Thread: Disposing of feral cats

Originally Posted by sheerluck

Sounds a bit harsh. Is that on the basis that if they like cats, then they're not allowed children?

They can adopt a dog

Originally Posted by goingbush

Jason, hows the trip going .
Funny thing, we are camped in / near the Selwyn Ranges and a feral cat came into camp,

action station, what to do what to do , made a snare and fully expected I would not see cat again, an hour later problem solved.

(its on todays blog )

..Muriel

Well back from the trip and I have lots of interesting things to add if you care about reducing feral cats.

First, the buggers are hard to catch. I set the trap perhaps 25 out of 35 nights, and basically had no results. I covered the sides and top of the trap with access blocking foliage, and left the front and rear clear. I put food at the back of the trap floor, some at the cage entrance, and a bit further out about 2 meters away. There was plenty of activity around the trap generally but but no captures. I had two false closures both with food left, but given we saw a cat the size of a 12month old female Labrador I'm not surprised it didn't fit. Perhaps the cat clawed at the cage so I reduced the sensitivity of the trigger, but still no luck.

I tried chicken, pork, roo, human salmon, and cat food sardines all with no real result. I wondered if 8 to 12 hours actual set time is not enough time after the 3 cats at Andado Station didn't come good.

I saw plenty of cats eating road kill, something I though they didn't do. Some as bold as crows not even moving as I drove past. The buggers sure did move however when I turned the wheel towards them however. Overall where water is there are many many carts. And Furthermore every camp we made on the WAA and the Madigan had cat prints in the dunes.

My saving grace and real joy of the whole experience was at Coopers Creek. I had all but given up when a cat entered a mates cars and started eating bread.
Down came the trap and was placed on some chicken stock poured on the ground. All I had was bread and beef sausages. The result was amazing.
5 cats in 2.5 hours, and another in the trap by sun up, so 6 cats in 8.5 hours and I saw another 2 immediate potentials but needed to get some sleep after a big days drive.

I feel they had become lazy feeding on campers scraps, but certainly renewed my interest in persisting.

Well done Jason. So how did you dispose of them?

Having carefully observed pet cats I don't think they are particularly driven by smell. You'd be better off half filling the trap with local leaf litter, and installing a small mouse sized electrically powered vibration device. An occasional rustling noise will have every cat within 200 metres on the scene. Something you could rig up with a vibralert out of an old phone and a timer circuit.

Get a gun licence and a nice little .22 and do the country a favour every time you are out there.

Originally Posted by 123rover50

Well done Jason. So how did you dispose of them?

Keith, I was hoping that would not be asked. But in hindsight I have no shame.

After seeing these thing in the real, I uses the natural resources I had around me.

The idea of removal into a bag and them clubbing them became apparent it was beyond my skills or desires.

Originally Posted by newhue

Well back from the trip and I have lots of interesting things to add if you care about reducing feral cats.

First, the buggers are hard to catch. I set the trap perhaps 25 out of 35 nights, and basically had no results. I covered the sides and top of the trap with access blocking foliage, and left the front and rear clear. I put food at the back of the trap floor, some at the cage entrance, and a bit further out about 2 meters away. There was plenty of activity around the trap generally but but no captures. I had two false closures both with food left, but given we saw a cat the size of a 12month old female Labrador I'm not surprised it didn't fit. Perhaps the cat clawed at the cage so I reduced the sensitivity of the trigger, but still no luck.

I tried chicken, pork, roo, human salmon, and cat food sardines all with no real result. I wondered if 8 to 12 hours actual set time is not enough time after the 3 cats at Andado Station didn't come good.

I saw plenty of cats eating road kill, something I though they didn't do. Some as bold as crows not even moving as I drove past. The buggers sure did move however when I turned the wheel towards them however. Overall where water is there are many many carts. And Furthermore every camp we made on the WAA and the Madigan had cat prints in the dunes.

My saving grace and real joy of the whole experience was at Coopers Creek. I had all but given up when a cat entered a mates cars and started eating bread.
Down came the trap and was placed on some chicken stock poured on the ground. All I had was bread and beef sausages. The result was amazing.
5 cats in 2.5 hours, and another in the trap by sun up, so 6 cats in 8.5 hours and I saw another 2 immediate potentials but needed to get some sleep after a big days drive.

I feel they had become lazy feeding on campers scraps, but certainly renewed my interest in persisting.

Thanks Jason,
I really don't think people understand how huge the feral cat issue is,


Yes I have also been surprised that they feed on Road Kill, esp alongside crows !!! The crows flyoff and the cats stay to the last second.

off topic a bit, we actually saw a pig feeding on roads kill today & try to drag the roo off the road as we approached !!! haven't checked the camera yet but will post if I have a clear shot




A length of Telstra conduit with a rope tied off at one end into a loop and back up the pipe works. I really did not think the cat would fall for it but not hard to snare it. As mentioned earlier there is now way you would want to get closer than a pole length to one of these things.

http://goingbush.com/images/catpole.jpg

then dispatched with back of an axe to the head.