New Zealand's kids report on GPS tagging of feral cats followed by killing them

NEWS AND COMMENT - NEW ZEALAND: It's reported by a news web site under the umbrella of the stuff.co.nz website, called Kea Kids News, that the authorities in New Zealand, who are constantly at war with the feral cat, are going to GPS collar tag some feral cats, track their movements and then kill them. 

Feral cat with GPS collar. Image: Simon Stevenson.

It's just another way of finding out what feral cats do and where they go so that they can be better managed. However, by "management" of feral cats they invariably mean how to kill them more efficiently. If you know where they are and what they do you can track them down and kill them in any way that is suitable at that moment. Shooting is probably a favourite. Forget the pain it causes.

I think the news is worth passing on partly because this is a news channel run by kids, as I see it. So, it is children who are stating this and doing so without any discussion about the moral issues. There is no discussion about whether it is fair or unfair, cruel or humane, ethical or unethical and so on.

If kids think that feral cats need to be killed and only killed then there is little chance that anything else will happen to them except the killing will probably be cruel like shooting. When these kids grow up, they'll be doing the killing. And they will pass the idea to their kids and so over generations they will be indoctrinated into believing that feral cats are dangerous pests and vermin which have to be eradicated at all costs.

There are other ways of dealing with these animals. These children should realise that it is humans who put them there in the first place. Their existence is the fault of people. And the gradual demise of many of New Zealand's native species is also the fault of people through habitat loss. New Zealand's dairy industry has been wreaking havoc with local biodiversity owing to unsustainable practices. 

I think children should be given the opportunity for enlightened thought. It does them good.