My neighbours and I live adjacent Brisbane Water National Park.
Yet in the morning I’m commonly confronted by a black cat sitting beneath my bird bath out front, ready to “breakfast” and a white cat pushing though the rear shrubbery, on the hunt for perhaps smaller fare.
So I hate to think what happens among the stretches of trees up behind us.
Hence I am very pleased that Federal Minister for Environment and Water Tania Plibersek has taken on the task of leading a change in our approach to domestic cats.
But I can’t see a curfew being adequate: telling Moggy to be home by dark is not going to do the trick.
Surely, if people want to keep a cat then that must involve permanent prevention from roaming.
I’ve observed a family who keeps a cat continuously indoors and friends who’ve used a large outdoor cage, both successfully.
It can be done.
So please cat owners, regardless of the outcome of Minister Plibersek’s efforts, keep your cat where it belongs.
Yes, cats make lovely pets, as do dogs.
And yes, they both can kill.
But cats are the great destroyers of wildlife, not dogs.
It is ironical then that one seldom sees a dog on the loose these days, yet cats at liberty continue as a feature of the landscape.
Email, Sep 9
Sonnie Hopkins, Tascott
