Kids. Hunting cats!?
Possums, rabbits and rats are one thing. But cats?
Before we get into it, relax, cat lovers, it is not going forward. No cats were harmed in the writing of this newsletter.
Here’s the deal: In New Zealand, the North Canterbury Hunting Competition happens every year, where children younger than 14 have the opportunity to hunt various species. There are ducks and deer of course, but what’s relevant to this story is that they can hunt stoats, weasels, ferrets, possums, rabbits and rats. Whoever kills the most gets a prize. The funds raised (from entry fees) go to charity.
This year, they decided to open up a contest to kill feral cats. If you killed one with a microchip (an owned cat, though it’s not required to microchip it is highly encouraged) you would be disqualified. After swift and loud backlash from within and outside New Zealand, the cat hunt disappeared.
Why are the small weasely things relevant? Because they are part of Predator Free 2050, a move to get New Zealand free of all mammalian predators in the country. New Zealand has no native mammal predators, so all the stoats, rats, cats, etc on the islands arrived courtesy of humans. And like humans, the predators, particularly the rats and the cats, have started driving the native species extinct.
In an effort to stop this, Predator Free 2050 is a wide-scale initiative to try to trap, poison and otherwise get rid of mammalian predators. Cats are not on the list for Predator Free 2050, but stoats, possums, rats, rabbits (not predators but cause erosion), and many others are.
And lest you be horrified that anyone is encouraging children to kill animals…well, that’s actually quite par for the course. As part of Predator Free 2050, school kids build rat traps and bait them (and paint them with fun things like angry birds).
Stoats, weasels, rats, possums. No one got upset. But cats? New Zealand has an interesting relationship with cats. Many New Zealanders own cats and love them. They also, by and large, believe those cats should spend time outside. In research for my book, I spoke with a lot of people about cats in New Zealand. People there relate to their cats’ independence, they have a right to roam. Surveys show that 67 percent of the veterinarians in the country believed that keeping cats inside all the time would actually be bad for the cat.
But cats are also a scourge of the native wildlife, whether they come home at night or not. Right now, Predator Free 2050 focuses on feral cats as being the problem. But there’s no biological difference between a feral cat and an owned one.
This whole cat-astrophe (eh??) highlights something that I focused on in my book. A lot of what makes an animal a pest, what makes an animal something we feel good about killing, is what we believe about it. In the case of New Zealand, weasels and rats and possums are unalloyed villains. They are invasive, they are eating native wildlife, they need to leave.
But cats? There our knowledge of what’s going on with the environment clashes up against our beliefs about them. We love our cats (I certainly love mine), and while we admit they can be creepy little murderers, we also put our own feelings on them. We watch loads of cat videos and snuggle them in our laps. To say a cat is a pest? To make it something a school child could and should kill for a competition? It’s several steps over the line.
Our complex and tough feelings about cats highlight the fact that, when we call an animal an invasive species or a pest, and we make it ok to kill, we are the ones making a judgement call, one based on our feelings, and not on evidence. Pests are about what we believe, about where we believe different species belong, and what we believe they should be doing.
Where have you been?
I really hope it’s reading about a giant time capsule made of shit. Bird poop actually. And it can tell us a lot about Andean Condors! The best science from shitty birds. Hehehehe.
Maybe it was applying for a job at the Blackpool zoo? They are looking for someone outgoing to wear a big ol’ eagle costume and scare the gulls away. Prime opportunity for someone who had a bird fursona, I would think. I actually DO have experience as a costumed character in my job history…hmmmm…
This African giant pouched rat was trained to sniff for landmines, but it turned out she had agoraphobia (which makes good sense, if you’re a rat). Now? She’s a rat ambassador teaching people about her species. I wanna snuggle her.
Where have I been?
Thrilled to be on Science Friday again this past week, talking about rats with esteemed rodentologist Bobby Corrigan! We talked all things ratty, including why NYC has such a terrible rat problem. Answer? Trash. Which is why I was very pleased to see a recent push to containerize (translation, use big honking trashcans). Managing trash will do what traps and poisons never could.
Otherwise, I did join BlueSky, the latest hotness for social media, you can follow me there at @beebrookshire.bsky.socil. TIL that a truly astonishing number of other science communicators out there are both horny, and thirsty. This makes for a lot of butt jokes. I approve.