The government-sanctioned killing of millions of cats in Australia must be stopped. It's happening right now.
Please sign to tell the Australian government that shooting, poisoning, trapping and bounty-killing outdoor cats is cruel and unacceptable.
UPDATE (June 28, 2023): As long as outdoor cats are being killed, ACR will continue to send messages of protest. We will send another letter to these government officials and additional policy-makers once we pass 100,000 signatures!
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UPDATE (Aug 31, 2021): ACR has mailed a letter to the AU Minister for the Environment, Threatened Species Commissioner, and Ambassador to the US. Excerpts from the letter:
Alley Cat Rescue and 94,477 petition signees from around the globe urge you to end government sanctioning of cat culling throughout Australia.
Not only is the practice inhumane, it is based on dramatically bloated figures; when the cat elimination program was announced as part of the Threatened Species Strategy, it was based on an estimate that there are up to 20 million feral cats on the continent. However, a study published in 20171 revealed there to be no scientific evidence behind the 20 million number revised that number down significantly, with new estimates putting the number between 2.1 and 6.3 million...
Humane, non-lethal solutions, like exclusionary fencing or traps for trap-neuter-return, are just as available as guns and poisons. Tax-payer dollars spent creating new poisons and contraptions to deliver them could be re-purposed toward spay/neuter programs and sanctuaries for threatened animals...
Please follow the true mathematics and outlaw cat extermination.
Sincerely,
Louise Holton
President/Founder
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The government-sanctioned killing of millions of cats in Australia must be stopped. It's happening right now.
Please sign to tell the Australian government that shooting, poisoning, trapping and bounty-killing outdoor cats is cruel and unacceptable.
The scheme to kill 2 million cats by 2020 is unfortunately well underway, and according to recent news, more than 211,000 were killed during the program's first year.
When the program was announced as part of the country's Threatened Species Strategy, it was based on an estimate that there are up to 20 million feral cats on the continent. A close look revealed there to be no scientific evidence behind the 20 million number and subsequent study has revised that number down significantly, with new estimates putting the number between 2.1 and 6.3 million.
Scientists are again calling attention to the fact that the 2 million goal itself is based on unreliable population estimates, has no concrete relationship to the desired goal, and that the entire scheme lacks a way to reliably measure results.
This doesn't need to happen. Humane, non-lethal solutions, like exclusionary fencing or traps for trap-neuter-return, are just as available as guns and poisons. Tax-payer dollars spent creating new poisons and contraptions to deliver them could be re-purposed toward spay/neuter programs and sanctuaries for threatened animals.
The moral choice is clear: Australia must end its cat cull now and stop promoting lethal animal management tactics to its citizens. They don't work and often backfire.
Please sign in memory of the hundreds of thousands of feline lives already lost and demand an end to this tragedy.
