Making cat hats on King Island | ||
PM - Wednesday, 21 May , 2008 18:46:00Reporter: Felicity OgilvieMARK COLVIN: If you have small children with you, you better switch off now because this is the story Dr Seuss didn't write. Not "The Cat in the Hat", but the cat is the hat. It's happening on King Island in Bass Strait which has a problem with feral cats. One local woman is helping control the numbers by turning them into headwear. Felicity Ogilvie filed this report from King Island. ROBYN EADES: It's cool and soft. Just working with it, it's a nice thin skin to, to sew on the sewing machine or by hand. FELICITY OGILVIE: Robyn Eades makes hats from the feral cats that live on King Island. She's turned a cat into a Davy Crockett-style hat - the cat's skinny tail dangles from the hat. But not every cat hat has a tail. ROBYN EADES: I have made them without them or so they're detachable in case people think they're too silly (laughs). It's part of the gimmick. FELICITY OGILVIE: How do you make a detachable tail on a cat hat? ROBYN EADES: Well you can do it with a button hole or a couple of pieces of velcro tape. FELICITY OGILVIE: She might skin feral cats for a living but Robyn Eades says she's no cat-hater, in fact she's had a few pet cats. ROBYN EADES: One I got as a kitten, very early on. We kept her for along time. Another one, a girlfriend left and couldn't find Tippy so I got to keep her. And poor old Stripy came to us from the bush and was a wild as wild and the kids tamed him. So I'm a cat person if I have a pet, I don't have right now though. FELICITY OGILVIE: If you like them as pets why do you skin some? How do you reconcile that? ROBYN EADES: I don't find that a problem. FELICITY OGILVIE: The hats are made from feral cats that are killed as part of a management program on King Island. The feral cats are being culled because they're eating the local wildlife, birds like the orange-bellied parrot. The parrot's been ranked as one the world most endangered species. Many of the cats are caught by a Ranger, Nigel Burgess, he traps and kills 100 feral cats a year. NIGEL BURGESS: Well, that's one of the newer model traps we've got and when the cat come in he walks on that plate there. (Sound of trap shutting) That shuts and that shutter bar falls down there so the door can't open and then you've got yourself a cat of very mean disposition as a rule when they see you and some of them are really unpleasant. FELICITY OGILVIE: And how do you kill the cat? NIGEL BURGESS: I use the rifle to shoot them in the trap. FELICITY OGILVIE: If Mr Burgess see's a cat with pretty fur he drops it around to Robyn Eades house. (Sound of knife being sharpened) FELICITY OGILVIE: Then it's up to Ms Eades to skin the cat. ROBYN EADES: I'm a mother and a grandmother and it is very like undressing the baby, except that you don't use a knife when you're undressing the baby. Yeah and you just try and do it as delicately and nicely as possible. FELICITY OGILVIE: Once she's finished tanning the cat skins Ms Eades makes the hats on her old sewing machine. (Sound of sewing machine) FELICITY OGILVIE: The cat hats are sold alongside other local artwork on the other side of King Island at the cultural centre. The centre's run by Sally Marsden. SALLY MARSDEN: You get two reactions from the hats; 'oh my God I can't even look at it' or absolute wonder and excitement over them. FELICITY OGILVIE: You're an artist, what artistic value do you see in these cat hats. SALLY MARSDEN: Oh, it's a fabulous craftsmanship. I think any hat there's that skill of millinery and I think Robin's really got that and I also think that that fantastic skill of skinning and tanning. FELICITY OGILVIE: Ms Marsden's sales pitch is the hats are socially acceptable because the cats are, or were feral. MARK COLVN: Felicity Ogilvie reporting from King Island. | ||
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