Domestic cats and Australian native wildlife populations
Summary
An ongoing issue is that feral cat impacts are often wrongly attributed to domestic cats, even though these are two distinct and geographically separate populations of cats with different behaviour and ecology.
Feral cats live and reproduce in the wild and are never found where people live or work. Feral cats are not the subject of nuisance complaints and they do not enter shelters or pounds. In contrast, Domestic cats live among people and are either owned, semi-owned (receive food from people intentionally) or unowned (receive food unintentionally from people such as from food waste bins). Domestic cats are sometimes called stray cats if they don’t have an identified owner or microchip.
False blame is harmful and prevents a resolution to the free-roaming cat issue
Despite the lack of scientific evidence, domestic cats in Australia still receive significant blame for negative impacts on native wildlife populations. False blame for wildlife impacts directed at domestic cats is harmful because it contributes to the implementation of ineffective domestic cat management strategies and can be used as a justification for lethal approaches to domestic cats. This perpetuates the unnecessary and pointless killing of many healthy cats and kittens which causes devastating psychological damage to staff and community residents involving depression, traumatic stress and increased risk of suicide. In addition, this lethal approach does not reduce the overall number of free-roaming cats overtime as the population quickly replenishes to original levels (Baran 2009, Reeve 2005, Rohlf 2005, Rollin 2011, Tiesman 2015, Whiting 2011, Lazenby 2015, Miller 2014, NSW Animal Seizures – Pound Data Reports).
False blame can also promote the use of inhumane killing methods; be used as a justification for cruelty towards cats, increasing pain and suffering; and be used as an argument for mandatory cat containment which is not an effective strategy for reducing free-roaming cats or associated issues such as potential wildlife predation.
What is the main threat?
Habitat loss is recognised as the main threat to Australian native wildlife populations (Australia State of the Environment Report 2021). In contrast to domestic cats, population studies have found that habitat loss does have a measurable effect on Australian native wildlife populations.
What is Effective?
Because Community Cat Programs lead to long-term reductions in stray cat numbers – which doesn’t happen with our current approach – we expect that wildlife predation will be reduced. In fact, assessing wildlife predation is part of our study. NSW’s Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) has lent its support to the project and is pleased to see a new approach for managing urban stray cats being investigated. WIRES CEO, Ms Leanne Taylor, stated, ‘WIRES will be following the results keenly. We hope this approach will lead to long term benefits to wildlife in cities and towns throughout Australia by reducing the impacts on native animals.’
Bedtime feeding of cats is recommended as a highly effective way to assist cat owners at minimal to no additional cost to keep owned pet cats safely inside at night and prevent potential wildlife predation. This feeding involves feeding cats inside at bedtime and ensuring all doors and windows are shut for the night, providing owners with a way to safely confine their cat in the house/dwelling overnight.
