posted 3 years ago
Hello,
When discussing this you first need to think about the lens in was written in!
The view points of the culture and experiences which caused this to be written!
Feral cats, are a huge issue and will always be a huge issue, Even before mollison they were a huge issue.
Vast amounts of bio-diversity gone, because of wild cats.
Even trying to eradicate the cats is difficult because of the scale, topography and consistent release of domesticated cats.
even in cities the cats breed and go wild.
Until recently De-sexing you pets was not common, to get rid of kittens was to drown them in a sack and this was not pleasant for anything and anyone involved.
Now bill also hated pet food, why because of what happened in Africa with the massive fence and the lions, and the villagers, of which was to supply the British with cattle which they turned into dog food.
In most situations a cat, is going to be a resource drain, because it requires food water, it damages materials and then it goes about destroying genetic diversity.
The cat food, is processed animals and vegetables which are sources from far distances away, potentially disrupting the environment when harvested, then transported and processed, transported, sold, transported, eaten, polluted.
Destruction of homes, the smell, the carpets, the wood work,
To many Australians, the domesticated cat is hated because it bought for company, that is its purpose! yet it does all the other aspects of damage and destruction.
Australia has far to many animal and insect cycle disruptions and the domesticated cat does not help.
maybe in areas where they get snow, and animals such as cats have a seasonal predator of cold, it may be hard to understand how animals like rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, goats, foxes, deer, horses, cows, buffalo, camels, toads, fire ants, ect can grow in number constantly.
some may say that it serves a role in cycles, but it is taking the role from other species who do it more harmonically!
I get that may people have pet cats, and love them, but in the context of Australia, domesticated Cats are not sustainable, they are destructive.
Now, in Australia, we have very important animals like the long nosed potoroo, which increases the abundance of fungi, it is the best rodent for the soil cycle you could get, but it gets killed off because of Habitat fragmentation, and then hunted by feral and animals and also by cats. then rats and mice fill this void. which reproduce to much!
Because they reproduce to much you now have pest poisons which also kill the potoroo and poison the environment, you also have farmer loose massive amounts of crops, people getting sick...
Where as if the potoroo kept its place the cycle would be more consistent and less prone to massive waves of disruption.
Now lets look at birds, we need them to kill rodants and to spread seeds, bio diversity, as well as fertilise seeds, also killed off by cats on a large scale,
So now the bird species are being attacked, and also you now have less species of plants!
Now with less bio diversity of animals, plants, you now have more weeds! Weeds now use more pesticides more herbicides. more environmental damage, now more species wiped out.
And because the potoroo is replaced with the rat, less soil diversity, less organic matter in soils, less carbon stored less, less water in the soil, now the fires are worse, and desertification rates increase!
So if the cat was removed, the potoroo could fix the soil, the birds would be safer and able to improve the amount of trees and plants, the cycles would be more stable and thus more sustainable!
But then look at the resource bane of the domesticated cat in comparison to other animals!
Could a chicken not do the same role of company!
For Australia, a cold hard cut out of the cat, would be extremely beneficial!
But that is also hard, because the people who try and cull the cats, are villainised by people who sit half there day in a car or computer. who have no understanding of nature who live in shiny stone cities like Sydney! Who again Bill mollison hated, Just like a lot of Australian! the reasons are Sydney is not like the rest of the Nation, in culture or attitude!
It may be important to note that Sydney may have driven permaculture because of how unsustainable it is and how toxic it is to both many and the environment!
When one considers these contexts, it is not as easy to think well the guy who said integrate don't segregate!
May be a hypocrite on this regard!
And surely everything is good when done right! Is a statement that when looking at the context is illogical, because any potential good that can come from a domesticated cat, is so vastly out weighed by the negatives in regards the the Australian context that it is not worth thinking about!
I am not anti animals, I love animals, I love plants, I love nature, But cats destroy!
so because cats destroy, when choosing an animal do not choose a domesticated cat!
Lions, jaguars, tigers, leopards, pumas are totally different and serve an important role!
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