August 10, 2013
Townsville Bulletin
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| GRISLY WARNING: Duncan Fysh at the front gate to his property, Proa Station, which features the carcasses of feral cats. Mr Fysh has made his property a no-go zone for the wild animals | Photo: EVAN MORGAN |
Apart from the impact the cats have on local bird and reptile life, they pose a threat to the remaining population of marsupial dunnarts in the Julia Creek area.
Even more concerning is the fact Mr Sollitt is finding just as many feral cats in the town's dunnart protection zone, a 7.5 kilometre netting exclusion fence built around the Julia Creek airport.
The zone is supposed to be a safe haven for the dunnart, a place where they can breed and hopefully keep on perpetuating the species.
Mr Sollitt says he can trap 2000 a month outside the netting perimeter fence and another 2000 inside.
Even though the netting is dug into the ground, animals such as kangaroos and foxes dig holes underneath which the cats use to come and go as they please. It is a worrying development and not one that is easily countered.
"I can go out at night and shoot 40 cats," he said.
Mr Sollitt, a former dingo fence trapper, said that apart from cats, he traps five to six foxes a week. He said they were another animal that preys on the dunnarts.
He said the cats come and go depending on the seasons, but whatever the case, there is always hundreds if not "'thousands of cats around".
He said zebra and plum headed finches, once common in the Julia Creek area, are now hard to find.
"You could be driving around and a flock of 300 or 400 of red beaked zebra finches would fly up in front of you," he said.
"Now you might see three or four. It's gone from when we would see birds to now where you drive around the perimeter fence at the airport and all you'll see are little piles of feathers. "Peewees, soldier birds, magpies, pigeons - the cats get them all."
Mr Sollitt would like to see politicians take a stronger stand against feral cats. He says he knows politicians are afraid of losing the "cat lover's vote" if they mount any proposals to get rid of feral felines.
"Dog lovers don't stop voting for the government because it allows the baiting of wild dogs. What's so different about wild cats?" he asks.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2013/08/10/387049_news.html?utm_content=bufferfc579&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer#.Ug2FfZOIu3I.twitter
Even more concerning is the fact Mr Sollitt is finding just as many feral cats in the town's dunnart protection zone, a 7.5 kilometre netting exclusion fence built around the Julia Creek airport.
The zone is supposed to be a safe haven for the dunnart, a place where they can breed and hopefully keep on perpetuating the species.
Mr Sollitt says he can trap 2000 a month outside the netting perimeter fence and another 2000 inside.
Even though the netting is dug into the ground, animals such as kangaroos and foxes dig holes underneath which the cats use to come and go as they please. It is a worrying development and not one that is easily countered.
"I can go out at night and shoot 40 cats," he said.
Mr Sollitt, a former dingo fence trapper, said that apart from cats, he traps five to six foxes a week. He said they were another animal that preys on the dunnarts.
He said the cats come and go depending on the seasons, but whatever the case, there is always hundreds if not "'thousands of cats around".
He said zebra and plum headed finches, once common in the Julia Creek area, are now hard to find.
"You could be driving around and a flock of 300 or 400 of red beaked zebra finches would fly up in front of you," he said.
"Now you might see three or four. It's gone from when we would see birds to now where you drive around the perimeter fence at the airport and all you'll see are little piles of feathers. "Peewees, soldier birds, magpies, pigeons - the cats get them all."
Mr Sollitt would like to see politicians take a stronger stand against feral cats. He says he knows politicians are afraid of losing the "cat lover's vote" if they mount any proposals to get rid of feral felines.
"Dog lovers don't stop voting for the government because it allows the baiting of wild dogs. What's so different about wild cats?" he asks.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2013/08/10/387049_news.html?utm_content=bufferfc579&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer#.Ug2FfZOIu3I.twitter
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