Every day, we come across a lot of weird stories on the internet, however this is definitely one of the strangest. If you’re a cat person, you might not want to read the following.
The Herald Sun reports that a New Zealand economist has called on his fellow Kiwis to help him rid the country of all its cats. Yes, really.
Gareth Morgan, an economist and a philanthropist, is calling for the eradication of pet cats on the island nation because he believes that cats are destroying the naive wildlife of New Zealand.
Mr Morgan feels so strongly about his cause that he’s even set up a website called Cats to Go where he urges Kiwis to make their current pet cat their last one.
“That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer,” reads the website, which features a picture of a kitten with red eyes and devil horns.
“Every year cats in New Zealand destroy our native wildlife. The fact is that cats have to go if we really care about our environment… We don’t suggest you knock your favourite furry friend on the head. We do suggest you think about the consequences on the bird population of domestic cats, and make this cat your last,” the website continues.
The site also features a YouTube video that includes the sentence: “Cats are the only true sadists of the animal world.”
Eh… okay then…
This little kitten is a “sadist of the animal world” apparently
Anyway, the good news for Mr Morgan is that some people can see where he’s going with his ‘get-rid-of-cats’ campaign. Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell says that the economist is raising an important issue.
“They do kill an awful lot of native species: native birds, skinks, geckos, wetas,” said Mr Hackwell.
“If people want to have native birds and other native wildlife in their gardens and in their cities, then they need to be responsible in their cat ownership,” Mr Hackwell added.
We’re all for responsible cat ownership, however we think Mr Morgan will have a hard time driving all the cats out of New Zealand.
