• threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Both domesticated and feral cats — like the one pictured above in New York — pose a threat to Australia’s biodiversity, experts say.

    I know what they meant by this, but I still find it amusing that a cat in New York could pose a threat to Australia’s biodiversity.

    • aksdb@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Well you see, since its owner doesn’t properly watch it, it likes to travel. It even travels to Australia to go hunting.

  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Good.

    Australian with three cats here - they’re all indoor and happy about it because i’m not a shitarse pet owner. An outdoor cat in Australia is ecological genocide

    • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      From the cats perspective I think it’s quite uncontroversial to say they’d be happier roaming free.

      EDIT: I’d really love to hear the argument for why a cat actually prefers to live its enitire life indoors, despite this being something we’ve only done to them for the past few decades or so.

      • plant_based_monero@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I mean even if they would rather be outside, they live longer inside, they are healthier and they would have better deads

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        We’ve selected for traits that make some of them only really suitable at being indoor companions or mouse hunters.

        Hairless cats for just one instance.

        These aren’t wild animals.

        • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Okay, sure, but that doesn’t apply to the vast majority of cats. Your average house cat is much more a wild animal than a dog for example and it’s quite ridiculous to think they’d prefer being indoors.

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        I could literally leave my back door wide open and Cerys would not step foot out it. She hates the outdoors. Punkin’s stuck his nose out a few times, but it holds no real interest for him and Misha - who was an abandoned cat that literally decided to move in with us and has lived an extensive part of her life as an in-out cat could not give a shit about going outside.

        Needs are met - food, safety, security and entertainment - they’re very happy.

        But all of that is downright irrelevant. We are talking about an introduced species that wreaks unimaginable ecological damage if left to its own devices. Why the almighty fuck would a cat’s fee-fees override that? Not to mention the cat safety issues. I mean i’m sure punkin would be ‘happier’ with his balls intact merrily raping and impregnating his sister and mother but that shit ain’t happening either.

  • Nacktmull@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    As a cat owner I fully agree with this. Pets should generally be kept in ways that don´t threaten wildlife. However I would also prefer that cats who stray around don´t get killed but instead caught, spayed, sheltered and adopted.

    • Helmic [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      TNR works, as feral cats often cannot be adopted past a certain age, they just won’t let humans near them willingly. But there isn’t a need to kill cats for not wanting to be adopted, they can be fed and over time their population can be dramatically reduced, it just requires actual commitment to the program and free access to spay and neutering services to the public.

      • Nacktmull@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Sure my dude, I will support any method that is humane and avoids killing :)

  • mathematicalMagpie@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    It’s crazy how it’s seen as socially acceptable to “adopt” or “rescue” them and then release them to freely roam your neighbourhood as an invasive species.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Along with mandatory spay/neuter. Make it a crime to intentionally avoid spaying and neutering cats and dogs.

      Oh, you’re a breeder? I used to work at a no kill animal shelter. You’re the bane of my, and every stray animal’s, existence. FUCK animal breeders.

      • Alto@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Remember folks, adopt, don’t shop. Not only is it just significantly more moral, mutts are far less likely to have health issues from inbreeding that will shorten their lives. You get more time with your four legged loved ones

      • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        I mean, if such a campaign is ever completely successful, along with one for capturing or fixing stray and feral animals, there would need to be some amount of breeding of them or they’d eventually go extinct. Perhaps with regulation on both practices that lead to unnecessary health problems (like inbreeding or breeding for harmful traits like squashed faces) and on numbers to avoid breeding more of a specific sort of animal than there exists demand for.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Maybe add a safeguard to it, so that when local animal shelters are at 10% capacity the regulation is temporarily lifted or something. Realistically, it would never be totally successful anyway.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Are you confusing ‘breeder’ with ‘pet mill’? Ghetto breeding was horrible to my family involved in animal care and salvation. Actual breeders, though, not so much.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I’m talking about anyone who intentionally takes an unneutered male animal and an unspayed female animal and intentionally puts them together to make and sell babies. Especially inbreeders. The only purebred animal that I can accept is sheepdogs, because they aren’t bred for looks, they’re bred for intelligence.

          • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            All older breeds were breed for some use at some time.

            Greated there are some modern breeds that are done for looks only and now care for the dogs health which I agree is an issue, but preserving historic breeds has merit.

      • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I mean, there’s responsible breading and irresponsible breeding. My mum has always kept setters of both the Irish and English varieties. The breeders she gets them aren’t just pumping endless dogs out for profit, they’re taking good care of the bitches.

        • Alto@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Unless the shelters in your area are consistently well below capacity, it’s still incredibly immoral

          • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            We don’t really have “shelters” in the same way as the US in the UK. As far as I know passes like the RSPCA and Battersea Dogs home aren’t at capacity, they don’t publicise that they are. The one thing we do well in the UK is love our pets.

    • napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Not everywhere are cats a problem.

      They are literally native to Africa and parts of Asia. In most of Europe they have been held for thousands of years and are not a threat to the ecosystems.

      Taking Countries with invasive species as a global role model makes no sense.

      • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Domestic cats have been in the UK for ~2000 years, and wildcats for >~8000 years.

        Their only real predators in the UK are cars and dogs, and most British bird species are well acquainted with cats, and on the whole aren’t at high risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a healthy, happy cat.

        The RSPB (bird conservation charity) doesn’t find them a major problem here, but do recommend:

        1. Neuter them
        2. Keep them in at dawn, dusk & night
        3. If they ever kill a bird, put a bell or beeper on the collar

        Which seems a reasonable set of recommendations.

        On the other hand, the USA and Australia don’t have the thousands of years of history of cats as part of the ecosystem, and they have all these wild dog-type-things and snappy reptile things etc, so the cats are in more danger, and the native bird species are at higher risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a bird-murdering machine that’s about to get run over by a giant SUV and then eaten by drop-bears.

        My Eastern European neighbours think it’s weird that we let the cats inside at all. They think they should live entirely outside.

        So I guess “different countries, different rules”.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          More than countries, different ecosystems different rules. Mainland USA and Hawaii have different ecological rules for good reason.

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    At the very least neutering should be mandatory and strict controls on where cats can be purchased to prevent breeding farms and suchlike.

  • plant_based_monero@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Im so mad with people not willing to put down feral cats, the live of a single cat is worth more than the live of the hundreds of wild animals that it will kill in its lifetime? Fucking not, but some people are delusional and only think in the cute cat pics. They say ignorance is bliss

    • Helmic [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      TNR works absolutely fine at reducing feral cat populations. The issue is not that people are not killing enough cats, it’s that getting a cat spayed or neutered can be expensive and therefore inaccessible to a lot of people, and a lot of dickhead liberals just expect poor people to not have pets if they can’t keep $10,000 USD in the bank at all times to cover emergency vet expenses (legit shit you’ll see bandied around as advice for “responsible” owners). An effective response would be offering free spay, neuter, and chip services for all pets, alongside people keeping their pets indoors, and maybe offering stuff like pine litter for free to address some reasons why people might want their cat to be outside.

    • mihor@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      You’re an entitled speciist! If cats are good at hunting, it’s just nature’s way of creating balance and it’s none of your goddamn business to prevent that. In my personal opinion people like you (entitled speciist scum) are redundant and we don’t need you on planet Earth.

        • mihor@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Neither were 99% of australians, you illiterate dummy.

          • bestonecrazy@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            And that also means we caused many species’ to go extinct, and we did!! Mass colonization actually has caused extinctions for tons of species, including the Dodo bird.

              • bestonecrazy@lemmy.zip
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                1 year ago

                It is similar to the Dodo bird. Humans(Dutch settlers) brought Dogs and other predators to the island(Mauritius) where Dodo birds lived. Over time, the dogs and humans overhunted the bird to extinction. dogs were good guides and predators, same thing with the cats we brought to Australia. Humanity has done unfixable damage by bringing species that would not know better.

          • bestonecrazy@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            It is similar to the Dodo bird. Humans(Dutch settlers) brought Dogs and other predators to the island(Mauritius) where Dodo birds lived. Over time, the dogs and humans overhunted the bird to extinction. dogs were good guides and predators, same thing with the cats we brought to Australia. Humanity has done unfixable damage by bringing species that would not know better.

    • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I definitely think one pet is worth hundreds of wild animals. I even believe that one pet’s happiness is worth the lives of hundreds of wild animals.

      Edit:

      Buy biodiversity is more important than the happiness of all those pets. Something should be done if this is a real threat to the ecosystem.

  • boomhauer@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    I’m one of those dickhead cat owners who seemingly can’t keep their cat inside. We adopted our cat when he was 3 after spending a lot of time on the street, and ever since taking him in, he’d constantly howl to be let outside. We tried a few methods like an outdoor cat run, but nothing seemed to work.

    We’ve got a GPS collar (and bell) on him and he seems to just stay super local, like within 100 metres of our house.

    We’ve started to gradually transition him inside more but it’s tough. We know it’s a problem, but really need help getting him to accept inside life.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      and he seems to just stay super local, like within 100 metres of our house.

      That’s pretty much how far most cats roam. Cats with such a small territory still kill a lot of wildlife.

    • dlok@lemmy.world
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      Growing up we always had outdoor cats and my first cat was outdoors and the more I learned that wasn’t great I tried to transition inside after moving house, I figured it would work best alongside of change of scenery and like you described she just howled at the door constantly and stared out of the window… I gave up after 6 months.

      She is ok with being in at night though so at least there’s that.

    • Helmic [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Have you tried a harness? Some cats that demand to be outside seem to be satiated with walks. Can take a while to normalize the harness with them, though.

    • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Howling cats get the water gun. Spray bottle also works. You’ll feel terrible but it works.

  • Helmic [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Outdoors is dangerous for cats anyways. There is a reason indoor cats live longer, there are predators and cars outside. Cats can be perfectly happy indoors.

    If your cat likes being outside, you can either grab some lumber and chicken wire to make a catio or just get a cat harness and leash. Yeah, there is a chance a cat can escape from the latter if it’s not properly sized and secured, but once in a while an indoor cat getting loose is much better than having many outdoor cats outside most of the time hunting random fauna.

  • Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    I see so many missing cat flyers around my neighbourhood it’s depressing, and yet people keep letting their cats outside. It’s bad from just about every angle I don’t understand why people keep doing it.

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      We have someone saying that not letting cats outdoors is fascism and someone else saying that letting them outside is genocide, and neither one is from Hexbear sicko-hexbear

      Whichever side you’re on, the important thing is to dig in to the most extreme position possible and denounce everyone else in the strongest possible terms. Bring out the memes buried beneath seven layers of irony and in-jokes and let the world know the truth about how goldfish are colonialist. This is the Hexbear way.