Whether they are cared for and eaten daily by roaming the pet owners of their beloved pets, stray dogs and roaming wild city and natural terrain, cats kill nearly 2 billion native mammals, birds and reptiles in Australia every year.
According to Australia’s wildlife sanctuaries, the estimated consumption rate kills 5-35 animals per night, based on a cat’s stomach content test.
In submission to the survey, animal welfare groups noted that video footage collected from the sanctuary showed wild cats fed on an average of seven native animals in 24 hours.
The sanctuary then estimated that it killed more than 1 billion native animals a year, based on the estimated population size of Australian wild cats.
Researchers at the NSW University Centre for Ecological Sciences University explained in their submission that the situation “has a major cost to Australian wildlife.”
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“Their (cat) influence is in big cities and urban areas,” they said.
“There is an important opportunity to reduce this sacrifice by implementing laws, policies and management focused on limiting their impact while allowing pet cats.”
More than 1,000 submissions were provided to the committee to begin hearings on Tuesday, with many overwhelmingly supporting a massive cat-related deathsex program and a targeted approach to 24-hour curfew.
However, other animal welfare groups, such as the four legs, are seeking more prudence in controlling cat populations, claiming that cats are unfairly targeted.
“The defective data will be used to disproportionately scapegoat and condemn cats due to species extinction and impact on native animals,” the four Paws said.
