June 6, 2016
SHOULD FERAL CATS BE GIVEN ANIMAL RIGHTS?
Giving animal rights to feral cats is to authenticate their right of living to Australia, and that means “The Australian Government takes responsibility of their future, treat and protect them as other native species” (Cox, 2015).
There has been a number of discussions around killing and protecting feral cats, with the Government’s recently announced war that the goal is to reduce the population of feral cats among the country by killing two million of them by 2020 (Conservation, 2015). The country’s first threatened-species commissioner said the Government was “declaring war on feral cats” (Vicki Croke, 2015). To achieve this goal, they would shoot, poison, and bait them in its large scale effort as the Government can’t tolerate the damages that feral cats are doing to Australian wildlife (Vicki Croke, 2015). It has been reported that feral cats are the main reason for 28 out of 29 mammal extinctions in the past few years, and about 20 million Australian feral cats kill 75 million animals every day (McGregor et al, 2016). Killing cats, even two million of them, can accidentally increase cat numbers by enabling more cats to immigrate into vacant territories. Accordingly, reducing of cat can cause population booms of other species (such as rabbits and rats) as a result in further harm (Milman, 2015).
However, many people love cats and do not want them to be killed or harmed. Biologists Arian Wallach and Daniel Ramp criticised that the two million target is for totally different reasons (Conservation, 2015). In their article in The Conversation, they suggested ‘embrace cats as part of Australia’s environment’, and accept them as ‘Australian citizens’ (Conservation, 2015). In addition, stopping the killing of feral cats would allow the ‘rest of the Earth’s species to flourish’ and ‘embracing the entirety of Australia’s modern ecosystems – native and feral’ (Cox, 2015).
There has been a number of discussions around killing and protecting feral cats, with the Government’s recently announced war that the goal is to reduce the population of feral cats among the country by killing two million of them by 2020 (Conservation, 2015). The country’s first threatened-species commissioner said the Government was “declaring war on feral cats” (Vicki Croke, 2015). To achieve this goal, they would shoot, poison, and bait them in its large scale effort as the Government can’t tolerate the damages that feral cats are doing to Australian wildlife (Vicki Croke, 2015). It has been reported that feral cats are the main reason for 28 out of 29 mammal extinctions in the past few years, and about 20 million Australian feral cats kill 75 million animals every day (McGregor et al, 2016). Killing cats, even two million of them, can accidentally increase cat numbers by enabling more cats to immigrate into vacant territories. Accordingly, reducing of cat can cause population booms of other species (such as rabbits and rats) as a result in further harm (Milman, 2015).
However, many people love cats and do not want them to be killed or harmed. Biologists Arian Wallach and Daniel Ramp criticised that the two million target is for totally different reasons (Conservation, 2015). In their article in The Conversation, they suggested ‘embrace cats as part of Australia’s environment’, and accept them as ‘Australian citizens’ (Conservation, 2015). In addition, stopping the killing of feral cats would allow the ‘rest of the Earth’s species to flourish’ and ‘embracing the entirety of Australia’s modern ecosystems – native and feral’ (Cox, 2015).