I repeated that on purpose.
Since neighbours with cats moved in (several) the bird feeding has become a sort of rush and grab affair with many birds no longer even visiting the water or food.
Long gone is much the pleasure of hand feeding the birds. Not of interest to this site but demoralising to me is the apparent local extinction of the larger roaming spiders and lizards the former of which I had been photographing.
I know some of us are cat lovers but I firmly feel that in Australia their effects are so devastating that they should be banned or only considered as a caged animal similar to ferrets.
The last time I had my dander up over this I was looking online for information I could use to fill out a "war against cats" webpage and was disturbed to find sites that appear to suggest butter wouldn't melt in a cat's mouth and call all the negatives about cats a myth. I found several actoss the world offering the same info tailored to the country but was amazed to see an Australian one (at least one)[url] http://www.happypaws.com.au/articles/cat-myths here. [/url]
Having the trust of the birds was a simple but much cherished treasure for me and I feel angry and frustrated that people can be so selfish!
I hope I am not breaking any rules but I thi
I should have edited that a little better, sorry, maybe the ability to edit a post after it has been posted?
A truly appalling website.
http://www.happypaws.com.au/articles/cat-myths
You are right to be outraged, IMO.
---booshkie---
I believe that since many cats will happily walk on a leash, and will happily spend their days indoors, or in a large cat cat-iary, that it should be law for them to do so.
We have a very large cat in our neighbourhood that we see stalking across our back paddock nearly every night. He does feed on the wild rabbits a lot, which is a plus, but goodness knows how many of the beautiful wrens, finches, and other small bbirds that live in our tea tree scrub have been killed by this monster.
We have a dog who lives happily in our back yard, and is only out of their on a leash even on our own five acres because we don't want him hurting the birds. It would be nice to have the same reasoning and laws applied to cats.
Happy Birding!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138588528@N02/
I am so "with you" on this, as I have been fighting cats and neighbours, and councils for ever and many days!! I resorted to trapping and other things, without results. Most councils have laws regarding the confinement of cats, but don't seem to care much to enforce them. One general rule is, "cats have to be kept confined to your own property, and not wander onto the neighbour's land" You have the right to catch them, if you can, ring the ranger, and have the people fined. Good luck. Done it often, even the same cats. No question, I'm not loved by the people next door! Nothing has changed, they just pay the fine, and let the cat go hunting again. Hope for the birds sake, you have more luck than me!!! :-(
M-L
Hi Wollemi, welcome, seeing this is your first post! How nice, to keep your dog under control, even in your own backyard. What we did,for the same reason, we put up a seperate fence , so the dogs can stay outside in a kennel at night. That way they don't bother any wildlife, as we have Wombats, Roos,Possums etc.
M-L
Hi Araminta,
thanks for the welcome.
Yes I love our dog heaps and see that he gets his needs met while secluding him from the rest of our acreage so the birds can have free range. If I had cats I would only have them if I could build a nice big cat-iary to keep them in. All too often that lazy little moggy who lies around in the sun all day is the one out there prowling at night destroying nests and birds.
We are lucky here as we are on five acres and have a lot of bushland around us so we are visited by a wide selection of birds and have two families of Superb Fairy Wrens that nested successfully and raised 2 and 3 chicks. It was such a pleasure watching their antics.
We have perhaps 20 gum trees on our block and a corner thick with tea trees and a few large bottle brush.
In the last year we have begun planting natives in the front yard. We have 2 x Sweet Georgia (variety of geraldton wax) which have slightly spiny leaves and pink and cream flowers, two varieties of tea tree, robin gordon grevillea, a variety of bottle brush with a range of coloured flowers, three lilly pillies, a banksia, and wattle tree and a few others that I can't remember the name of right now. These new platings are planted on embankments I have built from gum trees out in wide sweeping lanes. I am also trying to germinate banksia seeds.
I love gardening and don't mind barrowing soil and leaves around to mulch the embankments and make them ideal for thick plantings.
I have a daughter who has an acquired brain injury and my partner, being a handy sort of bloke, has built a picnic table out near the embankments for my daughter to sit at and enjoy the gardens and the birds that come. We are wanting a bird-friendly garden that also has features to inspire my daughter to investigate the world around her so it is a two-in-one garden.
I love birds and I love gardens. So I am pretty happy to have the acreage to play around with.
Happy Birding!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138588528@N02/
Hi fellow cat haters
I find it so gratifying to know that there are others, like me, who are horrified by cat devastation on our native birds. Too bad no one has trained cats to be selective & only attack sparrows, starlings & blackbirds.
I've discussed, as diplomatically as possible, of course, with many, many cat owners the damage they cause to native wildlife. Every one, every single one, has said "My cat doesn't eat native birds" or similar. There is a defensive state of denial among cat owners. The fact is, I guess, that they place a far higher value on their cats than on native wildlife. Perhaps native wildlife lovers such as myself have been remiss in not using the appropriate education skills to enable cat owners to change their values.
I welcome the day when a law is passed to prevent people in new housing estates, especially those close to bushland or wetlands, are prevented from owning cats.
Cat laws are, of course, quite tokenistic & a quick, sideways recognition that there maybe, perhaps, could be, a problem with cats. But imagine the cat owner outcry about native wildlife nazis if these laws were enforced.
It seems the human right to own cats will only be curtailed when the last bird is chomped & the last lizard mangled. A complete cat-astrophe.
Woko
I have a 10 year old tom cat who has happily spent his whole life indoors,he's only been outside 4 or 5 times under supervision the last time he was so scared he through up!
"the big pussy"
but he is still a cat and given the chance he would kill anything he could catch he has proven this with mice and and moths over the years,cats just can't be trusted no matter how fat and pamperd they are.
I have tryed to get this trough to other cat oners i know with little sucsess i think most are just to lazzy to change cat litter trays!
I just moved to stawell and im only 2k from the Grampions n.park and there are 4 cats that hang around my yard and have already up set one neighbour by squirting her cat with the hose when it was stalking birds in my front yard she said "so thats what cats do"!i don't think we are going to be friends!
Automated cat repellant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uIbkLjjlMV8#at=494
_______________
I love photography.
Every cat I have ever owned or known has been a killer to some capacity. I had a cat for 5 years and he would kill anything at every chance he could. He had to be strictly supervised. He has passed away now but my neighbours have 5 cats. 2 of them are hunters and others I see them hunt ocassionally. BUT i have seen one cat who I am told has never ever attacked anything. It is a very fat cat. The owner is a WIRES carer and she has all kinds of sickly animals at care on her propertly the whole time. The cat does not pay attention to any of them. I thought at first it was very irresponsible of her however now that I have known her a few years and I have stayed at her place a few times I can tell you that cat is harmless to anything. So I guess there CAn be exceptions although very rare.
I was born to live and I live to die.
I suspected that if I cast my net wider by joining this forum I may come across a cat owner who acknowledges the native-bird-killing behaviour of his/her cat(s). Congratulations, abeleski, you're the first. I also suspect that if we had more openness of your kind we'd have greater protection of our wildlife.
Woko
........................OMG..............., here we go again!!!
M-L
Yep you are right there Araminta..... can I ask that everyone who replies to this post please exercise a bit of caution and diplomacy? This topic inevitably attracts an undesirable type of post and history has shown on here that it never ends well.I am an ardent bird lover and a cat owner ( one cat) but have no desire to see re - dredged up past arguments about any of it. The best guard I have against any bird casualties are the local noisy miner brigade..... my cat is terrified of them and they are relentless in their harassment of her if she goes outside , and that is poetic justice I feel :')
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Thanks birdie - yes I am keeping a close eye on this thread. Happy to talk about the issues with cats and wildlife but no talking of harming cats will be tolerated :)
I'm happy to see there are other people out there that are concerned about damage caused by pets. I think this thread should be titled 'Responsible pet ownership' rather than singling out moggies.
We have a Dog and a Cat, both are senior citizens now. Our Cat was dumped outside our neighbours house over 15 years ago, they looked after him for a few weeks and were going to take him away to the animal shelter - it was xmas time. Fortunately for him we saved his skin, took over his 'ownership' rather than sending him off to a certain death.
He is now around 16 years old, and (other than his first 6 months or so when he was practically wild) never been outside after dark. That should be a prerequisite for ALL cat owners - keep your pet inside after dark, they are absolutely lethal to local critters after dark. Cats caught outside after dark should incur hefty fines for their owners. I feel much the same about Dogs caught straying.
It is irresponsible to allow your pet to roam unattended.
BTW - We live on an acreage and have a huge struggle keeping neighbours dogs off our property. I have seen eight different dogs on the property over the past 18 months. We have (had) Koalas in the area, they used to even sit in the Mango trees at the entrance to our property - not any more. Other thsn building a dog fence around the whole property we cannot guarantee their safety.
All good sentiments there mrcurlywhirly but again can I ask forum members to be sensitive to the feelings of others if they decide to reply to this topic?
And yes.... dogs do much damage to the native fauna I totally agree . Like you MrCW my cat was rescued as a dumped kitten and there would have been no cat otherwise. I was living in suburban NZ at the time and had no intention of having a cat over here....but my daughter had other plans... fortunately our trees are high and the birds who venture close to home here can handle themselves.
I am very vigilant though and so is the whole family.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
My eyes glazed over after 'Make up yer own assumptions'
Auzziechirp, I have removed the post from the social Thread and have taken out anything that suggests the killing and harming of any animals in line with the warning given by Holly above.
To any others that may follow, we ask again , that you use common sense when posting in a public forum such as this and refrain from personal attacks on members or giving info on the harming of any animals.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Put simply, I disagree with your extremist views on cats and dogs, and found the majority of your post to be a completely unintelligible rant.
If you read the previous post by the moderator you would notice the comment 'can I ask forum members to be sensitive to the feelings of others if they decide to reply to this topic?', in what way was that post ambiguous?
I have put plastic netting all around the exposed foundations of the house because the neighbor's cat was using it as an ambush position to get at birds. Now it cannot get under there at all
The bushes the cat was hiding in have been trimmed about the bottom so they can see him coming. My neighbors and I hate each other. One of us thinks it is alright to invade everyone else's property with their furry little assassin. That is in the daytime too. What is that thing about keeping cats in at night? Cats should never be allowed out!
At night the cats are less problematical for the birds but like to have a burst of brush-tail possum mauling and probably killed off all the native mice, smaller possums and bandicoots because they have gone as well.
I dunno about dogs being the same as cats when it comes to being dangerous to wildlife. I think cat owners just wish they would be as bad as cats. I had dogs and lived among dogs and it is very easy to keep a dog away from wildlife. Most dog varieties cannot survive in wilderness and will certainly never reach the plague proportions of cats. Those dogs who are capable of surviving tend to be large and much easier to eradicate. Foxes might be almost as bad as cats.
It boggles the mind to think of Schnausers and Maltese sneaking up on birds without yapping and jumping about. Not really effective hunting strategies.
One of the most important subjects about things that can destroy the viability of our attempts to create bird friendly zones and corridors through our suburbs is this one. There is no way to have the discussion without cat owners going into denial and bird lovers pointing the quaking finger.
Those local cats are still killing several birds a month. So far I have not been able to establish one kill, of any kind, by the local dogs
@ Auzziechirp
My first post on here was before I was asked to be a moderator, and even then I refrained from saying what I really wanted to...out of respect for other members of this forum. My last post was as a moderator and obviously I feel more constrained by that responsibility.
AS a forum member only........ you are obviously passionate and very caring about the wildlife of this country and in particular of your neck of the woods, nobody can deny that. However you also come across as an incredibly angry person who is lacking a suitable outlet for that passion. Why don't you start a blog or write a book ? This forum is not the right place for vitriol in any form. You disrespect every member of this forum by tarring them with the same brush as, by default, in your book, all those who do not wish to kill are automatically relegated to the ranks of murders.
I have sampled quite a few people's opinions with regards to your solutions and the result is that , most find your solution to be repugnant.
As a moderator I can only say that being a Forum member is not an automatic right and while I may choose not to do anything at this stage others may differ.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Thanks birdie - I will say it again, encouraging attacks on feral species, or native birds for that matter, won't be tolerated on this forum.
Well done Birdie! :-)
certainly agree with sundog on this topic
not wanting to offend cat owners
but I have questions as to why cats are treated so differently to dogs (yes as others have mentioned dogs are a problem in areas if they are wild, or not controled by there owners in line with regulations) but there is mostly good info regulations/laws on dog ownership and which imposes a duty on the owner to ensure it is kept and controled otherwise there penalties or an ownus that the amimal may be impounded. Yet the mear mention of controling cats seems to be an off issue no regulations on controling cats in a lot of(?most) areas and no ownus on owners at all for non control. (And certainly very little information avalible even on being a responsible cat owner... what ever that is)
When there are rules and regulations and severe penalties for me personaly or anyone else for harming killing native wildlife. Why should I or anyone else be able to be implicit in directly killing or harming native wildlife by owning without control a pet that does?
Maybe the way forward would be to preasure govenment to ensure the laws on protection of native wildlife are enforced to include all areas including urban areas, and if cat ownership laws or lack of are in breach of laws protecting native wildlife then in the very least raising the whole issue getting it amended may raise awareness and hopefully change attitudes.
Maybe thats what is needed a raise awareness campain on the effects of urban cats on native wildlife to shift attitudes and go some way to debunk common myths most cat owners seem to believe. - Fur and Feathers myths of your pet - .
Yes I am bias, as I try to provide a nice home for my pets, yet everyone elses pets keep coming into my yard and killing mine!!!
And even though there are apparently laws protecting my pets it keeps happening..
Showed the kids another possum leaving his nest the other night only to have the kids find him part chewed the next morning.
Yes it is a cat kill, I even know which one. And he left his scat full of possum fur in the kids sandpit.
loved that YTube video & has just given me some good ideas to document how many cats actually visit my yard.
Ok, I haven't read all of this thread in great detail. What I will say is I dislike cat owners who repeatedly let their cats out of the house hungry. Isn't it just common sense to feed the thing beforehand? My parents told me of a cat that use to lie in their backyard, it was well fed and let birds walk metres from it when it was laying in the sun. Oh and if you want to get rid of a cat (sorry for the waste of water) spray it with the hose. Cats hate getting wet, that is a fact. It is not the cats fault. Traps are not the solution to every pest problem. Not to say that if I had a cat (which I would not, ever!) and someone used a nasty trap on it, I would take them to the cleaners! Don't risk it, water cannot harm them in any way. Plus they won't (for sure) know that you have attacked the cat. Maybe, you can hope, they'll think the silly thing fell in a pool or something.
I swore black and blue, I WAS NOT GETTING INVOLVED, but one remark has to be made!! The traps used are "possum traps"!!! They are like a big cage, when the animal goes inside , the door shuts. No harm is done to the cat!! Councils and Parks Victoria Rangers use them. (I have no idea, what you thought they might look like,1wattlebird?)
M-L
Well having not ever used a trap or ever wanting to I wouldn't know. My plan still works though, and do you really think that a cat is going to stay away just because you have trapped it? When it comes back again and again are you just going to keep trapping it over and over? I had a cat coming into my yard a little while ago and I just yelled at it when it ever it came (I thought of the water idea after). I don't know if the people that owned the cat up the street left or it worked, but the cat doesn't come back anymore.
I was not making suggestions in any way, shape or form!!! I was only explaining, what kind of traps are used . This was a "statement", and as such does not ask for any discussion.
M-L
There was no need to condescending and rude. I wasn't. I try to answer all posts that refer to mine. Even if I don't think I will get a response. Hope that we can both get over this misunderstanding.:)
No problem, ...over it .....what was it again? Don't remenber!
M-L
Gosh this thread always gets tense doesn't it.
Just remember tone doesn't come across well online - I think you both are actually in agreeance on the fact that cats shouldn't be allowed to wander.
I think, we are Holly !!!!
M-L
Ditto.:)
Couldn't agree more Holly, when I got the notifications of so many responses after not being on line all day, it was with real trepidation that I opened it up!
Personally I would like to bury it where it was left since 2008
Sunshine Coast Queensland
I shouldn't have posted my first one on this thread. I joined Birds in Backyards forum to talk about birds! I guess it was boredom that drove me to it.:)
God... a cat.. just keep your birds inside the house maybe??? my neighbours cat came over and startd scratching he cage.. my budgie started freaking out and her feathers went lose. My cousins came out to hit it and it ran away.. my bird was so freaked out :O
Sorry about the large print , don't know how to reduce it !
Hi all, I'm sure that I'm not alone in feeling that cats should not be able to roam freely as they cause devastation with birds & small animals such as skinks, geckos, frogs etc. My sister seemed to take great delight in telling me how her cat would hunt down the little skinks in her back yard.
lt annoys me that some irresponsible cat owners seem to think that their cat has the right to roam wherever it wants, causing devastation to local wildlife & fighting at 3am.
We are going to trap cats , I'd like to attach a tag around their necks warning the owners that next time it will be the pound. All other animals have to be contained, why not cats?
We may even put up some bird deterrent spikes in areas along the fence ridge so that cats can't access our yard - sheer arrogance.
Also sparrows & Indian mynahs, noisy, annoying and a threat to local birds.
Please feed pets inside , or at least do not leave food out or feed sparrows & mynahs as their numbers proliferate.
If we're not careful we'll end up with only the invasive, disease spreading raccous squawking flying rats which these creatures are. By the way , sparrows & Indian mynahs like to nest in our roof spaces & attract rodents & fleas etc.They attack native bird chicks & take over their nesting sites.
I personally think blackbirds are an exception to the rule as they are timid birds that eat garden pests & sing so beautifully, if you want to encourage them, grow hedgerows, keep a bird bath (raised) & maybe a compost (worms) & put apples cut in half up on a feeding platform as they love them.
You'll be rewarded with what i believe is the most beautiful and varied birdsong of all !
Please speak to your local counsel re cat containment.
We've noticed over the last 8 years, diminishing native bird species such as blue wrens, Willy wag tails, New Holland honey eaters , wattle birds & magpie larks .I'm sure that we don't want our children & grandchildren eventually only having the vile imports that can decimate local bird populations such as sparrows & Indian mynahs , cats & foxes-.Thank you
Cats can easily become feral & reproduce at an alarming rate
I share your thoughts on cats, sparrows & Common Mynahs, blackbird, but not, I'm afraid, blackbirds.
You may not be aware that in Australia the Common Blackbird competes with, among other species, the native Bassian Thrush by occupying a very similar ecological niche. So those garden "pests" that blackbirds eat are actually food for Bassian Thrushes.
And while there is no doubt the blackbird has a lovely call people interested in preserving our native species would do well to provide & protect habitats that attract our own wonderful songsters such as the Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler & Grey Shrike-thrush.
Also, you may not know that feeding platforms are often places where diseases can be passed on to native birds. You may want to Google <beak and feather disease> to obtain information about this horrendous affliction.
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