Australia wants to force cats to stay inside or give them a curfew because they are murdering so many other animals they are a threat to the country's biodiversity

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• Taleya@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Good.

  Australian with three cats here - they’re all indoor and happy about it because i’m not a shitarse pet owner. An outdoor cat in Australia is ecological genocide

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  • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    From the cats perspective I think it’s quite uncontroversial to say they’d be happier roaming free.

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    • plant_based_monero@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I mean even if they would rather be outside, they live longer inside, they are healthier and they would have better deads

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    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      We’ve selected for treaties that make some of them better at being indoor companions or mouse hunters.

      Hairless cats for just one instance.

      These aren’t wild animals.

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    • Taleya@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      No.

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    • Taleya@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I could literally leave my back door wide open and Cerys would not step foot out it. She hates the outdoors. Punkin’s stuck his nose out a few times, but it holds no real interest for him and Misha - who was an abandoned cat that literally decided to move in with us and has lived an extensive part of her life as an in-out cat could not give a shit about going outside.

      Needs are met - food, safety, security and entertainment - they’re very happy.

      But all of that is downright irrelevant. We are talking about an introduced species that wreaks unimaginable ecological damage. Why the almighty fuck would a cat’s fee fees override that? Not to mention the cat safety issues. I mean i’m sure punkin would be ‘happier’ with his balls intact merrily raping and impregnating his sister and mother but that shit ain’t happening either.

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• youRFate@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Good, should be enforced world wide.

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  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Along with spay/neuter. Make it a crime to intentionally avoid spaying and neutering cats and dogs.

    Oh, you’re a breeder? I used to work at a no kill animal shelter. You’re the bane of my, and every start animal’s, existence. FUCK you.

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    • Alto@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Remember folks, adopt, don't shop. Not only is it just significantly more moral, mutts are far less likely to have health issues from inbreeding that will shorten their lives. You get more time with your four legged loved ones

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    • Rhaedas@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      And the pet stores that buy from those breeders.

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    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I mean, if such a campaign is ever completely successful, along with one for capturing or fixing stray and feral animals, there would need to be some amount of breeding of them or they’d eventually go extinct. Perhaps with regulation on both practices that lead to unnecessary health problems (like inbreeding or breeding for harmful traits like squashed faces) and on numbers to avoid breeding more of a specific sort of animal than there exists demand for.

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    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Are you confusing ‘breeder’ with ‘pet mill’? Ghetto breeding was horrible to my family involved in animal care and salvation. Actual breeders, though, not so much.

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    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I mean, there’s responsible breading and irresponsible breeding. My mum has always kept setters of both the Irish and English varieties. The breeders she gets them aren’t just pumping endless dogs out for profit, they’re taking good care of the bitches.

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  • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Good luck getting the UK on board, something like 90% of cats are outdoor cats here

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    • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Domestic cats have been in the UK for ~2000 years, and wildcats for >~8000 years.

      Their only real predators in the UK are cars and dogs, and most British bird species are well acquainted with cats, and on the whole aren’t at high risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a healthy, happy cat.

      The RSPB (bird conservation charity) doesn’t find them a major problem here, but do recommend:

      1. Neuter them
      2. Keep them in at dawn, dusk & night
      3. If they ever kill a bird, put a bell or beeper on the collar

      Which seems a reasonable set of recommendations.

      On the other hand, the USA and Australia don’t have the thousands of years of history of cats as part of the ecosystem, and they have all these wild dog-type-things and snappy reptile things etc, so the cats are in more danger, and the native bird species are at higher risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a bird-murdering machine that’s about to get run over by a giant SUV and then eaten by drop-bears.

      My Eastern European neighbours think it’s weird that we let the cats inside at all. They think they should live entirely outside.

      So I guess “different countries, different rules”.

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    • c0m47053@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      From a UK perspective, it seems unbelievably cruel to keep a cat locked indoors. The hunting instinct is one of a cat’s main drives, so to take that away is equivalent to removing sleep or food. I understand the issues around cats and wildlife in other countries, but I think the solution is to just not have domestic cats rather than trying to imprison them.

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  • napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That is bullshit.

    Not everywhere are cats a problem.

    They are literally native to Africa and parts of Asia. In most of Europe they have been held for thousands of years and are not a threat to the ecosystems.

    Taking Countries where they have been introduced as an invasive species as a role model to the whole world makes no sense.

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• mathematicalMagpie@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s crazy how it’s seen as socially acceptable to “adopt” or “rescue” them and then release them to freely roam your neighbourhood as an invasive species.

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  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Aww but lil Spencer was so happy before he got run over

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    • vivavideri@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There are a handful of kitties in our neighborhood and fuck, they make me so nervous any time they’re even remotely close to the road. As far as I know they’re all housed, and the lady a few doors down to me said, “just tell him to go home and he will!” If I see him on the wrong side of the road I pick his ass up and put him back in his yard.

      My cats stay inside. We’ve let them out on the deck (supervised) but the rule is if one single toe bean leaves the deck, it’s inside time.

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• threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Both domesticated and feral cats — like the one pictured above in New York — pose a threat to Australia’s biodiversity, experts say.

  I know what they meant by this, but I still find it amusing that a cat in New York could pose a threat to Australia’s biodiversity.

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  • vivavideri@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    They send a lot of hate mail.

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  • aksdb@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Well you see, since its owner doesn’t properly watch it, it likes to travel. It even travels to Australia to go hunting.

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  • vivadanang@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    he’s a shady fucker that one.

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• Nacktmull@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  As a cat owner I fully agree with this. Pets should generally be kept in ways that don´t threaten wildlife. However I would also prefer that cats who stray around don´t get killed but instead caught, spayed, sheltered and adopted.

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  • Helmic@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    TNR works, as feral cats often cannot be adopted past a certain age, they just won’t let humans near them willingly. But there isn’t a need to kill cats for not wanting to be adopted, they can be fed and over time their population can be dramatically reduced, it just requires actual commitment to the program and free access to spay and neutering services to the public.

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    • Nacktmull@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Sure my dude, I will support any method that is humane and avoids killing :)

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• malchior@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  If my dog has to stay inside my property, so can your fucking cat.

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• Rhaedas@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  *cat owners

  And I'm not sure how a curfew is going to work since that relies on cats to give one ounce of shit.

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  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Australian farmers have, unfortunately, had to find certain methods of enforcing curfews on cats. Keep 'em inside, folks.

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  • Deceptichum@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Curfews rely on owners, not cats.

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    • Rhaedas@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Partially. It also relies on the cat listening to the owner when they try to get them inside. Some cats will. "Like herding cats" has its meaning for a reason.

      Pets in general shouldn't be allowed to roam freely outside. There's too many dangers to them and things they can do to cause problems.

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  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Simple, cats that are outside past X o’clock get taken to the RSPCA and they’re put up for adoption after a week without being claimed.

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• jcit878@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Australian cat owner here. owners that aren’t responsillble enough to keep their cats inside are deadset dickheads. the most my cat sees of the outside is our backyard when I take her for a walk either leashed up or in my arms, and even then her killer instinct is so obvious as she tracks lizards lying in the garden and such. cats are born hunters. keep them inside

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  • vivadanang@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    American cat-directed can opener here: re outdoor cats - we have so many of the same dickheads here. We have coyotes on a nearby trail that eat cats all the time, you’d think their owners would care enough to keep them indoors but no such luck.

    My cat has taken the time to break me in, he’s not going to want to train a new can opener and is happy at home indoors.

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    • ech@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      We have coyotes on a nearby trail that eat cats all the time, you’d think their owners would care enough to keep them indoors but no such luck.

      Some people just don’t really get the whole taking care of pets thing

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• Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I see so many missing cat flyers around my neighbourhood it’s depressing, and yet people keep letting their cats outside. It’s bad from just about every angle I don’t understand why people keep doing it.

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• plant_based_monero@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Im so mad with people not willing to put down feral cats, the live of a single cat is worth more than the live of the hundreds of wild animals that it will kill in its lifetime? Fucking not, but some people are delusional and only think in the cute cat pics. They say ignorance is bliss

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  • Helmic@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    TNR works absolutely fine at reducing feral cat populations. The issue is not that people are not killing enough cats, it’s that getting a cat spayed or neutered can be expensive and therefore inaccessible to a lot of people, and a lot of dickhead liberals just expect poor people to not have pets if they can’t keep $10,000 USD in the bank at all times to cover emergency vet expenses (legit shit you’ll see bandied around as advice for “responsible” owners). An effective response would be offering free spay, neuter, and chip services for all pets, alongside people keeping their pets indoors, and maybe offering stuff like pine litter for free to address some reasons why people might want their cat to be outside.

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  • sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I definitely think one pet is worth hundreds of wild animals. I even believe that one pet’s happiness is worth the lives of hundreds of wild animals.

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    • Solo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Feral cats aren’t pets

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• nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Yes, cats are not innocent, but let’s keep pretending that humans aren’t affecting biodiversity and just blame the cats. Australians are among the worst offenders on biodiversity problems and climate change, so don’t worry… I get it.

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  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Maybe we should start by making cat owners keep their bird and rodent killing machines inside

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    • Ib_dI@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What if the rodents are not indigenous and are more of a pest than the cats?

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  • 768@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Are you saying, that because a human curfew would be out of proportion a cat curfew is out of proportion too?

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    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I think the first step is to identify the full impact of Glysophosphates and other similarly used pesticides, particularly their roll up impacts, then we can start working on secondary effects like cats.

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  • mayo_cider@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Outdoor cats are also caused by humans, so this is directly trying to solve a problem caused by the worst offenders

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  • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If cats want to be able to get away with killing native wildlife, they’ve just got to start a mining or logging company and they’re all set.

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  • squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    When you’re the animal in charge, you gotta appeal to the lower animals and take out the competition

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  • Ataraxia@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Stop having kids. Beyond that you’re suggesting human genocide.

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    • nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I am suggesting no such thing? What I mean is that humans should start doing other things first, clean up their own shit - first reason that there are so few birds is factory farming - overly aggressive use of pesticides killing off insects, machine harvesting chopping up ground nests, land “purchase” destroying forests and animal trek transit zones. Outdoor cats come only in sight because of the one animal kind that does thrive on this: rodents, especially mice.

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• boomhauer@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m one of those dickhead cat owners who seemingly can’t keep their cat inside. We adopted our cat when he was 3 after spending a lot of time on the street, and ever since taking him in, he’d constantly howl to be let outside. We tried a few methods like an outdoor cat run, but nothing seemed to work.

  We’ve got a GPS collar (and bell) on him and he seems to just stay super local, like within 100 metres of our house.

  We’ve started to gradually transition him inside more but it’s tough. We know it’s a problem, but really need help getting him to accept inside life.

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  • TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    and he seems to just stay super local, like within 100 metres of our house.

    That’s pretty much how far most cats roam. Cats with such a small territory still kill a lot of wildlife.

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  • dlok@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Growing up we always had outdoor cats and my first cat was outdoors and the more I learned that wasn’t great I tried to transition inside after moving house, I figured it would work best alongside of change of scenery and like you described she just howled at the door constantly and stared out of the window… I gave up after 6 months.

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  • Helmic@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Have you tried a harness? Some cats that demand to be outside seem to be satiated with walks.

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  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Howling cats get the water gun. Spray bottle also works. You’ll feel terrible but it works.

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• arc@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  At the very least neutering should be mandatory and strict controls on where cats can be purchased to prevent breeding farms and suchlike.

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• DavidGarcia@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  all the other animals in Australia need to step up their game

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• captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Yeah keep kitty in, folks.

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• stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Hi New York here, we will take all of them thanks.

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• Helmic@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Outdoors is dangerous for cats anyways. There is a reason indoor cats live longer, there are predators and cars outside. Cats can be perfectly happy indoors.

  If your cat likes being outside, you can either grab some lumber and chicken wire to make a catio or just get a cat harness and leash. Yeah, there is a chance a cat can escape from the latter if it’s not properly sized and secured, but once in a while an indoor cat getting loose is much better than having many outdoor cats outside most of the time hunting random fauna.

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• xXthrowawayXx@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Yes! Yes!

  cat-confused

  Join the struggle, .zip!

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  • Zuzak@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    We have someone saying that not letting cats outdoors is fascism and someone else saying that letting them outside is genocide, and neither one is from Hexbear sicko-hexbear

    Whichever side you’re on, the important thing is to dig in to the most extreme position possible and denounce everyone else in the strongest possible terms. Bring out the memes buried beneath seven layers of irony and in-jokes and let the world know the truth about how goldfish are colonialist. This is the Hexbear way.

    Image

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• idunnololz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Indoor cat owner here. I will say I think if you really want your cats to be outdoors you can buy special collars that will prevent them from killing birds. I did 15 minutes of research so this might not be entirely correct but it appears that putting a bell on them is not enough. It needs to be a special collar specifically designed to prevent them from killing birds.

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  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Won’t stop them from getting themselves run over, or catching FIV or FeLV, or getting mauled by my German shepherd when they hop into my backyard. PLEASE just keep them inside.

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    • c0m47053@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Maybe you should keep your German shepherd indoors to stop it mauling other creatures?

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• Vampire@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Australia wants to force cats to have a little tuna, as a treat.

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  • NotACube@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    [Too much tuna](youtu.be/tfdMsxSjY3o?si=cJpgWBw4LiUsk0g9

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• Squizzy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Absolutely, I feel bad because people love them but they are decimating wildlife and ecosystems everywhere.

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• sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m surprised the cats aren’t getting eaten by Australia’s insane array of larger fauna.

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  • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There isn’t really anything here that would prey on a cat. Australia is pretty harmless comparatively. No bears, no ‘big’ cats or wolves of any kind. Crocodiles are limited to the tropics and most of Australia is not in the tropics. Nothing like anacondas and cats are too quick for snakes anyway. There are sharks but they pose no threat to cats. For all the press Australia gets about dangerous wildlife it’s actually a pretty chill place. The cities are pretty devoid of bugs if you live in a flat or keep your garden litter down, even more devoid of bugs since I was a kid (mostly due to massive logging in regional areas and overdevelopment in urban areas).

    I would think cars would probably be cats biggest killer, especially in urban areas.

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    • Shameless@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      [deleted]

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    • rororo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Big if true

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  • MrLuemasG@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It really highlights good at being predators cats are

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• keeb420@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  american police can fix it with one simple trick, pet owners hate it.

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• WhyEssEff@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  outdoor-cat

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• Icaria@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Good luck forcing cats to do anything.

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• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Generally they used to live twice as long 2 decades ago. It’s more like 4-times now.

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