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Stop Australia's Sick Plans to Massacre Cats with Poison-Dropping Drones

Stop Australia's Sick Plans to Massacre Cats with Poison-Dropping Drones

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

Christmas Island is a small 52 square mile island off the northwest coast of Australia. The Australian government estimates there are “hundreds of feral cats” on the island and has allotted nearly AU $2 million to inhumanely shoot, trap, and poison these cats - including dropping toxic cat bait from the sky!

Yes, you read that correctly. The Australian government is enlisting the use of aerial drones to poison cats. The drones will fly around the island indiscriminately dropping poisoned bait through the island’s rainforest canopy in the hopes that cats will consume the bait and die. Poisoning cats in unacceptable and cruel, not to mention the fact that other animals could also eat the poisoned bait and die, likely including some of the animals this absurd plan is supposed to protect.

The Australian government contends that cats are not native to the island and predate many of the islands native animals, including some birds and small mammals. We understand the need to control cat populations, however, with so few cats on the island - just a few hundred by government estimates - a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program would be far cheaper to implement, more productive, less controversial, and most importantly, it would be the only truly ethical or truly humane option.

The Australian government has announced a plan to kill 2 MILLION feral cats by 2020. This plan includes completely removing all cats (feral or friendly animal companions) from several islands, including Christmas Island. The sterilization of companion cats living on the island is already mandatory, as is a rule stating that no additional cats may be brought to the island. Both are good plans to get to the ideal of zero population growth, but killing cats (and likely many other animals) by cruelly poisoning them is simply wrong.

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