More than 250 feral cats in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman have been culled since the official culling programme began on the Sister Islands, according to official figures, with a new tactic being the use of high-powered air rifles to euthanise cats in Little Cayman.
Environment minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks told MPs in the latest meeting of the Finance Committee that 49 feral cats had been culled on Cayman Brac and 209 on Little Cayman, as the felines had been eradicating native species which needed to be protected.
Euthanising measures
The task of controlling the cat population is carried out by Department of Environment staff and has to be approved by the National Conservation Council in environmentally-sensitive areas. In Little Cayman, cats were dispatched by being trapped in a cage overnight and then euthanised by a vet by lethal injection, a process which, the conservation council says, can be stressful for the animals and logistically difficult and inefficient, particularly in remote areas of Little Cayman.
Under the new council-approved procedure, trained DoE staff are using high-power FX Dreamline air rifles from Sweden which are capable of delivering instantaneous, painless dispatch at close range. This method, said the National Conservation Council, “allows euthanasia to occur swiftly and discreetly on site, eliminating the need for transport and handling that can cause unnecessary distress to the animal”.
It added, “The shift to these new methods reflects the National Conservation Council and the Department of Environment’s commitment to balancing compassion for individual animals with the urgent need to protect the island’s native species and habitats.”
According to the National Conservation Council, feral cats pose a serious and ongoing threat to Little Cayman’s unique and fragile ecosystem.
“Many animals native to the Sister Islands, including the Red-footed Booby, the critically endangered Sister Islands rock iguana, and many other native birds, insects and reptiles, are particularly vulnerable to predation by feral cats,” it said.
It added that, since control efforts restarted in 2022, several native species had seen numbers increase significantly, in particular the rock iguana population which tripled from around 1,000 in 2022 to around 3,500 in 2025.
Pet cats microchipped
To make sure that pet cats on Little Cayman aren’t inadvertently destroyed, the conservation council said that all pet cats are now microchipped and registered so they can be returned to their owners if caught.
Answering questions about the culling programme from MPs during Finance Committee last week, Ebanks-Wilks said that there was no culling programme taking place on Grand Cayman because there is a judicial review in place on island not to cull cats until after plans for a cat pound have been approved by Cabinet.
Ebanks-Wilks told MPs that she wasn’t a cat lover, but that “I myself cringe at the idea of any living creature being shot”. However, having spoken to the DoE, she said, she discovered that it wasn’t an uncommon practice, saying, “It’s the same way that we deal with our cows when we’re ready to get them ready for Christmas beef or when we’re ready to deal with the turtles … the scientific evidence that has been used to determine this process sets out that this is the most humane way to deal with euthanising an animal.”
She said that once the two cat pounds were approved, that would remove the need for euthanisation in this way in future.
In response, Opposition MP for Bodden Town West Chris Saunders said he was trying to understand “having these cats in a cage helpless and then being shot. It’s one thing where we’re doing something [for food]. I mean, I don’t eat cat at Christmas. So, [cat] versus Christmas beef is two different things….
“The scariest part for me is these types of recommendations and where they’re coming from. I mean, the very name says conservation, preservation, and now we’re talking about elimination.”
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Could the government please use such tactics to eliminate the huge feral chicken population in Grand Cayman. They’re a disgusting, unhygienic, noisy eyesore giving the impression of a 5th world country.
I was going to make exactly the same comment when I saw this. This issue has been raised many times in the media, but has met with a deafening silence from our representatives. They are now gung ho to raise revenue by raising fees from the private sector, but now I know what they mean by by the need to “improve public finance”. Some of it at least has already been spent, an ADDITONAL $150.000 to help provide our Ministers with chauffeur driven limousines!.
Cats may become a danger to some birds and iguanas but they also act as a deterrent to rats. Since I have adopted my two cats 8 years ago I have not seen a rat in my yard. Previously, I would see them frolicking in pairs all over the yard.