The Australian government plans to slash the country’s feral cat population by 2 million over the next five years, officials announced Thursday 18th July.

They plan to do this by:

• Baiting
• Trapping
• Shooting
• Fencing
• Using of dogs to hunt them

Their rationale for this is to 'save' other species that are 'threatened' by feral cats, but this can be done in another way, without killing.

This can be taken from the RSPCA's guidelines:

• All cats should be humanely trapped and taken for veterinary examination.
• Attempts should be made to find new homes for young kittens or other cats which are not totally feral - they deserve the chance to have their own caring owner.
• Any animal which is too sick or injured to be returned to the feral colony must be put to sleep to save it from further suffering or to prevent the spread of disease to other cats.
• All other cats in the colony which are too wild to be rehomed should be neutered to limit further expansion of the colony.
• The RSPCA believes that when neutered, each animal should have its left ear 'tipped' to allow for future identification of neutered animals.

This petition asks Hon Greg Hunt MP to consider trapping, neutering then re-releasing these feral cats instead of the abhorrent methods listed above. Furthermore, that Australia consider the consequences, to both ecology through the use of bait and the associated risk of increasing rodent populations that these 2million cats eat.

Finally, that the writers of the Threatened Species Strategy consider the concerning message it is giving when writing the word 'Innovative' as a prefix for killing strategies and instead view innovation as finding a creative, solution that does not harm these animals.