Grumpy cats facing long paw of the law

Cat's Cradle: This grumpy cat is none too pleased about a federal government inquiry into the carnage that cats inflict.

Let's be straight about one thing here. We're not talking about Garfield.

Well, not us. It's actually a pollie named Ted O'Brien. He's not talking about Garfield. He wants to be clear about that.

Ted, a federal MP, chairs the House of Representatives Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy [crikey, what a mouthful].

That super-long named committee has commenced an inquiry into "the problem of feral and domestic cats in Australia".

Ted says the inquiry will take "a national approach to the problem of feral and domestic cats and their impact on native wildlife and habitats across Australia".

"We're not talking about loveable, lasagne-loving, lazy cats like Garfield, but rather predatory carnivores that hunt and kill endangered native animals," Ted said.

Let's just paws for a moment. Ted just threw the cat among the pigeons.

His committee will look at the prevalence of feral and domestic cats in Australia, the impact of feral and domestic cats on native wildlife and habitats, and the effectiveness of current legislative and regulatory approaches.

No need for an inquiry into that, Ted. We have that information handy. There's a shitload of feral and domestic cats in Australia, their impact on native wildlife and habitats is horrendous and the current legislative and regulatory approaches are completely ineffective.

But alas, there's more than one way to skin a cat. So let's see if this committee is a toothless tiger. Usually politicians don't have much to say on this matter. It's like the cat got their tongue [apologies, we really can't help it].

We just hope they don't turn the inquiry into some kind of cat's cradle.

The committee will accept submissions until July 30.