AR-News: (NSW) Kangaroo Island Cat Control Committee

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

http://www.kangaroo-island-world.com/cats/methods.php
I hunt feral cats in western NSW. My friends and I have been using a method 
that is producing good results. We use a 'burley' that consists of 5 kg of pet 
mince, 2 kg of pilchards, 1 litre of tuna oil, 1 large liver and 5 cans of 
Whiskas 'Jelly Meat' thoroughly mixed together. We drive along a set route at 60 
kmph where we are going to spotlight. We then use a ladle to throw the burley 
over the side of the ute tray every 10 seconds. We alternate sides each throw. 
We then begin to spotlight about 30 minutes later along the burlied route. 
We cruise along the route at about 20 kmph with a hand held spotlight each 
side and the shooter stands on the back of the ute ready to shoot. Therefore, 
three people are required for this method but two can be used if only one side 
of the road is being spotlighted. The shooter uses a 30 inch barrel under and 
over shotgun with the top barrel shooting first. The top barrel has a full 
choke and the bottom barrel has a three quarter choke. The top barrel uses no. 2, 
36 gram shells whilst the bottom barrel uses 36 gram BB shells. The shotgun 
itself has a spotlight attached underneath the barrel and is powered by a small 
battery pack. All spotlights have a minimum 75 watt globe to provide adequate 
light. 
We use the shotguns described above because they produce almost always an 
instant kill, and therefore a humane death. The range of the shotguns is also 
quite short and are therefore much safer to use at night than rifles. 
When trapping we put a lot of surrounding leaf litter, soil and grass on the 
bottom of the treadle trap to make it feel natural to the cat. We make sure 
that we don't prevent the treadle from going down. You could even camouflage the 
outside of the cage to an extent, as long as you don't interfere with the 
trap mechanism. We use Whiskas 'Jelly Meat' as the lure because it retains it's 
moisture content for longer, especially in colder weather. We use an entire can 
and put most of the contents at the end of the trap but have a trail of lure 
leading out of the cage to a distance of approximately 1 metre. We trap at 
tips and man made structures. We have found that cats love to get under wooden 
floorboards where the ground under the boards is bare earth. It may have 
something to do with temperature regulation but would certainly provide some 
protection against the elements. You could even construct cheap artificial shelters to 
attract feral cats to spotlightling routes, as long as they were easy to 
construct. 

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"It is as if life had said, 'I am going to send you into a world of cruelty. 
I shall make you sensitive to pain, fear, heat, cold, hunger and starvation. 
In this world of cruelty, I shall make you defenseless. In addition, I shall 
strike you dumb.' This is the kind of world that animals are born into." - Grace 
Johnson, Animal Activist
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