THE Tasmanian Government needs to extend its Fox Eradication Taskforce to all pest animals, including feral cats, says a leading biosecurity expert.
Tasmanian Quality Meats' quality assurance manager Chris Crocker said feral cats were causing massive losses in the State's sheep meat industry.
"We have a fox taskforce – why can't there be a feral animal taskforce?
"Fox, deer, cats – anything that's an issue to the farmers.
"Why can't they work on the lot?
"I haven't heard of any losses from foxes, but I have heard of big losses from cats."
He said sarcocystis and abortion in maiden ewes were increasing problems, particularly in grazing land around Tasmania's towns.
"I can show you lines around the country towns – Fingal, Bothwell, Oaklands – where graziers have lost up to 30 or 40 sheep because of the cat problem," he said.
"The biggest was 150 sheep, and at a cost of $70 to $80 a sheep, there are losses of up to $7000."
Scientists have called for the focus to be directed away from what they say is a non-existent fox problem to feral cats.
"In a nutshell, there is no empirical data that substantiates claims there was a potential for a fox population to be established in Tasmania," veterinary pathologist Dr David Obendorf said.
Fox sightings fell into the same category as unverified claims the Tasmanian tiger still existed, he said.
But the fox eradication program had cost between $50 million and $70m across 13 years, diverting much-needed money from cat control.
"Chris is right in saying we have had our eyes off feral cats for the past 12-15 years," Dr Obendorf said.
"Now Canberra is wary about sinking more money into a situation where there is no end game and no sense in which you are achieving anything.
"Tasmania has a credibility crisis, quite frankly."
Dr Obendorf was one of a team of seven scientists who completed a two-year study into the eradication program.
They found the science upon which the study was based was deficient and analysis used to identify fox scats came up with false positives.
The Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment continues to run its Fox Eradication Program, but says it is currently in its final stage of operation.
"The program is an integrated eradication effort initiated by the Tasmanian Government in response to an accumulation of evidence that indicated fox activity in Tasmania," the department said in a statement on its website.
"The program started in 2006 and is unique in attempting to eradicate foxes before recognised establishment has occurred and fox impacts are highly visible."
The department did not respond by Stock & Land's deadline.
But the former policeman who was given the task of finding an elusive fox, which was believed to have jumped off a ship, said claims the pest was in Tasmania were "a nonsense".
Independent Upper House Member for Windemere, Ivan Dean, welcomed the government's establishment of a biosecurity division to look at all animal and pest risks.
But he said there was no physical evidence foxes had ever come to Tasmania or even existed in the State.
"With all the baiting they did, they never found one – not one fox had been near it," Mr Dean said.
"Some had cameras set up near them, and there were devils, native cats and possums taking the baits but there wasn't one fox.
"Feral cats are a proven and known problem in this State, not foxes."
- More next week
