20 to 30 million feral cats roam Australia, killing 75 million animals each night. 29 of the continent’s mammals have been lost to extinction, and feral cats are implicated in 28 of these eradications. More than 120 Australian animals are currently at risk of extinction by feral cats, which also spread diseases that affect farm livestock.
These critters are not the mild-mannered moggies British colonists brought with them since arriving in 1788 but ferocious felines weighing up to 30 pounds. The Australian government wants to kill 2 million of these furry furies in the next 5 years.
More:
“Feline Massacre: Australia Unveils Plan to Kill Two Million Feral Cats,” Vice
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Tags: Australia, cats, ecology, environment, feral cats, feral pets, invasive species, pest control
NotionsCapital 
July 21, 2015 at 5:59 pm
It will never work. It will fail the same way TNR fails. You must reduce the total number of reproductive animals in any one region by 80%-90% in less than 1 breeding cycle. In the case of these man-made invasive-species vermin cats that’s 3-4 months. (By “region”, I mean any area that is larger than a cat can migrate to to find another cat with which it can breed within 1-2 breeding cycles.)
More new cats will have been born in the first year than they want to cull in 5 years. They’re moving backward in a stream that’s flowing and accelerating faster than they need to paddle upstream.
If they want to solve anything they need to destroy about 19 million to 29 million of them in the first year. (Based on Australia’s estimated vermin-cat populations of 20M and 30M respectively.) Then 80-90% of all remaining stray cats in every following year. (You must destroy all collared stray cats too, they are the very source of every last feral cat. It’s the only way it stopped where I live too.)
I shot and buried every last one of hundreds of these vermin in my area (collared or not) over 5 years ago and haven’t seen even one since. This was accomplished by destroying them all before any more could breed even one time.
August 27, 2016 at 3:01 pm
Woodsman, How can you tell if they’re stray? What if you had shot an owned cat?