Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (19:53): (2211) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for him to revoke the use of the Felixer grooming traps in Victoria. I had to find out via a post on Facebook that this government has backflipped on its commitment to not deploying these cruel devices and will now permit their use to kill cats deemed invasive in the state. These traps spray cats with a coating of toxic 1080 gel, relying on their instinctive grooming to lick and ingest the lethal poison. This kind of death is not quick, and it is certainly not humane. For those unfamiliar with how 1080 works, when it is ingested symptoms may take hours to appear, and the death that follows is incredibly distressing. Common symptoms include frenzied behaviour, vomiting, uncontrollable urination and defecation, convulsions, seizures and haemorrhaging. There is no known antidote, and it is lethal to all life forms.

Its effects do not stop at the initial target. While Felixer manufacturers claim the devices can distinguish species based on body shape and movement, this technology cannot prevent secondary poisoning. The toxin carried on the fur of the first victim can then be transferred, including to a native bird using poisoned cat fur for a nest. A single poisoned cat can trigger a chain of suffering across an entire food chain. Victoria has killing programs for every unwanted species and yet adverse effects continue to persist. For cats, removing them from one area allows for new populations to move in, creating a cycle that does nothing to reduce long-term populations. For these reasons reckless killing does nothing to protect native bird species, as the industries who support the Felixers’ use claim.

In 2023 the then agriculture minister made a clear commitment that Felixer grooming traps would not be included in Victoria’s cat management strategy. She also emphasised that decisions in this area must be balanced with animal welfare considerations. The government’s reversal of this decision is neither balanced nor humane. In fact it is yet another unsurprising betrayal that leaves more animals in Victoria to suffer. If we are serious about sustainable wildlife management, we must explore long-term, evidence-based solutions such as immunocontraception as nonlethal population control. I therefore call on the minister to immediately revoke approval for Felixer grooming traps and pursue humane evidence-based alternatives instead.