Australia's war on cats
Australia has declared war on cats. Feral cats. Feral cats who eat wombats. The Economist reports:
"Australia has one of the world’s highest rates of mammal extinctions—29 have been recorded over [a little] more than two centuries. Feral cats are reckoned to be culprits in 27 of those disappearances: among them the desert bandicoot, the crescent nailtail wallaby and the large-eared hopping mouse. ... They are often huge, weighing 15 kilograms. And they eat perhaps 75m Australian animals a day... Ten cat-free sanctuaries are planned across Australia over the next four years. [Ministers] aim to reintroduce several threatened mammals there, including the mala, a winsome creature resembling a tiny wallaby, which disappeared from mainland Australia 25 years ago. The project will also give jobs to the local Ngalia Warlpiri aboriginal clan. Its senior women, says Mr Fleming, are “extremely good cat hunters”.
But what will be done with the cats? I was asked. You don't want to know, I said. The mind balks. You know how the Ngalia Warlpiri are... But it will give those senior women something to do.
Now what could our European friends do to establish zones where females of our species could roam free of fear of molestation, grooming each other, and purring?
Felicitous felicide, indeed! Nonsense! We can find homes for them here, can't we, chaps?