of the people who feeds them patting and brushing their fur but they are indeed homeless. RSPCA isn’t funded/aren’t able to come and catch them and TAMS wash their hands of the problem and say it’s up to the RSPCA.

I personally find suggestions of setting traps for those cats unhelpful – it’s a public thoroughfare and I would hate to be responsible for the death of one of them due to the cruelty of others. I have seen a man allowing his dog to chase them, which I yelled at him for. He very quickly called the dog and went back the other way. One of the ladies I work with feeds them and has told of the cyclist who often rides past and heckles her, yelling at her to poison them. Her logic is that if the cats are eating her food they are less likely to go hunting for birds. Whether or not that works I can’t say but I can see how that logic works for her.

IMHO people that threaten them (or other “feral” animals) are just vile. The cats are just being cats. It’s in their nature to hunt and survive. Pretty sure they didn’t ask to be dumped there. I agree they need to be caught and euthanized if they can’t be rehomed but there is no need to cause them pain and suffering if it can be avoided. If you can catch them with minimum fuss to all parties involved, go for it. Possum traps are pretty robust – if a possum can’t get through them I doubt the cats could.

As for the birds – well, my two cats live inside but they do have access to a cat run that runs up the side of our house. They have been known to catch the frogs (and crickets!) that jump in the run and bring them inside, still alive and wriggling. Presumably to teach me how to hunt. I keep the cats from away from the wildlife but if the wildlife wants to jump in with the cats I can’t really help that!

Jindy said :

Pandy said :

Buy several lamb hearts. Dice. Keep blood. Mix blood well with RatSak and pour the mixture over the hearts. Place din dins over by the skip. Repeat for a week. Voila!!

No! No! No! That is bad, very bad.

Anything badder?

Not to mention that the cats will die an equally horrific and prolonged death from internal bleeding.

Poisoning is acceptable for rats, mice, dogs and pigs, ignoring the law for a moment, is there a sliding scale for acceptable poisoning based on fluffiness?

I note that you completely ignored half of my post.

And I also note the serious lack of feral pigs and wild dogs in suburbia.

Kambah and Charnwood excepted?

Pandy said :

Anything badder?

Convince them to eat some sodium and then give them a drink?

Why isn’t Capt RAAF involved in this thread?

Pandy said :

Buy several lamb hearts. Dice. Keep blood. Mix blood well with RatSak and pour the mixture over the hearts. Place din dins over by the skip. Repeat for a week. Voila!!

No! No! No! That is bad, very bad.

Anything badder?

Not to mention that the cats will die an equally horrific and prolonged death from internal bleeding.

Poisoning is acceptable for rats, mice, dogs and pigs, ignoring the law for a moment, is there a sliding scale for acceptable poisoning based on fluffiness?

Buy several lamb hearts. Dice. Keep blood. Mix blood well with RatSak and pour the mixture over the hearts. Place din dins over by the skip. Repeat for a week. Voila!!

No! No! No! That is bad, very bad.

Anything badder?

What does everyone think feral cats ate before humans came along? It’s called the food chain. If you’re going to try to stop feral cats from eating birds and other wildlife then I suggest you stop humans from eating meat.

Anyhoo… to the original poster, we once had a nuisance feral cat terrorising our cat and we had success with putting out a trap. We went to all the neighbours to let them know and they kept their cats indoors for 2 nights where possible to avoid having a pet cat trapped by mistake. A small piece of raw beef in the trap worked well.

Antagonist said :

threepaws said :

Or perhaps feral cats are eating rats and mice? I would have thought that a healthy adult bird would be capable of escaping a cat, and if not, then there are a host of other reasons in which it may meet an unfortunate end.

Anecdotally, I see neighbourhood cats stalking birds all the time in my local area (seriously people – keep your cats indoors) but I have never witnessed a cat catch a bird, nor seen any evidence of a deceased bird. I have however seen plenty of vulnerable birds being pecked to death by crows, attacked by dogs, and flattened on the road.

Feral cats are easy to blame, but I suspect no one actually knows for sure what they feed on. They are likely to be opportunistic feeders.

Are you for real? I can google about 1000 pics of cats catching/eating wildlife. I don’t imagine it would be difficult to reference a few thousand studies that also the impact of feral cats on Australian wildlife. I call bulls**t.

Humans are by far the greatest threat to native wildlife.

At least we can agree on that part.

I’m glad we can agree on something 🙂 I think you have misunderstood where I am coming from. I am not saying that ferals are good and we need to save all the ferals, I am saying that simply trapping them and removing them is likely to be ineffective in actually managing the population of cats.

I can use Google too, not just for images, but for words as well. Results of a study in Canberra show that of native animals killed by domestic (not feral) cats, 64% were rodents, and 14% were birds.

I’m not saying that feral cats don’t kill some wildlife – of course they do. I am saying that before you lean back in your chair and start blaming declining bird populations on feral cats, consider that a) they may actually be doing some good by keeping rodent populations down and b) they are not solely to blame for the decline in population of native species.

threepaws said :

Or perhaps feral cats are eating rats and mice? I would have thought that a healthy adult bird would be capable of escaping a cat, and if not, then there are a host of other reasons in which it may meet an unfortunate end.

Anecdotally, I see neighbourhood cats stalking birds all the time in my local area (seriously people – keep your cats indoors) but I have never witnessed a cat catch a bird, nor seen any evidence of a deceased bird. I have however seen plenty of vulnerable birds being pecked to death by crows, attacked by dogs, and flattened on the road.

Feral cats are easy to blame, but I suspect no one actually knows for sure what they feed on. They are likely to be opportunistic feeders.

Are you for real? I can google about 1000 pics of cats catching/eating wildlife. I don’t imagine it would be difficult to reference a few thousand studies that also the impact of feral cats on Australian wildlife. I call bulls**t.

Humans are by far the greatest threat to native wildlife.

At least we can agree on that part.

Thanks gentoopenguin for bringing up this topic.

ABC radio keep an eye on RiotACT, and as such have asked CEO of RSPCA ACT Michael Linke to appear on the drive program with Louise Maher this afternoon. Listen in just after 4pm to hear Michael discuss feral cats.

In the meantime, the RSPCA Knowledgebase has a number of articles that may of interest.

kb.rspca.org.au/afile/462/80/

http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-is-trap-neuter-return-and-is-it-an-appropriate-strategy-for-the-management-of-unowned-cats_462.html

http://www.rspca.org.au/assets/files/Science/SciSem2007/Seminars07PaperJongman.pdf

http://www.rspca.org.au/assets/files/Science/SciSem2010/SciSem2010-%20Dickman.pdf

Regards,

RSPCA ACT

Antagonist said :

threepaws said :

Feral cats are a tough one (no pun intended). It seems that removing them is a pretty poor option, because new cats will just move in and take their place.

There is a program in the US that makes for some interesting reading http://www.aspca.org/adoption/feral-cats-faq.aspx Basically the idea is to trap them, get them desexed, and release them. This stops them breeding and also ‘fills the void’ where other cats may move in.

I don’t think this idea would fly anywhere in Australia, because I doubt people would pay for the desexing out of their own pocket, or in fact even donate to an organisation that was coordinating the trapping and desexing.

Sounds great. Release the cats so they can continue to hunt Australian wildlife. Very well thought out.

Or perhaps feral cats are eating rats and mice? I would have thought that a healthy adult bird would be capable of escaping a cat, and if not, then there are a host of other reasons in which it may meet an unfortunate end.

Anecdotally, I see neighbourhood cats stalking birds all the time in my local area (seriously people – keep your cats indoors) but I have never witnessed a cat catch a bird, nor seen any evidence of a deceased bird. I have however seen plenty of vulnerable birds being pecked to death by crows, attacked by dogs, and flattened on the road.

Feral cats are easy to blame, but I suspect no one actually knows for sure what they feed on. They are likely to be opportunistic feeders.

Humans are by far the greatest threat to native wildlife.

threepaws said :

Feral cats are a tough one (no pun intended). It seems that removing them is a pretty poor option, because new cats will just move in and take their place.

There is a program in the US that makes for some interesting reading http://www.aspca.org/adoption/feral-cats-faq.aspx Basically the idea is to trap them, get them desexed, and release them. This stops them breeding and also ‘fills the void’ where other cats may move in.

I don’t think this idea would fly anywhere in Australia, because I doubt people would pay for the desexing out of their own pocket, or in fact even donate to an organisation that was coordinating the trapping and desexing.

Sounds great. Release the cats so they can continue to hunt Australian wildlife. Very well thought out.

Feral cats are a tough one (no pun intended). It seems that removing them is a pretty poor option, because new cats will just move in and take their place.

There is a program in the US that makes for some interesting reading http://www.aspca.org/adoption/feral-cats-faq.aspx Basically the idea is to trap them, get them desexed, and release them. This stops them breeding and also ‘fills the void’ where other cats may move in.

I don’t think this idea would fly anywhere in Australia, because I doubt people would pay for the desexing out of their own pocket, or in fact even donate to an organisation that was coordinating the trapping and desexing.

Also, the TNR program doesn’t mean that the cats will stop fighting, but it may reduce it if the cats are no longer pumped up on testosterone.

Only way to eradicate ferals for sure is to desex all domestic cats that are not used for breeding (the kittens get desexed of course, unless used for breeding) It goes without saying that there is a difference between registered breeders and ‘backyard’ breeders.

If the ACT government could actually enforce their own legislation that states that cats must be desexed before age of first breeding, we may see a result in say, 20 years?

And people, for goodness sakes, keep your cats inside at night (or permanantly). Mr Fluffy may not have wandered off to die, he may be out bush spawning a whole new generation of ferals.

This diagram is a little frightening if you want a pictorial representation of the possible population produced by two single cats – http://www.freewebs.com/sac875/pyramid.gif

if there are young kittens, they are likely to be able to be socialised and rehomed. The parents – not so much as they are possibly terrified of humans.

Can I suggest you email barry.catrescue@gmail.com

He and his colleagues may be able to assist – both in trapping and rehoming the suitable ones and youngies.

I had a similar problem when I lived at the bottom of a nature reserve and found TAMS and the RSPCA equally ineffective. They both refer you to the other! The Community Cats website has some useful resources: http://communitycats.com.au/ and so does Cat Rescue: http://www.catrescue.com.au/. I’m going to assume if you live in a complex there is a body corporate. If yes, then why aren’t they dealing with this problem? I’d be interested to know how you get on.

Do While cats > 0
Lake.Toss = cats + bag + rock
Call cats.find
End Do

I use a possum trap to catch feral cats. Just stick a bit of meat on the hook, and in the morning you’ll likely have a trapped cat. I’m yet to have any problems with cats figuring out the trap. There’s a nice big carry handle on the cage, so little risk of a cranky feral getting a paw through the mesh and scratching the carrier. I’m not sure what kind of training you think people need to trap a cat. The only tricky part is getting the cat out of the cage, and that’s the RSPCA’s job.

There’s always the risk of accidentally trapping a neighbour’s pet cat, but you then have an opportunity to return the pet to your neighbour. If you have feral cats around, your neighbour won’t want his/her cat mixing with them. Feral cats don’t pose a significant health risk to humans, but they pose a serious threat to domestic cats (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, etc).

If you decide to try traps, just remember that it may be many hours between the cat’s capture and your checking of the trap. Ensure the trap is sheltered from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures (a blanket draped over the cage is a good start), and that the captive cat has fresh water. They may be the cat’s final hours of life, but it should still be treated humanely during that period.

carnardly said :

The only diseases cats can transmit to humans are toxoplasmosis (risk obtained from changing the pooh box or getting pooh germs from an infected cat), fleas and ringworm.

Thanks for the reply, Carnardly. Toxoplasmosis was actually a concern of mine but I didn’t want to make a big song and dance about it in my post because it was intended as raising a general issue. I do, however, have a suppressed immune system at present so going near unpredicatable cats or cat poo isn’t the best idea.

And thanks, Bugmenot – I will report to Fix my Street and add a note about it on the poster I put up!

The only diseases cats can transmit to humans are toxoplasmosis (risk obtained from changing the pooh box or getting pooh germs from an infected cat), fleas and ringworm.

Of course, cats claws and mouths are full of germs that could give you a bacterial infection if they they clawed the crap out of you. However, most healthy humans have immune systems healthy enough to heal up a cat scratch the same as any old ordinary scratch. I would not be concerned about getting any of the above from simply moving a cat in a trap.

Get several people to report it through Fix My Street?
https://www.contact.act.gov.au/

There’s a pets and wildlife category with options for “pests in nature parks” etc. The “hopefully move on elsewhere” comment is pretty idiotic – given the obvious restrictions for indoor pets only in newer suburbs (like Forde).

My only suggestion would be to get as many residents in the complex to forward emails to the minister reminding him that it should be his responsibility to deal with the feral cat problem.Of course if it were not for irresponsible cat owners we would mostly not have this problem.