My Account
When I was living in Wellington, on the lower slopes of Mt Kaukau, our two cats would often be found playing with half dead lizards, inside or outside. I just didn’t know that we were contributing to the decimation of the local native skink population. I now know better and have no cats. Some sort of similar realisation is needed by hundreds of thousands of cat owners, because the toll on our wildlife is high. Sylvia Durrant experienced it at first hand. Her words of advice when retiring as The Bird Lady were “control your cat”.
Feral cats have long been identified as a problem. However, as pest control efforts have taken hold in urban areas, it is dawning on many that uncontrolled domestic cats and strays will inhibit the restoration of biodiversity in our gardens and reserves. The Shakespear Open Sanctuary has been at the sharp end of the problem. It has to capture cats bypassing the barrier fence. What it does with them then is controversial. At Alice Eaves Reserve a domestic moggy on the prowl became a regular sight for a while. I saw it with a tui in its jaws. It eventually drowned in the creek, a clear hazard for wandering pets.
There is simply no framework at present to control cats in such situations. The proposed Regional Pest Management Plan would set rules against abandoning cats or allowing them to enter designated high biodiversity areas where other pests were being controlled. It is vague on enforcement mechanisms, but euthanasia is implied. A microchipped cat on the companion animal register would not be considered a pest, however. So cat owners close to these areas would be wise to microchip. That would be no excuse to allow mayhem, though. Many owners favour microchipping to enable lost pets to be recovered, yet this is not proposed to be compulsory, as it already is in Wellington.
The Morgan Foundation has highlighted that local governments don’t have specific legal powers to control cats. They must rely on general statutory provisions providing for pest management or the avoidance of harmful environmental effects, hoping their efforts survive legal challenge. I’ve spoken in favour of cat bans for new developments bordering the Nukumea forests. The outcome has been for restrictions to be set if the applicant will agree. The hearing commissioners haven’t been prepared to impose their will.
These issues will bubble away for years. Meantime, voluntary decisions by householders to not own a cat or de-sex the one they have and control its movements, will be the main way to make progress.
Eugenie Sage, the Minister of Conservation, has suggested to Wellingtonians that they not replace their cat when it dies, so they can have kiwis in the urban area. Let’s do that here too.
