With Griffith resident Susan Gorgievska coming forward to express her chagrin at having the feral cats culled at Griffin Plaza, the response has been overwhelming – and not all in agreement.
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After The Area News story featured on Wednesday, residents and businesses have had a lot to say.
Griffith City Council have taken notice, and said the issue of the cats has been on their radar for some time, and say one of the solutions is responsible cat ownership.
Director Sustainable Development Phil Harding said council work closely with rescue organisations in an attempt to re-home unwanted pets.
“The best method of controlling cat and dog populations is through responsible pet ownership and ensuring pets are de-sexed, micro-chipped and registered,” Mr Harding said.
“Council does work with a large number of rescue organisation to attempt to re-home unwanted cats, dogs, puppies and kittens, however unsocialised cats and dogs are very difficult to place.
He said council is obliged to accept all animals at its facility be they unwanted, aggressive or feral, however there is a never ending stream of unwanted cats, dogs and feral animals and not enough people to take them in.
“Council is obliged to accept all animals at its facility be they unwanted, aggressive or feral.
A poll posted on Facebook showed 80 per cent of people who participated were supportive of culling – and the comments flowed freely.
What you said:
“This issue is Griffith wide and there are increasing numbers in the Memorial Park amongst other areas. Needs a collaborative approach as the numbers are well out of hand. They are a health hazard and kill other wildlife, pass on diseases, and many people comment that they can hear them 'fighting' and 'hissing' in the park,” Quest Griffith said.
“No one wants to address this issue, they are feral, they need to go humanely. Sad but true,” Julie Marcus King said.
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And Chris Brugger agreed: “Feral cats are just that, feral. There is only one way to deal with the issue and that’s culling.”
Anthony Short said he had noticed the woman feeding the cats, and said while he can understand her motivation, think’s she fails to understand the damage they do to native wildlife.
Other ways
Amid the abundance of calls for the cats to be culled, Shelly Duke agreed with council about responsible pet ownership, and said culling is only the first step.
“Although feeding feral cats seems to be a kind gesture, its actually causing cats to congregate in certain areas which leads to more breeding and more feral cats,” she said.
“Unfortunately culling is the first step in a permanent solution, the next is people desexing their pets and keeping cats indoors/cat cages so they don’t get lost and end up on the streets creating more issues for wildlife, businesses and other residents.”
But is it the way? Others, the 20 per cent minority, said no.
“’Feral’ is the most overused word when talking about homeless cats. They are scared and do what they can to survive, having by and large been dumped,” Lorene Mesanovic said.
“Culls have been proven time and again not to work, as it just creates an empty place for other cats to move in to. TNR (trap, neuter, release (sometimes known as return) is the only workable solution, when combined with mandatory (and policed) desexing and bans on home/backyard breeding.”
Spending five years working in an animal rescue organisation, Shae Mortimer said feeding them is making the situation worse.
“Its encouraging growth of the colony. It used to just be a few cats, but because people started to feed them, the population has exploded over the last 12 months,” Ms Mortimer said.
“Feeding isn't helping. Desexing is. I’ve already tried to convince trap/neuter/release programs to come out and help, and I was told to contact the local rescue groups to get them to help. That will never happen.”