An Australian zoologist has called for a total ban on cats to protect the country's native wildlife, which is being decimated by the predators. Cats kill more than 300 million native animals each year and have driven at least 20 species to extinction since their introduction by British colonisers.
Trevor Bauer, who works for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy in far-western New South Wales, spends his days eradicating feral cats from large-scale properties using bait, traps and firearms. Yet at night, he cuddles his own pet cat, an 18-year-old tortoiseshell named Titian, which he keeps strictly indoors.
“My cat is 18 years old; she’s lived her whole life indoors,” Bauer said. “She’s none the wiser of what goes on outside. And I guess I feel like it’s not like the cats’ fault. Cats are beautiful animals; they’ve got a good design. And that design means they’re really good at killing animals. Unfortunately, for the cat, they’ve been introduced to an area where they don’t really belong – the Australian ecosystem.”
Experts say the solution is not to eliminate cats but to contain them. Dr Sarah Legge, a Biodiversity Council member from the Australian National University, advocates for “cat containment” – keeping cats indoors or in specially designed outdoor enclosures called “catios”. “The reality is that we are where we are now, and cats are really important for people,” she said.
Governments are beginning to enforce containment. In the Australian Capital Territory, all cats born after 1 July 2022 must be contained 24 hours a day. Some shelters now only adopt to owners who agree to contain their cat, and local councils have introduced overnight “cat curfews”. A federal draft plan to tackle feral cats also includes measures for managing pet cats.
