From the material and method section:
> The larynges were harvested from animals that had to be euthanised due to terminal disease unrelated to the respiratory tract in veterinary clinics in Vienna, Austria.> The larynges were harvested from animals that had to be euthanised due to terminal disease unrelated to the respiratory tract in veterinary clinics in Vienna, Austria. The animals’ owners gave their explicit consent for the larynges to be investigated postmortem.
> After removing excess tissue and all but four tracheal rings, each larynx was mounted on a vertical tube that could supply heated (∼37°C) and humidified (100% humidity) air. Larynx stability was maintained with an adjustable plastic support structure (using LEGO blocks, Billund, Denmark) and 3D-printed plastic mounts.
Many people embrace the idea of murdering more than just eight cats and actively develop better methods to do so:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-29/feral-cat-management-...
https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/felixer,-the-grooming-trap,-...
A feral cat management device that uses lasers and sensors to specifically target cats has been shown to be effective in a field trial in remote South Australia. It turns out that domesticated cats have no native range. Originally bred from wild cats and introduced to North America by European colonists, domesticated cats are now listed as one of the top 100 invasive species worldwide by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
It's not just Australia they were introduced into.
All as counter to the claim that Australia was unique in considering cats a nuisance.
It seems that assertion is true:
38. Felis catus
Felis catus was domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean c. 3000 years ago. Considering the extent to which cats are valued as pets, it is not surprising that they have since been translocated by humans to almost all parts of the world.
Notable predators, cats threaten native birdlife and other fauna, especially on islands where native species have evolved in relative isolation from predators.
Common Names: cat, domestic cat, feral cat, Hauskatze, house cat, poti, pusiniveikau
http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/100_worst.php
Is there nowhere in Europe where cat populations are kept in check to protect birdlife and other local native species?
In Western Europe, not really to that end other than quite localised.
But even then the discussion has to be what is a native species (with birds that can get quite odd with species disappearing and reappearing hundreds of years later, for example). There is just no real nature left, i.e., more about deciding when to make a cut.
> Originally bred from wild cats
Once wild, now domesticated ..
> introduced to North America by European colonists
what was introduced to North America?
> domesticated cats are now listed as ...
oh, yeah, domesticated cats were introduced to North America.
Animal cruelty is a serious problem because it makes some people miserable to see them suffer and the ones it doesn't make miserable are possibly dangerously psychotic.
This isn't that.
Rule of thumb, when dealing with the 19th century: assume pretty much any level of cruelty, depravity, or plain stupidity was up for grabs (you have all three here, the stupidity being around the laws which made this industry inevitable). It wasn’t a very nice time, in general.