Of The Article 'Scoundrels Or Scapegoats' By Tim Low

Stage 1 English Pre-Studies

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1. Tim Low, the author of the article Cats: Scoundrels or Scapegoats, talks about many different issues that have arisen over the years concerning the way cats are viewed. Low talks a lot about the fact that cats prey on native birds, however, so do a large amount of other animals. “Birds are killed in forests too, by a whole gamut of predators including snakes, goannas, falcons, butcherbirds, quolls, Dingoes and even spiders.” Low presents his answer to the question throughout the entire piece by giving examples of how and why cats are viewed as scoundrels, but then backing those examples up with why he believes they are scapegoats.

Low believes that although feral cats are a bigger problem than pet

Reid places the blame for the destruction of Australian wildlife on cats. In response to Tim Low’s article defending the cat’s nature of predation, Reid seems to disagree with almost everything Low mentions. Reid states that “Cat owners are irresponsible people” which also partially places the blame for the destruction of wildlife on the people who own cats. To solve the problem of the declining native species, Reid suggests that governments should “introduce a program for the utter eradication of all cats from

His words are delivered with low modality and does not need to use aggressive tones to deliver his beliefs. Reid presents his argument from only his perspective. This is an effective way to have people agree with what you are writing about, however, Low adds the perspective of both cat owners and people who believe that cats are in fact scoundrels. Low states that “because cats prey on native birds they could bring about their extermination.” He also admits “enormous numbers of birds are killed by pet cats in gardens.” By giving these facts to the readers, he is allowing them to understand what has made him write this article. After writing that yes, cats kill birds, he argues that “hunting by pet cats would only be a problem if the rate of predation, combined with other deaths, exceeded the breeding rate of the birds.” Low then says that this is not the case. He is using different perspectives to give the readers a chance to form their own opinion instead of seemingly forcing his onto