I hear you, Rick.
Here in our state, it's a sad condition for cats that they are legally required to be contained. But then, being 'contained' ought to mean they are also safe from other people in the community who dislike them and would hurt and/or kill them. And safe from accidents with traffic, accidental poisoning and so on. And, in theory, the native wildlife is safe from them. But, my gut feeling is that cats are a scapegoat for our own rampant environmental destruction. Many cat-haters here are self-proclaimed 'environmentalists' who use this as justification for their hatred.... Must be awful to be so narrow and hateful.
Interestingly, I was just looking at a new website aimed an 'managing' cats in Tasmania. They illustrated their cats-kill-wildlife stance with a photograph of a cat with a sparrow in its mouth. Sparrows are a 'weed' bird species here. I wouldn't mind betting that they do just as much damage, if not more, to native bird populations. Sparrows compete with and drive out small native birds from their nesting habitat and food sources. And one of Tasmania's most endangered birds, the swift parrot, is predated upon by the most unlikely of killers - cute little arboreal marsupials called sugar gliders - that were introduced to Tasmania from mainland Australia. Another species introduced from the mainland, the kookaburra, also harasses and kills smaller birds as well as many reptiles. But, hey, let's just blame cats.
I'm not saying that wandering cats don't kill small animals, I'd just like to see the complete picture presented and a bit more compassion for our companion animals who fill our lives with love. While almost all other animals are being recognised by more and more people as having rights to freedom and intrinsic value, our closest companions are being more tightly constrained. Strangely, now that chickens don't belong in cages, cats do! Maybe this is an indication of just how close they are on our journey of domestication? Less 'cat' and more 'human'?
But in any case, cats have natural needs to be at one with the natural world. They need time outdoors. And given the opportunity, they are part of a complex web of interactions. In our state, wandering cats have become part of a food system that has, relatively recently, been deprived of its alpha predator(s). The Thylacine was made extinct by humans, and our oldest human inhabitants were likewise almost extinguished by new settlers. Their hunter-gatherer way of life was destroyed. Many populations of native animals are now woefully out of balance with other elements in the system, due to lack of predation pressure. And there are a range of introduced species that all have an influence on the system. A cat 'wild' in the system has a relatively brief and miserable existence, even in this vacuum left by the absence of larger hunters. Domestic cats prey upon many species, yes, 'weeds' included! - rats, mice, rabbits, sparrows, blackbirds and starlings. Feral cats in the Tasmanian highlands, when their stomach contents were examined, were found to prey almost exclusively upon skinks and insects. But where is the thoughtful public discussion?
It saddens me that we have enshrined 'native' as somehow holy and untouchable, without any critical examination of the whole system, whilst creating a scapegoat as target for short-sighted blame and guilt-assuaging gestures. We all belong to the earth. We're all part of an incredibly complex system of interdependent species, processes and environments. Cats, humans, rocks, clouds, microbes, concrete pavement... we're all part of it.
But! On the bright side, these distorted conditions of law and opinion, and consequent desire to protect my feline friends from haters, has contributed to one of my most interesting creative missions. Cat Gardens.
The home that I'm building will be designed around a series of interconnected courtyards and larger gardens that are walled (love rock walls topped with little tile roofs!
) and escape-proof without looking or feeling like a prison. And filled with cat-friendly plants, trees to climb, sunny rocks, water pools, all the good stuff. A feline wonderland.
And I love the venturing St. Nick!
(Long rant over
)
