Last week I produced a post for my lone reader to learn if, in fact, he was reading this drivel. He is, it turns out, and he even commented about the contents and was surprised that the Brits killed all those pets and that John Barrymore also may have dispatched his dogs. (For that post see: Factlet (2) -Brits and Their Pets.)
For his benefit I will continue with the animal theme and for the rest of you I offer a “Scoop.”
If you pick up the New York Times tomorrow, you will find in the Magazine the following article:
“The Culling: Australia is Deadly Serious About Killing Millions of Cats,” Jessica Camille, Aguirre, New York Times Magazine, April 28, 2019.
The article begins with a photograph of a gun-toting Aussie emerging from the Outback with a dead cat and describes how some other Aussies are flying overhead dropping thousands of poisonous sausages.
Feral cats are a real problem down-under it appears and the Australian government decided in 2015 that two million should be eradicated. It is estimated that over 200,000 were killed during the first year even though Brigitte Bardot and 160,000 others objected. The cats are being culled because:
"In addition to mammals, cats kill an estimated 377 million birds and 649 million reptiles every year in Australia. (In the United States, the numbers are even more striking: Scientists estimate that free-roaming cats kill 1.3 to 4 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals every year.)"
That should be enough to entice you to read the article and enough to satisfy my lone reader.
Post Script:
I thought by writing this stuff down it might help me remember it. That is not working. I have only vague memories that I already have written about the feral cats here in London, Ontario. See: Feral Cats and Dead Birds.
For those of you wondering how I know the contents of the New York Times for tomorrow - it's simple. Subscribe and you get articles early, but now I don't have anything new to read on Sunday and we may get some snow.
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