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That's amazon.com/sports ad free to catch

1:54

up on the latest episodes without

1:56

the ads. G'day,

2:03

welcome to Better Than Yesterday, making it better

2:05

every episode since 2013. I'm

2:08

Oshy Ginsberg, I am a podcaster, I

2:10

am an author, I'm a TV host,

2:13

I'm a dad, I'm a stepdad, I

2:15

am an award-winning documentary maker, I'm an

2:17

extra long tong dog poo picker upperer.

2:21

Ah yes, we pick up the dog poo in

2:23

our backyard with a pair of really long barbecue

2:25

tongs, I thoroughly recommend it. And I am a

2:27

former cat owner, a

2:29

devoted former cat owner. This is important because

2:31

of what I'm going to talk about in

2:34

just a moment. I will stop for a

2:36

second and say there are tickets available to

2:38

the shows in Melbourne at the Melbourne International

2:40

Comedy Festival. It'd be great to see you

2:42

there. We're doing the news show NTNN, NNN,

2:45

it's a fake news show based on the

2:47

real news of the day. So

2:50

if you miss the news, don't

2:52

worry, we've got ya. Now one

2:55

of the stories that we did cover on the

2:57

news show in the past was all about cats.

3:00

And I wanted to talk to you about

3:02

cats today because

3:05

in the morning I ride Wolfgang II school

3:08

on a bicycle. And I

3:10

love riding a bike to school because you get to

3:12

see the neighbourhood, you get to see the people, you

3:15

kind of take it in, you see the birds, you see the animals, it's

3:18

lovely. On the way there we passed a

3:20

power pole that had a poster on it.

3:23

And there's posters, there's a few in a row. People

3:27

have put posters off about a lost cat. Now

3:30

it says on the poster that this is a cat which

3:32

goes out in the day and always comes

3:34

home so it is strange that he didn't. Now

3:38

I'm someone that has lived with cats on

3:40

and off for many, many years and this

3:43

really blew my mind. Before

3:45

I get started, let me be

3:47

clear. I loved, loved living

3:49

with cats. They were amazing pets to

3:51

have. I lived with two particular cats,

3:53

the kind of longest cats I lived

3:55

with. They were Himalayans, they were super

3:57

cool, they played fetch.

4:00

They were super fun to hang out with, they were great

4:02

for a cuddle. I get

4:04

it, cats are fantastic animals to

4:07

have as companions. These

4:09

two cats, they were inside cats, they lived until

4:11

about, I think one was 10, the other one

4:13

was 13, I think. They

4:16

were a really big part of my life. The

4:18

companionship, the engagement, I absolutely

4:21

understand the benefits of having a

4:23

cat as a pet. I'm

4:27

also a person who once lived in a share

4:29

house in Brisbane, there was a

4:31

cat in that share house, as often happens, there's a cat, there's

4:33

a bong, there's other things that come with the share house and

4:35

this one had a cat. But this cat

4:37

came with Bob, Bob who lived downstairs, so it

4:39

was called Bobcat. That

4:41

was the name of the cat. Now Bobcat

4:44

had a bell on his collar and I'd come

4:46

home from my radio job early in the morning

4:49

and I would see Bobcat in

4:51

the grass with one paw, one

4:54

paw on the collar, hunting lizards

4:56

and birds and things. Because

4:58

so the bell would make no noise. Now

5:02

because of that, those two Himalayans

5:04

that I had, they were inside cats. They'd

5:06

come out in the backyard with us only

5:09

when we were there, but other than that,

5:11

they were always, always, always inside. Now

5:14

you might think it's overblown to talk

5:17

about why keeping your cat inside is a

5:19

big deal. However

5:22

the impact that domestic pet

5:24

cats which live with

5:26

a family like yours, yes cats like your cat,

5:29

the impact that those cats have on

5:32

native wildlife in Australia is

5:34

absolutely staggering. Recent research out

5:37

of ANU has

5:41

basically slapped a live cat on the table

5:44

for everyone to have a look at and

5:46

the scale of devastation that domestic

5:48

cute furry pet cats, the ones

5:50

that you dress up, the

5:55

absolute devastation that those cats are

5:57

having on native wildlife is absolutely

6:00

Catastrophic. You're

6:02

welcome. Roaming

6:04

pet cats and devastating

6:06

native wildlife like furring

6:09

purring bushfires as

6:11

they kill 323 million

6:14

native animals in Australia every year.

6:16

Now you might say, well no

6:18

my cat never brings anything home

6:20

as a present for me so

6:22

clearly she never kills anything. Yes

6:25

she does. The research

6:28

out of ANU which was conducted

6:30

by Professor Sarah Legge, it

6:32

shows that if you examine the poop of

6:34

cats which are allowed to roam even during

6:36

the day, you're going

6:39

to find evidence in there

6:41

that basically says unless you're buying

6:43

cans of brush tailed possum flavoured pet

6:45

food, these cats

6:47

have clearly eaten native animals that they

6:49

have hunted. But hang on hang

6:51

on I'll bring my cat in at night. Ah

6:54

there's a bit more news. It was

6:56

a study conducted in Adelaide. They used

6:58

radio trackers and it found

7:00

that 39% of cats that the owners

7:03

believed were inside at night were

7:06

sneaking back out to hunt

7:08

and to roam around and be back

7:10

before you wake up like a wily

7:12

teenager. But they're

7:14

not sneaking down the park to meet the girls

7:16

from the bus for the half box of fruitie

7:18

lexia left over from Saturday's barbecue. Oh no, these

7:21

cats are sneaking down the park to feast on

7:23

the rainbow lorikeets that brighten up my morning. The

7:26

average pet cat that is allowed outside

7:28

according to this research kills 186 mammals,

7:30

birds and reptiles every

7:34

year, most of them native species.

7:36

Now with 5.3 million pet cats

7:38

in Australia and less than 30%

7:41

of them kept indoors, it's

7:43

fair to say that Snookums, Mitsy and Colin, once

7:46

they're done warming up your lap while you watch

7:48

television, they're going to head out into

7:51

your backyard and transform it

7:53

into some sort of John

7:55

Wick nightclub full of ringtone possums,

7:58

except the possums of the Russians and Germans. on where you get it.

8:01

It's a lot to get your head around. Pet cats.

8:04

Yeah, really lovely, cute, beautiful, well

8:06

groomed pet cats that play

8:08

dress ups and sit in the basket in the front of

8:10

bikes and go around on a leash. Like pet

8:12

cats, sometimes they are

8:15

absolutely devastating predators. If

8:18

they're allowed to roam, they will hunt

8:20

and kill something on average once every

8:22

two days. It's not the

8:24

cat's fault. They're built that way.

8:27

It's on us, the people who get

8:30

value out of the companionship of an animal

8:32

like a cat. And it's

8:34

on us to take responsibility for

8:36

how incredibly good cats are at killing

8:38

things, killing lots and lots

8:41

of things. Now maybe

8:43

because cats don't kill

8:45

or seriously injure people, maybe

8:47

that is why we are a bit ambivalent to

8:50

how profound and impact cats are having

8:52

on native wildlife. Like the electricity meter

8:54

reader won't come into our property if

8:56

we have a dog that is off

8:58

a leash because a dog could

9:01

well kill them, which has unfortunately happened quite

9:04

recently. But the meter reader

9:06

doesn't give a shit about little snookums in the backyard.

9:08

Not at all. I

9:11

am not allowed to keep a pet cobra

9:13

in my backyard, lest

9:15

it kill me or get into your backyard and

9:17

kill you. It is a deadly animal. If

9:20

I had a pet saltwater crocodile and I

9:22

just let it out at the beach while

9:24

I was at work, saying it's okay, chompy never

9:26

brings anything home. I don't know how you'd

9:28

feel like going for a swim while I'm

9:31

on the tools. But cats,

9:33

they generally don't kill or hurt humans. So

9:35

I guess we don't really think about them

9:38

in a similar way. Now I will concede,

9:40

I really liked

9:42

native wildlife. I get enormous joy

9:44

looking at the birds in my neighborhood when I

9:46

see ringtail possum poo in my backyard under our

9:48

tree. I'm thrilled to know that

9:51

some of these chubby little leaf eaters are

9:53

making a home in my house. You

9:55

can't get that anywhere else in

9:57

the world. The flash of a pair of rainbow

10:00

lorikeet speeding towards the meleleuca trees in the

10:02

morning, the call of the eastern coal in

10:04

the rain. I really like it. I really

10:06

like it. But that's just

10:08

one of the reasons I would love cat

10:10

owners to never let their cats outside ever. The

10:13

other reason, it's

10:15

a tricky one. It's

10:17

scary when you think about it though. We

10:21

just simply don't know what

10:23

the keystone species is that

10:25

is holding our entire ecosystem

10:27

together. Domestic cats

10:29

have, you know, been partly responsible

10:31

for the extinction of quite a number of things in

10:33

Australia so far. It

10:35

might be, I don't know, might be like a particular kind

10:37

of skink and that particular kind

10:40

of skink eats a particular kind of moth.

10:42

And if that skink, those

10:44

numbers start to decline in that skink and

10:47

that moth then explodes in population,

10:49

that puts pressure on B populations,

10:51

well that's the kind of thing

10:53

which leads to crop failures. And

10:55

then we are absolutely fucked. This

10:58

is not to mention that the people

11:00

who put lost cat posters up

11:03

might never ever actually find their

11:05

cat because the research

11:07

shows that cats left to roam

11:09

around are the cats that get hit

11:11

by cars. They're cats that get into

11:13

fights with other cats or cats

11:15

that crawl up to sleep in a shed that gets super

11:17

hot in the day and then they can't find their way

11:19

back out. I

11:22

know what it is to really love a

11:24

cat. I had two. I cried

11:28

and we had to put them to sleep. It was

11:30

really, it was heartbreaking. I was a grown man by

11:32

this point. I'd broken up with a person that we

11:34

had had the cats together and, you know, I went

11:36

to the vet, held the cat in my arms. But

11:40

a part of owning a cat is understanding

11:42

that no matter how cute and lovable and

11:44

delightful and excellent in your

11:47

Instagram, your cat is. If

11:49

you let that cat roam around outside,

11:51

that cat is Denzel Washington on a

11:54

bad day and your local native wildlife

11:56

is about to get equalized. Yes,

11:59

even now. your cat, your

12:02

cute, delightful, purring, beautiful

12:04

cuddle machine. It's

12:07

not the cat's fault. It was born that way.

12:10

But as the owner, it

12:12

is up to us to be responsible for

12:14

what the cat is. And if you really

12:16

love your cat, keeping your

12:18

cat inside, it'll stay a while longer

12:21

anyway. I

12:23

really feel for the people in my area and

12:25

their lost cats. I

12:28

really feel for the people who put the poster up.

12:30

I really feel for them. I

12:32

have lost the cat. We had a

12:34

house party in our apartment once. We were on the first floor.

12:37

And there was a lot of noise and the cat wasn't used to having

12:39

a lot of people around. So it jumped

12:41

off the balcony into a tree or something. I don't know. But

12:44

the next morning when I woke

12:46

up, I was still drinking. So I'm all hungover and

12:48

coming down and whatever. Not

12:51

having a cat. Oh my God, I

12:53

was devastated. I roamed the streets all

12:55

day and night. I printed out posters.

12:57

I put them all over the place.

12:59

Losing a cat sucks. It

13:01

was out until the next night. It was awful searching

13:03

around for him. We found him. But

13:05

oh man, that day was the worst. I really,

13:08

really, really hope that that lost cat comes back.

13:10

I do. And when it does,

13:12

I really

13:14

hope that cat is kept inside for

13:17

the good of the cat and

13:19

for the good of the big chubby

13:21

ring-tailed possums that are just trying to eat their

13:23

dinner in our tree. I

13:27

know what it is to love a cat. I

13:30

know how difficult that might have been to hear if you think

13:32

it's not your cat. But the

13:34

day is clear. It's

13:37

your cat. Each pet cat that's

13:39

left to roam in Australia kills like 186 things

13:41

every year. Like,

13:44

that's a lot of things. That's a lot of things. Some

13:47

of them never bring the thing home. And that's why. I think

13:49

that's why people think it's not their cat. Because they think that.

13:51

Because it never, they hear, oh, the cat brought me a present.

13:54

No, it's a dead rainbow lorikeet. Oh,

13:56

no, no. It's not my cat. Yeah. It's, you

13:58

know, poke around in their poo. Woo! It's

14:01

in there. I

14:03

hope you find your cat. I really do. And I

14:05

hope you keep it inside when it gets there. It's

14:08

the sound of some magpies. They're

14:11

birds. They're delightful. Thanks

14:15

everyone who helped me put the episode

14:17

together today. Thanks to Andy on audio

14:19

post-production. Thanks to Mike on video post-production.

14:21

Abby, our producer at large, who's on

14:23

Mat Leaf. Ella for filling in while

14:25

Abby's away. Toe hider for making all

14:27

the music. Ben and Monica for keeping

14:29

the lights on at OGTV.

14:32

There's tickets to the live show in the

14:34

show notes. Come to the Melbourne International Comedy

14:36

Festival. I would love to see you there.

14:39

Until then, keep calm

14:41

and purr-on. I

14:44

think. I'm terrified to

14:46

publish this episode, but I

14:48

hope I've given enough context. I really love cats.

14:51

I can't have them because my wife is deathly

14:53

allergic, but they're lovely. I don't know

14:56

what it means to love a cat. Just

14:58

if you're gonna love a cat, you got it. If

15:01

you got it, it's a killer. It's a fucking killer. See

15:05

you on Wednesday. amazon.com/sports

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