3 ms·
Weird article. The article finishes up complaining that humans are the prime agents of reducing biodiversity and are hence morally obligated to fix it... but ap
by vacri 11y ago
Weird article. The article finishes up complaining that humans are the prime agents of reducing biodiversity and are hence morally obligated to fix it... but apparently not by animal management. Somehow we are morally obligated to fix the damage we have done, but not by reducing the numbers of cats (or foxes, toads, pigs, rabbits, camels...). The proposed alternatives are merely links to sites that don't give clear paths of action - the first is a link to a book talking about ways to live near wild animals (ie: not wide-ranging maintenance of biodiversity) and the second is a puff site.
> Out of respect for cats and the people who care for them, we should give preference to nonlethal alternatives in management first and foremost.
Ah, the "this animal is pretty" problem. What a bizarre argument that the article makes; that humans are the actual scumbags that are the real cause of the problem... but at the same time, we shouldn't engage in a cull because it will upset some humans.
In any case, it's something a self-correcting problem - if there really aren't 20M fetal cats in Australia, then the proposed cull won't get 2M of them.
- Tsagadai 11y ago20 million is probably a low estimate. I have previously worked with a farm owner to cull wild dogs (not dingos, mainly large dog breeds that went rogue). They attacked livestock so the owners had an economic need for getting rid of them. In a fairly small area of 500 acres (2km^2) there were around 30 dogs. Australia is a massive country. I am a cat person but I can't see how allowing feral cats to drive even more species to extinction is a good thing. The moral argument falls unstuck when you think that cats lives, which are common, geographically safe and domesticated, are more important than hundreds of species which will be extinct if steps are not taken to correct the balance. Some small mammals are primary pollinators in Australia too so you are then also looking at plant species becoming extinct too.
- littletimmy 11y agoWe should engage in a culling of humans. This despicable species of hairless African chimp has marauded the rest of the earth. Humans are 7 billion. Ideally, we need some 500 million.