Environmental activist seeks to ban cats

Kill a cat. Save a bird. That’s not quite the message one New Zealand environmental activist wants to send, but at the same time — he does want to rid his country of pet cats.

Gareth Morgan’s newly created website says it all: Cats to Go, under the URL garethsworld.com. On the site, he asks readers, “Will you make your current cat the last one you own?”

Mr. Morgan also provides helpful links: Why Not to Have a Cat. Your Cat is Not Innocent. NZ [New Zealand] Without Cats. What You Can Do. Frequently Asked Questions.

Mr. Morgan says he wants New Zealand to go cat-free in order to save the varied species of birds that share the island country.

“New Zealand is the last refuge of a huge range of bird species,” he wrote under the link Why You Should Not Have a Cat. “But the vision is flawed. Almost half of Kiwi households have a cat, or two, making New Zealanders the world’s biggest cat owners. Cats are incredibly effective hunters and are wiping out our native birds.”

Mr. Morgan also warns, under the link Your Cat Is Not Innocent, not to be fooled by the seeming innocence of domestic cats.

“If you’re a cat owner reading this, you are probably thinking that the above [statements] don’t apply to your cat,” he wrote. “The fact is that your furry friend is actually a friendly neighborhood serial killer.”

Mr. Morgan doesn’t recommend killing cats.

“We do suggest,” he writes, “you think about the consequences on the bird population of domestic cats, and make this cat your last.”

© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.