New Zealand Man Campaigns to Ban Domestic Cats

Actually, I don't find the urge to protect New Zealand's birds from cats all that nutty. Statements like this, "'I say to Gareth Morgan: Butt out of our lives,' Bob Kerridge, the president of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told the current affairs television show Campbell Live. 'Don't deprive us of the beautiful companionship that a cat can provide individually and as a family.'" disgustingly indicative of the way too prevalent attitude of most people that what they want trumps everything. What about depriving the native fauna of their lives? Who invited humans and cats to New Zealand anyway?

I'm not advocating euthanasia, but I find the suggestion that people stop breeding cats and stop replacing the ones who die quite reasonable. I confess I do have abolitionist leanings in my AR philosophy. At the very least they should be forced to keep their cats indoors if they won't give them up, for the sake of the indigenous fauna in danger of extinction.
 
I am a big cat lover - they're probably still my favorite species - but I too don't find a proposed ban on breeding cats unreasonable. And I also agree that they should be kept indoors if they present a danger to indigenous fauna.
 
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I absolutely love cats and can't imagine my life without them. That being said, I would like to see all breeding stopped. Domestic cats are not a natural species, the different breeds come from people exploiting a mutation. The same goes for dogs. I actually think it should be extended to all animals, especially so called pocket pets, birds and reptiles. It's selfish to breed animals, only to force them to live in captivity.

I definitely don't think they should be killed though, just not bred.
 
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Calliegirl said:
I absolutely love cats and can't imagine my life without them. That being said, I would like to see all breeding stopped. Domestic cats are not a natural species, the different breeds come from people exploiting a mutation. The same goes for dogs. I actually think it should be extended to all animals, especially so called pocket pets, birds and reptiles. It's selfish to breed animals, only to force them to live in captivity.

I definitely don't think they should be killed though, just not bred.
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I didn't realise that domestic cats weren't of natural species.:(

As for dogs, I wish that all puppy mills were banned as it is heartbreaking to imagine how the dogs must be exploited !
 
Er, I just want to say that that guy who has made that proposal is a known fool,

gareth_morgan_cats.jpg


recently he went to a sporting event and took his shirt off and was dancing around, if you can imagine what that would have been like, he has kind of lost the plot. Noone here likes his proposals and he does not represent people in New Zealand, his only claim to fame is that he has a rich son. Nobody takes him seriously and he has now made himself extremely unpopular, especially since 48% of New Zealanders has a pet cat. He is embarassing to us, and even if all the cats were gone from New Zealand there are also dogs, rats, stoats and ferrets who are also a threat to birds, particularly ground nesting species, and they would just take over where the cats left off. I cant visit this thread again because I cant even look at him. The nerve that he implies that he is morally better than people's cats, how much meat does he eat? Predator calling the kettle black? What a cheek.
 
Also he doesnt mention the real reason for the decline of native birds. It is because humans arrived and burned/felled 80% of New Zealand's rainforest cover. So the ultimate threat to birds is actually not cats... but humans.
 
I absolutely agree that we should stop breeding domestic animals. I love domestic pets and can't imagine a life without one, but I also accept that my desire to have a pet is not more important than the fact that that breeding animals to our own desires and whims, to be dependent on us, isn't right. I'd welcome a ban on breeding animals.

ETA: But obviously, I don't agree with euthanasia to this end.
 
CrazyCatLady said:
Not sure I like the idea of forcing all cars to be kept indoors. I don't think many would like that very much and wouldn't make very good company lol xxx
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Why have a cat as a 'pet' if its not good company...:confused:

I have no problems with cats but i hate how they kill poor little mice and birds, even if well feed and cared for.
 
Alice-Bee said:
Why have a cat as a 'pet' if its not good company...:confused:

I have no problems with cats but i hate how they kill poor little mice and birds, even if well feed and cared for.
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One of the reasons I now only take in indoor cats. If they can be happy that way (as in, not being outside doesn't bother them), it's better for their health and safety, and better for the safety of other living beings.
 
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AeryFairy said:
One of the reasons I now only take in indoor cats. If they can be happy that way (as in, not being outside doesn't bother them), it's better for their health and safety, and better for the safety of other living beings.
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:yes: This reminds me of seeing a kitten at the local farm the other day, killing a wee bird.:mad:
 
Freesia said:
Also he doesnt mention the real reason for the decline of native birds. It is because humans arrived and burned/felled 80% of New Zealand's rainforest cover. So the ultimate threat to birds is actually not cats... but humans.
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I was thinking that habitat destruction and manmade hazards undoubtedly account for the vast majority of the decline in native species - that's pretty much always the case. More birds are killed by flying into windows than are killed by domestic cats - I think that's a worldwide figure, not just a U.S. one.

Cats are natural born killers, but they are far from the only predator who kills for sport. It's part of who and what they are, and no blame should attach to them for it. The fact is, cats and their killing instinct have been necessary to the development of human society - without cats, agrarianism would not have been possible.
 
Alice-Bee said:
I have no problems with cats but i hate how they kill poor little mice and birds, even if well feed and cared for.
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If there weren't cats around to kill mice and rats, you would be amazed at how quickly those populations get out of control.

Around here, people put out poison. In 2011, for the first time in memory, no cats were dumped here on the farm. Those of the cats dumped here the prior year that I hadn't brought into the house hadn't even made it to the winter (probably a combination of the larger predators such as coyotes and foxes and getting poison indirectly through poisoned rodents). So, there were no outdoor cats here in 2011 and the first part of 2012, and there was a rat explosion you wouldn't believe. In the fall of 2011, I adopted two feral cats through a barn cat adoption program and put them into the chicken house because I was worried that the rats would start attacking the chickens. (There were dozens of rats in the chicken house, who didn't even bother to move for cover when I would come in.) That worked out beautifully, without fatalities, because the rats moved out of the chicken house when the cats moved in. But in the meantime, during that year, the rats ate the electrical wiring in my car (a $6,000 repair to have the whole system replaced), ate the central air ductwork in the attic (my cats don't have access to the attic) which would have cost thousands more to repair, chewed holes through the flooring of the duck house which I only discovered after a weasel used the holes to get into the duck house and attack my ducks, etc. If I didn't have cats in the house, they would have swarmed the entire house.

I used every non lethal method I could find to keep the rats out of the car. Nothing worked. Since the car has been fixed, I have kept it parked in town, three miles away, and get to it by means of an old clunker I got for that purpose, which I park within walking distance.

Obviously, I refuse to use poison or traps, but there's been a high price to pay for that. These guys are very smart, and very adaptable. When cats were again dumped here last summer, I realized it before I saw any of them, because from one day to the next, I didn't see any rats. (They were not at all afraid of me, and would come within a foot or two of me as they went about their business.) They obviously have a good communication system amongst themselves, because they all went underground at the same time.
 
I suppose it depends where you live. I live near a few farms and lots of open Countryside and cant say theres ever been rat/mice problems. Reguardless of cats.
I hate the thought of things being killed...call it a veg*n quirk. I dislike it more when my 8 neighbours all with cats let them wander round crapping where they please and leaving their 'kills' in MY garden which I have to clean up. :no:
 
I live out in the country (my nearest neighbor is more than half a mile away), in the middle of farmland that's used for corn and soybeans. Rodents are a constant - there's plentiful food for them. And in the fall, as the weather cools, they start trying to move indoors.

Rodents chewing all the vehicle wiring is not unexpected here - farmers put poison in all their vehicles, including tractors.

Unless you've gone through a year or more without any cats in the neighborhood, and you know for sure that your neighbors don't put out rodent traps and/or poison, you really don't know whether you would have a rodent problem without the neighbors' cats and/or traps/poison.
 
CrazyCatLady said:
What I mean is...have you ever had to keep a cat indoors that is used to being let out? They're not much fun. They try to get out as soon as the door opens, you can't have windows open, they can be destructive and vocal! Lol xxx
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We took in a stray a few years back. She was perfectly fine coming in for food and at night, as long as she had outdoor access during the day. Then she ate something that was bad for her and got poisoned, and had some renal problems... we had to keep her indoors whilst she was on her meds so she wouldn't make it worse. It was awful; she was clearly distressed; noisy, restless, running around everywhere and breaking stuff, grumpy, trying to escape through any open space... almost nothing like the sweet little cat that would curl up with me on the sofa in the evening. It was really hard to do - I hated feeling like I was causing her that pain, even though it was for her own good :( she'd spent so long as a stray that she never would've adapted to being a shut-in.
 

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