Australia's federal government is once again in the spotlight for a years-old plan to cull 2 million feral cats by 2020, this time after details emerged about the reported use of poison-laced sausages to reduce the island's wild cat population.
Modern feral cats are the same species as domesticated house cats, but they hunt and survive in the wild without human contact. Scientists have linked the large cat population's predatory behaviors with the decline and, in some cases, the extinction of more than two dozen of Australia's native species.
The country's Department of the Environment and Energy in 2015 unveiled its threatened species strategy, which included four main pillars: reducing the feral cat population, establishing safe havens for at-risk species, improving habitats and carrying out emergency interventions for species facing extinction. [ Ссылка ]
