Warning: controversial material.

You have been warned. Cat lovers – this article may upset you, but this article is backed by solid scientific research.

A recent CSIRO study has estimated that over 75 million Australian creatures (birds, reptiles, mammals etc) are killed by cats every day. Read that again: 75 million daily.

Furthermore, cats have been identified as the prime reason for the extinction of mammal species in recent years. Extinction is forever.

If you love your cat, keep it indoors all the time. Other studies have shown that the average lifespan of a domestic cat allowed to roam freely is 4 years. However, cats living indoors all the time live, on average, 14 years. The implication is obvious; if you love your cat and want it to live a long life, keep it indoors.

Domestic cats left to roam very frequently go feral, or breed with feral cats. I hope you never come face to face with a truly wild, feral cat; they are enormous, wily, and truly terrifying hunters. We have over 20 million of them out there in our cities, suburbs, rural areas and the bush.

Federal Environmental Minister Greg Hunt recently told Background Briefing that he wants to focus on feral cat eradication, announcing a 10-year plan to control them.

“Right now we have the best part of 20 million oversized, over hungry, ferocious predators in the wild and that’s what we have to deal with,” he said. “Although, making sure that we have very solid and safe protocols with our councils for ensuring that [domestic] cats are registered and microchipped and sterilised I think is very important,” Mr Hunt said.

As I have stated here on a number of occasions, especially in the comments, is that cats have no place in our Australian environment.

Furthermore, both feral and domestic cats are a serious health risk due to being transmitters of the disease toxoplasmosis.

Further reading:

• Calls for Australian cats to be kept indoors
• The Mayo Clinic: Toxoplasmosis – a serious disease transmitted by cats, both wild and domestic.