Good News Story - Goodbye Feral Cats!

Considering they've been here since before the First Fleet, that'd be one heck of an achievement-fingers crossed!
Now for the cane toads...

Great stuff John.
I own & manage 2 Conservation Covenanted properties & spend a lot of time trying to get rid of feral cats among other pest species.
Many of our small to mid size Australian animals are in real trouble because of them so it would be nice to see a similar program over here in the East too.

Cheers
Stu

I hope they don't kill all the black panthers before I get to see one... :-)

Just what we need, more 1080 poison spread around the country. Never mind the innocent animals that get killed with the 1080 poison, like dogs travelling around the country with their owners. There has to be a better way than spreading poison baits.

Eradicat is hardly new, as a 1080 based bait made to be palatable to cats as the 1080 dogs baits didn't appeal. As our WA native animals such as the Chuditch have a tolerance to 1080, the use of these baits has proved successful in bringing Chuditch populations back from the brink with cat baiting programmes and translocations.

The baiting of predatory animals in WA has been the topic of a few emotive topics on the forum in the past.

This article Feral cat bait uptake in eastern Australia shows that trials have also been undertaken in the eastern states for feral cat control.

If today's media release means that the product which has been trialled for 15 years according to the article, is now available to the public no doubt the controls on its purchase and use will be as onerous as the fox baiting now is, making it practically unworkable.

I love our own cats (shut inside at night), but I love our native wildlife and feral cats have done a lot of damage.

Hello John - Good stuff!!

Check out this one from out near Lake Disappointment.



Could need a double dose - Bait away.

Cheers
Greg

Good to see they have something the cats will go for.

Sadly the baiting program seems restricted to pastoral/farming areas - there are lots of cats out in the desert.

If only we could train feral cats to change diet and eat camels - that would be more useful.

Many of you are missing my point. I would also like to see feral cats, wild dogs and foxes eradicated. After all, they are a product of our own doing. Regardless, if you have ever seen an animal die from 1080 poison you may change your mind about the application used for poisoning. It is a slow and agonising death, not quick and humane and painless, as some people seem to think.
Poison baits are either scattered, in designated areas, by hand or dropped from the air. This is the most economical way of depositing baits. The problem here is that these bait don't always stay in the area where they are dropped. Crows, for one. are very good at picking up baits and drop them well away from designated areas. I have actually seen a 1080 bait in a roadside camping area. An alternative method, although more expensive and time consuming, would be to set traps in problem areas or stake the baits so that they cannot be removed from designated areas. Just my thoughts, life was not meant to be easy.

John,

Good topical post.
Tanks Mike.

Just my to bobs worth I also hate Feral Cats but have previously lost a dog to a bait in W.A. ,years ago Tied to get the dog to a vets in Kalgoorlie but had to finish up putting dog out of its misery with a claw hammer .Rang said vet and he told me baits were aerial bates in that area and looked similar to a piece of chocolate .That day I also had my then four year old son out the bush with me More recently when in the Caravan Park at Leonora they were in a state of panic as two dogs had picked up baits in the caravan park its self so obviously transferred by crows .Just what if a child had picked one up ??
Terry

Jeez sorry couple of spelling mistakes there should be in bed maybe
Terry

Now then I shall try and sort a couple of things out here ,the bait that my dog picked up at the time was out near Widgiemooltha and was thirty plus years ago .For those familiar with the area at the time it was when the Police got the two Harley Davison Motor Bikes to patrol the road between Kalgoorlie and Kambalda I was at the time working in both the Edwin Underlay and Jan Shafts I never seen the bait that was the then Kalgoorlie Vets description of them they were for Dingoes, when told that they looked like a piece of chocolate my comment was s#*t my son could have picked one up he said yes that's right . The incident at the Leonora caravan park was from the park owners time was when they first opened the centre there for then refugees and we were there for four days last dog had died the day before we arrived . He made a point of telling us as we had a small Maltese dog with us . Don't get me wrong gents I hate feral cats as bad as others do and have shot rather a few .My concern is that I did see a program on tv and they then stated that there was an alternative bait that could be used and the best bit about it was that there was an antidote available for it if some ones domestic pet accidentally picked up one of the this type of bait . Guess also now I don't like to see any thing man or beast suffer more than is necessary
Terry

Whilst I'm 100% in favour of controls/eliminating feral pests, lets not put all the blame on the cat.

Ask yourself these questions:
If I was really starving hungry and the only food around was NATIVE animals (no ferals) would I kill a NATIVE animal to survive? Your answer should be YES.
Who brought all the feral animals into this country? Your answer should be us Humans.

In the book "Elsewhere Fine" on the Dimer family the early settlers (1800's) around the Balladonia area here in WA, it states the government of the day was transporting cats to this region to control the rabbit population, which didn't work.
And what still happens today... people are still dumping the family moggie.