Petition against hybrid Savannah Cats

The petition was tabled at the Senate on Thursday the 26/6/08 by Senator Christine Milne from the Greens

In America, cat breeders have successfully forced the mating of two species, the domestic cat and the African Serval, and derived a new fashion pet - the so-called "Savannah" cat. They are apparently twice the size of normal domestic cats and can leap two metres in a bound. (The Serval can grow to a length of 120cm, a height of 60cm and a body weight of 13Kg.) Some fashionable pet businesses in Australia have decided to import these serval-cat killing machines so they can sell them for around $5000.

The University of Sydney's professor of ecology, Chris Dickman, is warning these hybrid cats would be uncontrollable in Australia. "It hasn't come in through the usual quarantine processes or risk assessments that would otherwise need to be done." Forty of the nation's leading feral animal researchers are calling for urgent changes to prevent hybrid supercats from being imported into Australia.

The Australian environment has suffered enough from the humble domestic cat gone feral. Imagine the carnage from a bigger stronger feral cat bred from an already wild animal. Help stop this madness and stop the importation of hybrid cats such as "Savannah cats"! Please sign the petition below and let the Honorable Peter Garret, Minister for Environment, Heritage and The Arts and the Senate know that these hybrid killing machines don't belong here.

We, the undersigned, ask you to stop the importation and breeding of ALL new hybrid cats such as the “Savannah Cats”. As can be seen from the damage currently being done by feral cats, a bigger, stronger cat bred from an already wild cat breed can only lead to the decimation of even more of our native fauna. The fact that animals like these can come into the country without going through the usual quarantine processes or risk assessments urgently needs to be addressed. The current quarantine laws urgently need to be modified to stop these animals from entering Australia. Yours sincerely,

Since Peter Garrett has decided to change the definition of domestic cats we have stopped adding further signatures

* For more information on the damage feral cats are currently doing visit our cat facts page.

* See what Big Cat Rescue have to say about these cats - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiLAcEp5Vng

* News from Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre's CEO Tony Peacock - http://feral.typepad.com/

Visit our Petition Updates page for more information on what's going on