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Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer

10,000 Birds

Infected rats, for example, no longer shun cat urine but find it an aphrodiasic. The traditional, supposedly humane answer to the glut of feral cats has been institution of “TNR” programs – trap, neuter, return. And keeping cats, natural hunters, indoors is, as a matter of biology and of common sense, not the healthiest state for them.

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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

I’ve written at length about the specific vulnerability of insular faunas and the catastrophic extinctions caused by the arrival of rats, mice, ferrets, cats and possums (amongst others), here in New Zealand fully half the pre-human bird species were lost. In New Zealand at least public opinion is generally behind 1080.