I am not here to make the case that cats should be kept indoors for the sake of local wildlife – that case has been made over and over and over and over again. Cat owners know these arguments, and if they have not been persuaded by the fact that cats kill more than 6 million native animals in Australia a day they will not be persuaded by me.
There is a fairly tedious assumption that if you love wildlife you must hate cats, and visa versa. And nothing will turn cat people off faster than encountering a person who hates cats.
I understand this. I also hate people who hate cats. So let’s set the birds and the bettongs to one side for the moment, and consider the other, obvious fact: cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats.
I’m surprised by this.
Considering that NZ is the country where one individual is responsible for an entire extinction, and modern NZ is one of the most progressive countries in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall's_wren
I’m sorry but New Zealanders generally make Aussies look like Woodstock-era hippies.
They are very conservative generally.
I wish people would stop putting NZ on a pedestal. They have ceded often to agricultural interests over environmental concerns resulting in untold damage. The damage they have done to their soil and waterways is apocalyptic.
I always giggle at the idea of Billionaires “escaping” there not realising the soil is completely depleted already and the water table is poisoned by agricultural runoff.