Archive Science  Cats aren’t evil, but they are a problem David
Winter Jan 22   It seems Gareth Morgan has declared a war on
cats. It will, I’m sure, come as a great surprise to you that
Morgan’s description of cats as ruthless and sadistic killers
that we must eventually purge from the land  has met some
opposition. Invoking outrage is pretty good way to get free
advertising in New Zealand, and if you measure the campaign’s
success in tweets, comments and talkback calls I guess Morgan is
on to a winner. But I’d like to think we can do better than
simply setting up an argument between supporters of Morgan’s
Maoist purge and cat lovers who think their moggie can do no
harm.  Cats are a problem  Most of the reaction to Morgan’s
campaign has been to basically treat it as a joke. We should be
clear then, that introduced predators are the number one threat
to New Zealand species. Stoats, weasels possums and rats all
contribute the decline of birds and lizards (and invertebrates,
though we don’t monitor those speci