Think Breakfast: The ethics of feral cat control
Feral cats have been problematic predators in Australian ecosystems for generations, pushing dozens of native marsupials to the brink of extinction. To deal with the issue, the Australian Government’s new Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews has waged a “war on cats”, vowing to cull two million feral cats by 2020 using traps, 1080 poison baiting and even helicopter air raids.
Think: Sustainability producer Miles Herbert talked to Nic about how these “pest” elimination campaigns raise challenging semantic and ethical questions about how we manage wildlife in our ecosystems. What really defines a species as “feral”, a “pest” or a “native”? And are these culling methods actually the most effective way to manage invasive species populations?
Catch the full story on Think:Sustainability, where Miles met with academics from the UTS Centre for Compassionate Conservation and representatives from the Invasive Species Council.
