The New Zealand Department of Conservation has opfficially added "feral" cats to their Predator Free 2050 targeted species - a list of introduced species they plan to KILL OFF by 2050.
The claim behind this is that cats predation poses a significant threat to native species. But the reality is, despite cats living on every continent except Antarctica, and on almost every island touched by human beings, only two cases of species extinction can be reliably traced to cats...and the circumstances in both cases were extremely unique and involved NO effort to control the cat populations through sterilization.
In addition to the moral argument that it is cruel to kill some animals to spare others, especially when the targeted predatory animal only exists in the environment due to decades or human negligence, the New Zealand DOC must understand that past examples of predator culling show it costs more than sterilization campaigns and often leads to new, unintended ecological problems.
If feral cat sterilization is implemented on a wide scale across New Zealand, it will drastically decrease the nation's feral cat population. By 2050, it is conceivable that no new cats will be born outdoors, while the remaining, sterilized cats will all soon after pass away naturally, giving the ecosystems of which they are currently a part the chance to adjust properly to their disappearance.
Please sign this petition for the Director General of the NZ Department of Conservation to show your support for a country-wide cat sterilization program instead of culling.
