A few weeks ago, I posted a video about the Mouse Plague in Australia and how it relates to their nationwide program of killing feral cats. It is common knowledge that when you remove a predator from an environment, the amount of prey will increase exponentially. In their case, by encouraging the murder of millions of feral cats over the course of several years, they have also encouraged the population growth of millions or billions of rodents that those cats would normally hunt, specifically mice.
Australia has justified the murder of these cats by blaming the cats for decimating local species. However, there is a list of other reasons why the populations of local species are being negatively affected that have nothing to do with the cats. Examples include urban development, mining, expansion of agriculture, etc. All of which have everything to do with humans, where the blame should lie.
Thankfully, the city of Chicago feels very differently about feral cats and understands the importance of having cats in the environment to keep rodent populations low and under control.
Over the past 10 years, the Tree House Cats At Work Program has put more than 1000 feral cats to work in the city of Chicago to combat their rat infestation problem. They use cats that have been rescued but cannot be adopted out or returned to their home colony. They then have a rigorous application and approval process for the cat placements.
Let’s take a look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. See video above.
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