In recent years, the number of Chinese people who keep pet cats is growing rapidly. Everyone is impressed by this soft, cute creature, but while feeding pets, stray cats and dogs on the street have also been growing. Perhaps, you think that the harm of stray cats and dogs is not enough to affect the ecological environment, but in fact, after many years, perhaps their harm is far more than that.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > soft pets a scourge</h1>
According to the Australian Animal Protection Organisation in June 2020, an average of 390 mammals, 225 reptiles and 130 birds are killed per year per wild cat, more than 1.4 billion animals are killed each year, the survival of hundreds of native animals is seriously threatened, and more than 99% of the land in Australia has been invaded by cats. The large number of diseases transmitted through cats still seriously affects the livestock industry, and according to statistics, the economic loss to Australia is more than 6 billion Australian dollars per year.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > wildcats were originally pet cats</h1>
One thing is for sure, they set foot in Australia with the first colonists.
In 1788, British colonists established the first colony in southeastern Australia, New South Wales, as a penal colony for native British prisoners. Cats were brought to mainland Australia during this time period. Exiled to Australia were not only commoners, but also criminal aristocrats who came to Australia with their pets.
Abandoned or the owner dies, cats begin to move from home to the wild, and in the next 70 years, pet cats become feral cats and begin to spread throughout Australia.
No one remembers that australia had a unique species formed by the feralization of pet cats until 1980, when Davis, Wally and Ralph Prentiss's Wildcats in Australia revealed the shocking fact that the extinction of many marsupial and placental mammals in Australia was due to wild cats.
So Australia began to exterminate cats, sterilizing cats, hunting wildcats in large numbers, building cat fences... Undoubtedly, The wild cats in Australia have a rather limited living space.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" > abandoned pets be cautious</h1>
The lesson of Australia is tragic, and while the abundance of local wildcats has a lot to do with Australia's "paradise" geography, it also serves as a warning that pet abandonment should be cautious.
In China, although abandoned pets have been written into laws and regulations, in real life, the real punishment for abandoned pets is still rare. However, domestic stray cats and dogs have already spread the trend, which has had a great impact on society and the urban environment, and should be paid attention to by everyone.
Caring for the environment is not an empty phrase, every little thing is closely related.
Cautious abandonment and reduction of stray cats and dogs are also acts of loving the environment.