Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has released a draft feral cat management plan.
The government’s new Threat Abatement Plan aims to co-ordinate national efforts to reduce the impacts of feral cats on native wildlife.
It follows extensive consultation with Indigenous ranger groups and First Nations organisations around the country, with members of the national Feral Cat Taskforce, and with threatened species and cat management experts.
The plan also prioritises ongoing cat control in areas with important populations of threatened species that are highly vulnerable to cats, but which can persist as long as cat numbers are kept low.
Cat owners can help by desexing their pet and keeping it indoors or in a cat run at all times.
In a generation, the idea of keeping cats as pets will be considered socially unacceptable in Australia, and even sharing cute cat photos online will be considered as unacceptable as using racial slurs. Cat memes will be replaced with marsupial memes, much in the way that the Easter Bilby replaced its invasive vermin predecessor.
