Each year feral cats running rampant across Australia are wiping out native animals at a rate equivalent to last summer’s bushfire disaster. Three billion native animals are killed by the predators annually – on average more than 1100 per cat. The shocking statistics have prompted a federal parliamentary inquiry to recommend the government fence off large tracts of land to save native animals from the feline’s predations. “These are truly horrific numbers,” said inquiry chair Ted O’Brien. “One of the great tragedies of last year’s black summer bushfires was the loss of wildlife … to think that feral cats kill more wildlife on an annual basis really put this problem in perspective.” Pet cats are killing machines too, the inquiry found, collectively slaughtering some one million animals per day. Feral and domestic cats combined are the major cause behind the extinctions of three quarters of all Australian mammal species lost …