PING AUSTRALIAN MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

A friend passed this along I don't know if it is fact or fiction but you
folks from down under can tell us

http://www.petitiononline.com/straysRL/petition.html


Help save Yarriambiak Shire's Stray Cats.

To: Yarriambiak Shire Council - VIC - AUSTRALIA
We are against the 'Yarriambiak Shire council's plan to collect and
euthanize the shire's stray cats. We find that plan to be inhumane and an
impermanent solution.

Its people who have un- sterilized animals that cause these problems as many
'dump' or 'abandon' the kittens, hence the 'strays'. The strays then mate
and cause further strays.

1) *We request the current strays to be re-homed, and sterilized
2) *We demand that the council bring in a law for all residents to have
their cats sterilized. - Make it mandatory.


We feel that the above-mentioned changes* would lead to an effective,
permanent respected and friendly solution to the 'Yarriambiak Shires' stray
cat crisis.
Sincerely,

I haven't head of this at all. Yarriambiak Shire does exist, it is in
Victoria in a very rural, underpopulated part of the state. I looked
on the Shire's webpage and there is no mention, anywhere, of a
co-ordinated move to control feral cats. Without further
corroborating evidence (like a notice on the Shire's web page or a
newspaper article), I would suspect that this person is either
perpetrating a hoax or being malicious.

Feral cats is an on-going problem in Australia. Feral cats are the
top predators in many Australian ecosystems and their predation on
native wildlife has caused enormous problems and has rendered many
native species endangered. Australia is not proud to have the largest
number of endangered mammals in the world and cats are a large part of
this (land clearing and loss of habitat are the other major factors).

Humane feral cat control is very important, but it is time-consuming
and very expensive. Rural shires like Yarriambiak would not, I
imagine, have the financial or manpower resources to put into place
such a program, but would approach it on an ad hoc basis.

JMHO
Tish

On Mon, 15 May 2006 14:07:53 GMT, "Matthew aka NMR"
wrote:

A friend passed this along I don't know if it is fact or fiction but you
folks from down under can tell us

http://www.petitiononline.com/straysRL/petition.html


Help save Yarriambiak Shire's Stray Cats.

To: Yarriambiak Shire Council - VIC - AUSTRALIA
We are against the 'Yarriambiak Shire council's plan to collect and
euthanize the shire's stray cats. We find that plan to be inhumane and an
impermanent solution.

Its people who have un- sterilized animals that cause these problems as many
'dump' or 'abandon' the kittens, hence the 'strays'. The strays then mate
and cause further strays.

1) *We request the current strays to be re-homed, and sterilized
2) *We demand that the council bring in a law for all residents to have
their cats sterilized. - Make it mandatory.


We feel that the above-mentioned changes* would lead to an effective,
permanent respected and friendly solution to the 'Yarriambiak Shires' stray
cat crisis.
Sincerely,

Hello,

This petition is indeed a real one. I am the person who started it, and i
have put much effort and spirit into ensuring its facts are based on real
plans. I have a friend who has contacts and i cant say more about that or
that person may lose their job.

It is a real petition and any further qquestions can be addressed to me at
my email or here.

However its rather self explanitory. I do give you my word it is a true
petition that i will be presenting to the council along with a woman that
lives in that area at some stage in the not to far off future.

Kind Regards rachael

Just agreeing with Tish's comments and adding my own.

First I need to point out that there is nothing that approaches the
effeciency and hunting prowess of a cat in our natural ecosystem, and
therefore our own native wildlife have not evolved ways to survive such an
animal in the environment. For example, the mouse and the rabbit survive by
breeding like mad, so that there will always be some rabbits and some mice
around, even if the cat eats hundreds of them a year. In comparison, our
native equivalents of mice and rabbits have only one breeding cycle per year
(and depending onthe climate, may notbreed for several years in a row) and
then only produce one or two offspring from that breeding cycle. Our native
naimals do not replace themselves very quickly, and don't need to be kept
'in check' by predators feeding onthem. Our animals are also not that
'quick' and don't run, duck or scurry or even fight back when confronted by
a predator, because ttheir only predators would be snakes, not other
four-footed creatures. So whena cat enters this delicate balance, it can do
some serious damage, really quickly. And cats aren't stupid - of there is
easy prey and there is hard prey, they'll go for the easy, slow prey first.
A cat will hunt the native animals first because they're easier.

That is the problem with cats in Australia. If they'd only go after european
mice, european rats, european rabbits, european sprarrows, european
starlings, european pidgeons, the indian mynah birds, and the blasted cane
toad, feral cats would be very very popular. Sadly, they don't.

So whilst catching, sterilising and rehoming all the feral (not stray, in
Australia, there's a difference) is an ideal solution, its not realistic.
Firstly, feral cats here in Australia are generationally feral; only the
storngest, biggest, meanest and smartest have survived out there, and
they've bred to make bigger, smarter & meaner offspring. They are no longer
the stray cat looking for a home but almost a different breed entirely -
they are now quite similar to the American Bob Cat in that they are bigger,
meaner, smarter and alot wilder than the housecats they've been bred from,
hence the distinction between the terms 'stray' and 'feral'. No-one expects
people to consider catching a wild bobcat, sterilising it, and then adopting
it as a pet, but this is what is being asked of Australians.

The second is cost. To rehome all these animals - assuming anyone would want
to keep a wild bob-cat like creature in their home in the first place -
would be huge. To start with, you'd have to catch them. That means the cost
of traps, the cost of people laying the traps, the cost of people
*patrolling* the traps, plus allt he other costs assocaiated with running a
trapping program. Then you'd have to sterilise all the cats and ensure that
they are healthy enough to be re-homed. That involves more costs, such as
vetinary care. Then you have to keep the cats until a suitable home comes
up, and hopefully domesticate them a bit which would involve trainers. Now
considering that our animal shelters are already full of unwanted housecats,
its going to take a *long* while to find homes for these wild animals, and
while they are waiting they still have to be housed, fed and cared for, and
we aren't talking about one or two cats, it could easily be over 500,
possibly more than 1000, depending on the size of the shire.

If on the other hand, said cats were merely sterlised and released back into
the wild, whilst it would prevent the cat from producing more cats, it would
not do anythign for the already endangered wildlife that each cat will hunt
and kill during its lifetime.

I 110% agree that it ought to be utterly mandatory to have all cats (and
dogs for that matter) sterilised not just in Yarriambiak but throughout
Australia (unless said cat is a registered breeding cat under the care of a
registered and licenced breeder, I guess), but the sterilisation and
rehoming of all the stray & feral cats in Yarriambiak just can't be done
without a horde of volunteers and even more money, and I doubt they, as a
rural area in the midst of the worst drought in 100 years, have either.

I'm going to signt he petition because I support the mandatory sterlisiation
of cats, and the humane treatment of animals, but I susepct that the
petition won't do much to change Yarriambiak's councils mind on the matter.
However, I am sure if anyone has a more practical solution to the problem of
feral cats, that they'd love to hear from you.

Yowie
(donning the asbestos undies)

"Tish Silberbauer" wrote in message
...
I haven't head of this at all. Yarriambiak Shire does exist, it is in
Victoria in a very rural, underpopulated part of the state. I looked
on the Shire's webpage and there is no mention, anywhere, of a
co-ordinated move to control feral cats. Without further
corroborating evidence (like a notice on the Shire's web page or a
newspaper article), I would suspect that this person is either
perpetrating a hoax or being malicious.

Feral cats is an on-going problem in Australia. Feral cats are the
top predators in many Australian ecosystems and their predation on
native wildlife has caused enormous problems and has rendered many
native species endangered. Australia is not proud to have the largest
number of endangered mammals in the world and cats are a large part of
this (land clearing and loss of habitat are the other major factors).

Humane feral cat control is very important, but it is time-consuming
and very expensive. Rural shires like Yarriambiak would not, I
imagine, have the financial or manpower resources to put into place
such a program, but would approach it on an ad hoc basis.

JMHO
Tish

On Mon, 15 May 2006 14:07:53 GMT, "Matthew aka NMR"
wrote:

A friend passed this along I don't know if it is fact or fiction but you
folks from down under can tell us

http://www.petitiononline.com/straysRL/petition.html


Help save Yarriambiak Shire's Stray Cats.

To: Yarriambiak Shire Council - VIC - AUSTRALIA
We are against the 'Yarriambiak Shire council's plan to collect and
euthanize the shire's stray cats. We find that plan to be inhumane and an
impermanent solution.

Its people who have un- sterilized animals that cause these problems as
many
'dump' or 'abandon' the kittens, hence the 'strays'. The strays then mate
and cause further strays.

1) *We request the current strays to be re-homed, and sterilized
2) *We demand that the council bring in a law for all residents to have
their cats sterilized. - Make it mandatory.


We feel that the above-mentioned changes* would lead to an effective,
permanent respected and friendly solution to the 'Yarriambiak Shires'
stray
cat crisis.
Sincerely,

Hello again,

I got an email from the Local Laws officer of that shire, just so i have
some back up and so there is no doubt that this is a REAl petition. Here is
a quote from the email. "we do at times have to destroy many unwanted cats "

If anyone would like to see this entire email do let me know. Please keep
passing on the petition it is urgent.

Kind regards Rachael

Thanks, Rachel, for your post. It is good to know it isn't a hoax.

Tish

On Mon, 15 May 2006 23:49:55 GMT, "Brad & Rach"
wrote:

Hello,

This petition is indeed a real one. I am the person who started it, and i
have put much effort and spirit into ensuring its facts are based on real
plans. I have a friend who has contacts and i cant say more about that or
that person may lose their job.

It is a real petition and any further qquestions can be addressed to me at
my email or here.

However its rather self explanitory. I do give you my word it is a true
petition that i will be presenting to the council along with a woman that
lives in that area at some stage in the not to far off future.

Kind Regards rachael

"Brad & Rach" wrote in message
...
Hello,

This petition is indeed a real one. I am the person who started it, and i
have put much effort and spirit into ensuring its facts are based on real
plans. I have a friend who has contacts and i cant say more about that or
that person may lose their job.

It is a real petition and any further qquestions can be addressed to me at
my email or here.

However its rather self explanitory. I do give you my word it is a true
petition that i will be presenting to the council along with a woman that
lives in that area at some stage in the not to far off future.

I have just talked to Greg the Animal Control Officer at Yarriambiack shire
council (you can contact him via the number listed on the Yarriambiack Shire
Council webpage http://www.yarriambiack.vic.gov.au/ )

The problem of the stray cat or 'semi-owned' cat in Yarriambiack is a real
one, and Greg, the animal control officer, is doing everything he can with
his limited resources, to deal with it. He is not just going out,
collecting, and killing stray cats. He'd much prefer everyone just desex
their cats so there wouldn't be this problem. He is in fact trying to make
the desexing of domestic animals in the shire mandatory. He *likes* cats!

However, he does have to do something about the massive numbers of stray
cats in his shire. Like any animal officer, he has to remove nuisance
animals. The pound he is also in charge of is small, and no-one will buy a
cat from the pound for $150 (which is what they have to charge to cover the
cost of desexing and the vetinary care necessary to ensure that the animal
is healhty enough to adopt) when there are lots of stray cats around for
free. Since he can't keep an animal in the pound forever, like any pound in
Australia, if an animal is not collected or adopted after 8 days, and they
dont have the resources to continue its board, it is euthanised. He hates
doing it, but doesnt' have any other options; there are no homes for these
cats to go to.

He has the support of the Cat Protection League, and is trying to do his job
in the most humane way possible. He doesnt' need the abusive hatemail,
especially if it doesn't have a return address so he can't reply with the
facts. He is working closely with Rachel, who started the petition, to find
a reasonable and practical solution to the problem.

Yarriambiack Shire is no different to any other place that has too many cats
and not enough homes. It is not a heartless council with ailurophobic (cat
hating) tendencies. Greg is just one guy who has a massive problem and
almost no funding or resources to deal with it, and a populace that thinks
that desexing is an uinnecessary expense for a pet that lives outdoors
anyway. Sign the petition to make desexing mandatory if you like, but please
don't abuse Greg. He's on our (and the cat's) side.

Yowie

Hello all,

I dont know who if anyone at all abused Greg, i havnt heard of this from
Greg, and abuse is not the way to a solution.

However we do need to stan up for our 4 legged friends i dont, nor will i
ever support this type of culling and am trying to help Greg come to a
solution for the shire that will result in the cats being re-homes, or
speyed, released etc.

Its definatly a huge problem, what is even huger of a problem to me is
murder. I am trying to help Greg, he does seem like a friendly person, and
his emails to and from me are teaching ech other more and more each day.

The bottom line is that this petition is against the culling of cats and to
introduce a law to have pets desexed.

Please if anyone has anything to say, make it constructive. I dont approve
of rudeness.. (most of the time ;-)

Rachael x

On 2006-05-17, Brad & Rach penned:

The bottom line is that this petition is against the culling of cats
and to introduce a law to have pets desexed.

I'm not in Australia, let alone your Shire, so I can't say much ...
but unless you can get taxes earmarked for the purposes of sheltering
and speutering the cats, I don't see how the petition can work.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

"Brad & Rach" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I dont know who if anyone at all abused Greg, i havnt heard of this from
Greg, and abuse is not the way to a solution.

He's getting anonymous hatemail. Not from you, he was quick to add, but he's
getting it. He said he was learning alot from you - he's only been inthe job
12 months and didn't really know how to handle the problem when he started,
but knew *something* had to be done. Bless him for trying to do the Right
Thing.

However we do need to stan up for our 4 legged friends i dont, nor will i
ever support this type of culling and am trying to help Greg come to a
solution for the shire that will result in the cats being re-homes, or
speyed, released etc.

*Please* don't release unhomed cats back into the streets. Whilst they won't
breed after speutering, stray cats still cause a problem as 'nuisance
animals', still decimate local wildlife, and still remain vectors for cat
diseases.

Its definatly a huge problem, what is even huger of a problem to me is
murder. I am trying to help Greg, he does seem like a friendly person, and
his emails to and from me are teaching ech other more and more each day.

The bottom line is that this petition is against the culling of cats and
to introduce a law to have pets desexed.

Please if anyone has anything to say, make it constructive. I dont approve
of rudeness.. (most of the time ;-)

Rachael, I'm not disagreeing with you. In fact, I would love to see all
kitties (indeed, all pets) everywhere born wanted, and placed in loving and
caring foreverhomes, never to see a hungry stray or wary feral ever again.

My concern with your petition is that the problem of the stray cats is not
unique to Yarriambiack shire, not rural Victoria, nor just Australia. It
happens all over the world. In every pound across the world, good, friendly,
lovable and loving animals - cats, dogs, rabbits, horses etc etc - are put
down for no other reason that they don't have a home to go to. It happens
here in Wollongong - I've been there looking for a dog. I've been to the one
in Shellharbour too, and the story was the same. "Sorry, there's no room and
we don't have the money or resources to keep animals. Legislation allows us
to euthanise them if they haven't been claimed within 8 day. We hate doing
it, some really great animals come through here, but its the most humane
solution we have". Its heart breaking, and happens everywehre there are
irresponsible and/or ignorant pet owners.

Therefore, I wonder why you've chosen to single out Yarriambiack shire, when
it seems that Greg the Animal Control Officer is actually doing the best he
can. He *wants* to have the laws change to make desexing mandatory. He
*agrees* that its the people who don't desex their pets, and who dump
unwanted kittens that are the source of the problem.

My fear, by singling out a small rural shire in rural Victoria that has far
less resources than major city councils, is that the negative publicity
generated will make the situation worse, or perhaps turn Greg off-side (or
even make him quit, and be replaced by a cat hater). I'd hate to think that
the limited amount of money that would othewise go to helping the cat
situation would instead be spent on counteracting the negative effects of
your petition. I am also concerned that had you turned your attention - and
I know its well meaning - to perhaps a Capital City pound, you'd save alot
more cats and get *alot* more support from the residents there. After all,
the population of the entire Yarriambiack shire is less than 8000 people -
whereas a place like Sydney for example has about 5 *million* people who you
could reach with the same message.

Again, I am absolutely 110% in agreement with you about not wanting cats
killed, and making it law that all cats must be desexed (ought to be law
anywhere pets are allowed to be kept, IMHO). I would, however, suggest that
if you are concerned with the unnecessary slaughter of 'unwanted' animals,
you'd be far more effective if you dealt with your own council (as a
resident you'll have far more clout than as an 'out of town stranger'), and
volunteer some of your time and/or money down at your local pound, rather
than to bother the folks in Yarriambiack who are - as far as I can see -
trying to do the right thing with the limited resources available to them.
It would also save Greg getting hatemail from all around the world.

YMMV

Yowie