Anyone who reads my editorials, or who knows me even the slightest, knows that I love my cats. I love all cats. Even the neighbour’s cats who use my yard as their litter box (I don’t love that). I love dogs. Heck, I love animals. So what’s new?
There’s a fellow in New Zealand who wants to eradicate cats from his country because they’re killing the birds.
“That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer,” says Gareth Morgan.
I think that’s one of the reasons why I love them, although unlike dogs, I’ve never heard of a pack of domestic cats attacking and killing a human.
Cats, dogs and rodents, all introduced to New Zealand by humans, have wiped out several bird species.
So why target cats? Why not dogs? Why not the humans who brought them?
Maybe I should have become a pet police instead of a journalist, because hearing about dumb ideas like this just gets my fur up. You know that there are going to be a few loonies out there who will use it as an excuse to commit some sort of atrocity.
However, the 49 per of New Zealanders who share with homes with cats (1.4 million cats!) have gone on record as rejecting Mr. Morgan’s call to let the line of cats die a natural death there.
I have had the privilege of knowing some very fine felines over my lifetime, and know that I’m a better person for it. How ridiculous is it to believe that eradicating one species will bring back another one and leave everything in balance? It’s humankind’s meddling that tends to throw everything out of whack.
Oh yes, and I feed the wild birds throughout the winter as well. I’ve watched plenty of cats in recent weeks, walk past dozens of birds at my feeders without even glancing their way. I’ve seen more birds eating birds than I’ve seen cats eating birds.
And while I advocate spaying and neutering and keeping your pets in the house or confined to the yard, Mother Nature will select who stays and who goes.
I think that when the last human on Earth draws their last breath, a cat will be watching.
Wendy Coomber is editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal
