Kangaroo Island Cat Control Committee

Impact of sarcosporidiosis on South Australian sheep farmers:

This graphic clearly demonstrates the seriousness of the sarco problem on Kangaroo Island. Sarcosporidiosis is a parasite that infects sheep and is co-hosted in cats. It can be eliminated by removing cats.

Losses to farmers result from:

• higher abattoir costs - separate processing needed
• reduced carcasse weight due to trimming
• cost burden of cat control

News:

15/3/09   Recently published paper compares cat control methods.
CSIRO recently published a paper in "Wildlife Research" on various feral cat control methods researched in the US:
Evaluation of euthanasia and trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs in managing free-roaming cat populations

Some quotes:
"Population decreases were comparable among euthanasia, TNR and a 50 : 50 combination for all treatment rates when the immigration rate was 0%; however, they were higher for euthanasia at 25% and 50% maximum immigration rates."
"We stress that TNR campaigns may not be appropriate in ecologically sensitive areas or in communities with high rates of nuisance complaints for free-roaming cats."
"...there is evidence that sterilisation may increase survival rates for coyotes and freeroaming cats."

12/8/08   Savannah cat banned from importation into Australia
From the Australian Labor Party website:

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has banned the Savannah cat from being brought into Australia finding it poses an extreme risk to Australia's environment and biodiversity.

Mr Garrett used his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to amend the Act's live import list to change the definition of domestic cat to rule out cats with the genes of the African wildcat, the Serval.

2/7/08   KICCC website redesign
Coinciding with the move to our new web address, we have embarked on a redesign of our website. We are retaining the Ned Kelly armour theme developed a couple of years ago, but simplifying the layout and using smaller images to improve page load times.

We appreciate any feedback you have on our activities.

2/7/08   Can the importation of Savannah cats into Australia be stopped?
These new super moggies, if accidentally or intentionally released into the wild, pose a serious threat to Australia's environment. Introduction to Kangaroo Island's feral pool would be catastophic, with no larger predators to bother them. They would prey on larger animals as well as the smaller ones, and consume more of them. They would presumably also co-host the sarco and toxo parasites that are such a huge menace to Kangaroo Island's sheep farms. The Kangaroo Island Cat Control Committee strongly oppose the importation of these animals into Australia, and urge the Federal Government to ban their importation, including tracking and disposing of any animals already imported.

Although cat control is normally a state and local government issue, the actual importation of exotic species is controlled by the Federal Government, so it is up to them to protect our borders against this potentially devastating pest species.

1/7/08   New web address for KICCC
The Kangaroo Island Cat Control Committee now has a new web address: www.kiccc.org.au. The website has been hosted for free by Charlieweb at kangaroo-island-world.com, but now we have our own domain. This comes at a time when our activities are ramping up again with the pending field trials of a newly developed cat control measure. We hope to report more on this news soon.