This includes horses, cattle, goats, pigs, donkeys, camels, water buffaloes, dogs, cats, rabbits, foxes and mice. Large populations of animals in an area can cause problems. For example, in times of drought the bodies of very thin wild horses can be seen around dried up waterholes. Rabbits can eat out all the available feed and die of starvation. These animals suffer terribly before they die, and this alone is good reason for keeping their population under control.
Some people can become quite hysterical on the subject of feral animals.
They blame them for just about every environmental problem in Australia and want them eradicated by any available method. Nevertheless, millions of feral animals every year are killed by cruel methods. This approach is not effective because the surviving animals will continue to breed, and before long the population will be back to where it was. The killing then starts all over again. The killing methods also cause enormous suffering, not only to the animals being targeted, but also to any other animal unfortunate enough to eat a poisoned bait or to step on a trap.