Thanks to feral thoughts for the tip;

A resident of the town of Orange is speaking out for the much maligned Myna bird.

A proposal to cull local myna bird populations goes against the natural pecking order for one Orange resident. After working with wildlife in Africa and Canada for several years, Terese Kerr says she’s learned human intervention is not the answer even if a species is considered a predator.

“I just believe it’s wrong to kill off any bird, even if you believe it’s a pest,” she said.“I’m anti-hunting and I’ve seen the impact those sorts of things can have.”
…….
Mrs Kerr said it was wrong to refer to certain species as “bullies” when they were simply trying to survive. She said she welcomed all birdlife into her own garden and wouldn’t consider feeding certain species and not others.

“There’s a pecking order, human beings can’t come in and say I don’t want this bird bullying another bird,” she said.

Nativism, or the human preference for one species of animal over another, is a dangerous game of whimsy that is often followed up with inhumane acts of abuse in the name of ‘conservation’.

A fox can be baited with a Sodium fluoroacetate (1080) and die a death of abdominal pain, sweating, confusion and convulsions. But if I fed poison deliberately to a domestic dog I’d be prosecuted under Australian animal protection law. If a cat is living without an owner, it can be trapped and shot with a rifle by local council agents. However, if I was to shoot my own pet cat, I could expect to spend some time in court. And when myna-haters trap and kill birds they do so in ways we wouldn’t accept for other animals and with no veterinary supervision or input whatsoever;

Once in the trap, the myna-catchers favourite topic comes up. Dispatch. No more controversial topic exists in the world of the myna-hater. The favoured method is exhaust gas from the car. No diesels or hybrids mind you, and do it off a cold engine before the catalytic converter kicks in. Pop the cage in a compost bag and shove a tube from the exhaust to the bag and it’s all over in a matter of seconds. The technique hasn’t quite gained the blessing of all the authorities as yet but the myna actioners aren’t going to wait for some soft bureaucrats to get their act together. ref

To further complicate the idea of the worthy-native and the un-worthy introduced animal, is the native who refuses to play nice. In Western Australia, rainbow lorikeets (an eastern states bird who found success in the west) are culled because they’re in competition with slightly more local bird species.

A rat plague of more than two hundred thousand animals that hit Queensland in December last year, caused havoc by upsetting the ‘natural balance’, with the rats stripping vegetation and breeding furiously… but didn’t rate much of a mention because they were a long-haired, native type. However, when a UK celebrity reality show visited Australia, and the participants killed an (introduced) rat and ate it, it caused a stir around the world and the production team was prosecuted by our RSPCA.

Australians value animal welfare regardless of species and seeing an animal killed for arbitrary reasons, or in an inhumane way goes against what the community stand for.

The science of biological xenophobia is finding it harder and harder to continue to carve its place in a modern compassionate society. While it used to be quite fashionable to be ‘anti-introduced animals’, people are starting to realise that trying to use culling as a way to turn back the ‘ecological clock’ to a time before human inhabitation, without actually removing the humans is not only futile, but unethical.

The ultimate goal of the environmental movement is to create a peaceful and harmonious relationship between humans and the environment. To be authentic, this goal must include respect for other species. Tragically, given its alarming embrace of Invasion Biology, the environmental movement has violated this ethic by targeting species for eradication because their existence conflicts with the world as some people would like it to be. And in championing such views, the movement paradoxically must support the use of traps, poisons, fire, and hunting, all of which cause great harm, suffering, and environmental degradation. ref

We must move beyond a place where we arbitrarily deem one animal more ‘worthy’ of life than another, for no reason other than we’d prefer nature to be fair and reasonable. She isn’t and never has been.

I recommend this fantastic piece of writing from Dr Marty Becker; when insight into animal suffering lends itself to compassion for even the ‘lowly’ mouse.

I think we’ve all been there.

Listen to Vickie from PetRescue deftly bop the tough question about WA’s mandatory desexing laws back to Harvey Deegan on 6PR. Talk about dispelling popular cat myths!

(start at the 3:20 mark if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, though the whole thing is fantastique!)

The annual rush of fireworks-spooked dogs is all we can talk about in January, with a New Years Eve rush and even more predicted from Australia Day;

New year sends dogs crackers in Wyndham

Lost Dogs Home shelter manager Sue Conroy said 161 dogs were brought into the North Melbourne pound from Thursday, December 31 to Sunday, January 3, after escaping backyards across Melbourne to flee loud noises.

“We had 3 1/2 hours of non-stop rumbling from the storms, which spooked dogs,” Ms Conroy said.

Many Whitehorse pooches flee fireworks, thunder

Spokeswoman Brenda Champion said 121 animals were taken to the Cormack Rd shelter last weekend, including many which had become frightened and run away during New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations.

New lease of life for Stella

Dogs’ ears were battered with a double-whammy of thunderstorms and fireworks on New Year’s Eve that panicked dozens of our four-legged friends into running away from home.

The RSPCA’s metropolitan shelters picked up more than 110 stray dogs who went wandering to escape the noise.

Dogs go crackers in Whittlesea

Dozens of petrified dogs have fled their homes in terror during a spate of illegal fireworks and thunderstorms over New Year’s Eve.

Staff at the Epping RSPCA Shelter have been flat out since New Year’s Day trying to reunite owners with more than 45 animals that fled their yards amid the dramatic sound and light show.

She said 15 dogs remained unclaimed, including several maltese terriers, german shepherds, kelpies, jack russell terriers, pomeranians and a staffordshire terrier.

Which begs the question; if this happens every year, why aren’t we using the tools at our disposal to remedy it?

Remember, these dogs aren’t dumped – up until the first crack of fireworks they were living somewhere are someone’s pet. Now, they’re lost. So we need to make it incredibly easy for them to become un-lost.

Why don’t we have a national database of impounded dogs and cats, accessible online by the public, to which it is made mandatory for all pounds and shelters who impound, to upload a photo and basic description of every single pet?

Surely with the evolution of the interwebs (not too many shelters wouldn’t have access to a computer and digital camera now), this would be pretty straight forward, if all groups were dedicated to returning pets to their rightful owners as they claim to be.

Not the occasional, sometimes updated ‘found pet’ list buried somewhere in a council website (if the pet travelled two councils to the left and one up? How is anyone supposed to know?). Not the efforts of a shelter who’s taking pets from a number of councils, but leave it to the public to guess which ones.

But a mandatory, centralised database which sees every impounded pet have its photo taken and uploaded to a single website.

If pets aren’t impounded immediately (spending some time running or staying with a carer), then a saved database search can allow the owner of the pet to be notified when it finally does make their way to the pound.

With the new trend towards ’super pounds’ which take animals kms away from where they were collected, we must make the effort to also build into the system easy ways for people to find their lost animal. If groups are going to take money for a council contract, they must be made offer a minimum level of service to pet owners.

And in 2010, a picture on the web should be considered indispensable.

How many clicks does someone visiting your website have to make to be in the pet adoption section?

Go check – I’ll wait…

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Here’s a tip; if it’s more than one its too many.

The Animal Welfare League Queensland is leading the way again, with a splash page over their regular homepage which directs people straight to their animal adoptions.

Fantastic!

Cats have it tough. Newspapers offer free cats daily, adult cats aren’t really a ‘hot item’ and everyone looking to adopt wants a kitten. However, despite an incredibly high rates of euthanasia of cats and a reported lack of homes, many animal welfare groups have been critical of fee-waived adoption programs. But could “free cats” hold the key to dramatically increased adoptions?

If you’ve followed my blog for any time, you’ll know that I have written pieces against free adoptions (here and here). I’m all for making adoptable pets made more valuable, rather then drop their cost. But like many things in rescue, the answer isn’t black or white, but one of a many shades of grey, with rescue groups having to find solutions which get results in their community. And as the research below shows, there is great potential to make free cat adoption a tool in the modern rescuer’s arsenal.

A Comparison of Attachment Levels of Adopters of Cats: Fee-Based Adoptions Versus Free Adoption, published in Vol. 4 2009 of the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, has explored the attitudes of new adopters and the relationship between them and their new pets – those who paid an adoption fee, vs those who adopted during fee-waived adoption promotions:

Animal welfare organizations take the adoption process as perhaps the greatest responsibility of their jobs. Without research supporting their assumptions, animal welfare agencies risk coming to conclusions that may not be correct. Disregarding new adoption programs minimizes opportunities for animals to find homes.

In order to explore if animal welfare professionals have valid concerns regarding the free adult cat adoption program, there was a need for more research to investigate how people value their free adult cat in comparison with those who
paid a fee for their cat. Using the Lexington Attachment to Pet Scale we measured attitude of two groups of adult cat adopters; one group paid a $75 adoption fee and the other paid no adoption fee.

The study found there was essentially no difference between the two groups;

- Attachment to cats adopted from the study facility was not decreased when adoption fees were eliminated,

- Eliminating adoption fees does not devalue the animals in the eyes of the adopters, and that

- Free adult cat programs could “dramatically impact the lives of thousands of shelter cats who would otherwise reside in a shelter for months or be euthanized.”

I think we’re quick to judge adopters without any evidence that our fears are justified. If you’ve ever wondered whether waiving your adoption fee might work for your organisation, this research supports the idea that a well run program has the potential to find more homes and positively affect the cat overpopulation by putting more desexed cats into the community… without leading to a drop in quality adoptions.

The ASPCA has more information on implementing a program and how to engage everyone both internally and externally to your organisation. Take a look!

In December a Parramatta cat colony hit the media, as the council called for their removal, despite them having a community of cat lovers caring for their welfare.

… a Telopea business owner said cats had been around the area for years without anyone worrying about them.

“But someone who doesn’t like cats has moved into the area and is making a fuss,” the business owner said.

Since the story ran, the lady who is the main carer of the colony has been receiving threats, even though her compassionare efforts are moving the colony in the right direction.

Kat, who does not want to be further identified, fears for her safety as she continues to care for the cat colony.

While she has moved out of the area, Kat regularly returns to Telopea to trap cats, have them desexed, immunised and treated if ill.

Those who have not been rehoused are returned to the area.

The cost of veterinary treatment is borne by the World League for the Protection of Animals, which is committed to keeping unwanted animals alive.

“People dump their cats when they move out and five years ago there were more than 80 cats roaming around but I calculate that now there are 30 to 40 and most have been desexed,” Kat told the Advertiser this week.

“There are only about six to eight cats breeding and I have been trying to trap them. We try to find homes for cats but the cats we bring back are cared for by residents who love them. There are only a couple of residents who don’t like the cats.”

But the cat-loving residents admit they are defying a Housing Department directive to not feed the cats.

Kat said the cats provided companionship to older residents and also controlled rats in the area.

“If they are desexed and looked after, they do not cause anyone any harm,” Kat said.

With shelters bursting with kittens this month, if a small team of cat lovers can halve a cat colony without a cat being killed, why are animal welfare leaders not leaping to support the initiative? If not financially in this particular instance, lending their name to support the idea that cats, owned or unowned are protected under the law and must not be targeted for removal.

Because until they do, compassionate people like Kat who are going above and beyond to humanely solve a problem that they didn’t create, will remain on the fringes and continue to be the target of cat hater’s abuse.

What’s hot?

Giving up the blame game and changing everything

What is traditionally pet-dumping season has become pet-adoption season at Noosa RSPCA animal shelter.

Figures show the amount of abandoned animals taken in by the centre last year dropped to 19, down from 75 pets dumped during the 2008 period.

And while a lot less animals came in, more were adopted out, especially during the Christmas/ New Year period. In 2008, 85 animals were adopted while last year 115 found new homes.

Noosa RSPCA shelter manager Nicole Cleary said they had been run off their feet recently.

“We have been doing huge days, completing up to six or seven adoptions a day,” she said.

It has allowed the shelter to fill those empty cages with needy animals brought in from other shelters across the state.

In the lead-up to Christmas, dogs, cats, puppies and kittens were brought in from Kingaroy, Gympie and Brisbane, while 11 were flown from Townsville.

All up Noosa RSPCA took 84 animals from other shelters last year.

Ms Cleary said it was not just the animals coming from far and wide, but prospective pet owners were also travelling to the shelter from outside of Noosa.

“We have had people from Brisbane and the Gold Coast.”

What’s not?

Calling your public bogans and keeping things the same

Since New Year’s Day, 161 dogs have arrived at the North Melbourne Lost Dogs’ home, and 83 have been reclaimed.

Sixty-one dogs have arrived at the Cranbourne shelter, with 26 reclaimed.

Ms Conroy said illegal fireworks in the suburbs were a major concern. ”Due to the stupidity of bogans setting off illegal fireworks, dogs in the neighbourhood get spooked and end up in here, or worse still – dead.

”We were lucky that it was raining at the time when bogans would have been setting off their fireworks.

*gargh* First ever. [looks through fingers] I can’t watch….

If I asked you if, as an animal welfare worker, if you were in education or sales, I’m pretty sure you’d know the answer;

You’re in education.

Of course you are. ‘Sales’ are often the cause of a perversion in the animal industry, which leads to greed which takes precedence over animal welfare.

But here’s the thing.

I’m working with a cat group who are putting together an education campaign about desexing. Seems simple enough.

However when they start to think of putting together an ‘education campaign’ they start to think hard hitting, shocking and “things that people don’t want to see but should be made to” .

(If you find yourself using terms like these, step slowly away from the brainstorm)

There’s a very good reason why only a handful of modern ‘hardhitting, shocking campaigns of things that people don’t want to see but should be made to’ have ever been attempted, and even less could be clocked up as actually successful.

And that’s because people are now becoming amazingly good at discarding information they don’t want to hear. From Seth Godin.

FIRST TRUTH: Clutter

80,000 new blogs every day.
19,000,000 different beverages at Starbucks.
19 flavors of Oreos.
172 professional sports teams in the United States
On September 28, 2004, a search on “podcast” in Google turned up 24 matches.
AS I write this, the number is 17,000,000.

The amount of noise we’re living with is exploding. There’s an exponential increase, but we’re not noticing it because it’s happening a little bit at a time. If it were suddenly turned off and we were transported to a three network universe, a world with three car companies, six radio stations, two kinds of laundry detergent and two newspapers, you’d go crazy looking for something to distract you. Just because you’re used to the noise, though, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

And it is changing everything.

When you apply for a job, so do a thousand other people.
When you see a house listing, so do a thousand other people.
When you bid on a grilled cheese sandwich on eBay, so do a thousand other people.
And when you want people to come to your blog or your website, so do a million (ten million, a billion!) other people.

You’ve just read that, but you didn’t really believe it. You are almost certainly living in a different world, a world where you expect that some people actually care about you. Your boss nods her head when she hears about clutter, but turns right around and builds stuff and markets stuff as if it were 1969.

No one cares about you. Almost no one even knows you exist.

See how he reiterated the point about not really believing that people don’t care about you? We have some idea in our heads that people will watch things that make them uncomfortable, because we feel it important. That people will be engaged by messages that speak to us, even though we’ve never asked them what’s important to them.

It’s not about you

No longer can you drive a message home because you feel it’s important that other people know about it. No longer can you shock people with images that upset them, but don’t speak to them, simply because it’s the truth you deal with every day. It is no longer your right to talk at people and have them listen.

Because they will just tune you out. As one of the thousands of messages from people demanding their attention every single day.

Suddenly, you’re not in education; you’re in sales.

You have to sell your ideas.

You have to sell you beliefs.

You have to sell a change in behaviour.

And it will make an enormous difference to how effective you are, if you realise in this new world you have to ‘pitch’ rather than ‘bombard’.

See also: I know! A shopping trolley full of dead cats…

… because it’s not fair to put anyone through this.

From Post Secret.