If we want predatorfree, what about humans?

THOSE who think removing cats will help native birds forget that cats don’t distinguish between native and exotic bird species, and that the current balance of predator and prey controls exotic bird populations.

If you take out the cats, you will have a population explosion of exotic birds, with devastating consequences for agriculture and horticulture.

Gareth Morgan presumes that because he has a PhD in econometrics he is also an expert in ecology (and everything else). Interestingly, even David Attenborough made this mistake, telling Brits that they would have more birdies in their gardens if they got rid of cats.

Yes, you will have more birdies. Within 10 years you will have 600 birds per dwelling and the whole country will be like a Hitchcock horror movie set. Not only will they strip crops, they will increase the risk of bird flu reaching the chook and human populations.

If you want to get rid of the cats, you will also have to get rid of the introduced bird species.

And while you are at it, get rid of Homo sapiens — a rapacious, exotic primate which has caused 2500 bird species to become extinct across the Pacific and destroyed 14 million hectares of native forest habitat here over the past 700 years.

James Westaway

Auckland

WHATEVER happened to democracy in this country? To demand that the town of Omaui become catfree is a case of dictatorship.

The town may be a ‘‘highvalue conservation area’’ but John Collins, chairman of the Omaui Landcare Charitable Trust, needs to get real. Does he have cats? Guess not.

The disappearance of birds in all areas isn’t due just to cats but to mankind’s stupidity of dropping poisons such as 1080 and laying cyanide.

There is no place for dictators in this country. Lyn Miller

Purakaunui