Snap Shots: Call for cat confinement

Call for cat confinement

Australia’s first ‘threatened species commissioner’, Gregory Andrews, has called for cats to be confined 24 hours a day in a bid to protect native animals facing extinction due to cat attacks, according to the the Sydney Morning Herald. Sounds like a great idea to me!

Call to embrace “Australian wildcats”

From the other end of the cat appreciation spectrum comes this bizarre piece from The Conversation, in which the authors suggest that feral cats have been in Australia long enough that we should rename them Australian wildcats and just accept them as part of the Australian environment. Native animals can learn to get along, apparently. 

Dentist shoots lion

By now there wouldn’t be too many hunters who haven’t have heard about the US dentist who shot an apparently well-known lion named Cecil not far outside the boundaries of the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. The media around the world has reacted with its usual uninformed sensationalism, so much so that’s it hard to get to the bottom of what actually happened…which is also because the official investigation is still underway. This article from the African Hunter website gives as balanced an account as I can find. Meanwhile this article from The Clash Daily also contains information about the incident that you won’t find in too many of the mainstream media outlets.

Mink activists face gaol

From The Independant comes this story of two animal rights activists in the USA who have been charged with domestic terrorism and could face up to 10 years in prison after freeing almost 6,000 minks from fur farms across the US. It is also alleged the pair slashed vehicles’ tires, glued businesses’ locks, smashed windows and vandalised property.

Dog attacks pig, pig attacks woman

Back home in Australia and a Canberra woman has been attacked by a feral pig while walking her dog at Mount Jerrabomberra in NSW. According to the ABC the woman required 10 stitches after the attack, but “how the pig came to be on the mountain is unclear”. Mmmm. Teleported, perhaps?