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Karla Karaitiana/Stuff
Nelson and Tasman councils are proposing new measures in dealing with the problem of stray and feral cats, including mandatory microchipping and desexing in St Arnaud, and cat trapping in areas of Nelson city. (file photo)
Pet cats in St Arnaud will need to be microchipped, desexed and registered under proposed management measures.
Feral cats were one of nine pests to be included in a review of the Nelson Tasman regional pest management plan which is to go out for public consultation.
Under the proposal, programmes to control stray cats, which are currently only in place at the Waimea Estuary, will extend to 31 Nelson city sites, private enclaves in the Abel Tasman National Park, and St Arnaud.
St Arnaud would have an additional rule requiring cat owners to have their cats microchipped, desexed and registered, preventing companion cats from breeding with feral cats.
In addition, sightings of feral or stray cats in both Nelson and St Arnaud would be required to be reported under the proposed rules.
NCC/Nelson Mail
Indicative sites of high biodiversity value in Nelson city, where live capture cat trapping may occur. Image source: NCC.
At a meeting of the regional pest management joint committee this week, Nelson city councillor Aaron Stallard asked if there was any risk of a chipped and registered cat being taken from their owner after being in one of the named high risk areas.
Stallard was reassured by staff present that chipped cats would be identified and sent home, and only live animal traps would be used.
Better Biosecurity Solutions director Peter Russell said councils were not in the business of catching people’s companion cats, but wanted to be able to deal with cats that might be coming into prime biodiversity sites.
They had worked closely in the past with the SPCA, who were professionals in understanding the sociability of cats and whether they could be re-homed or were feral animals, the committee was told. Strays would vary on the sociability spectrum, so it depended on each individual as to what the outcome would be.
“I’m 99% confident we won’t be damaging or affecting any companion animal,” Russell said.
Tasman deputy mayor Stuart Bryant said he thought desexing and microchipping rules would need to be phased in over a number of years, while Nelson councillor Rachel Sanson asked if it was possible if there was some sort of funding source available for cat owners in St Arnaud or an amnesty to ease the transition over a number of years.
Tasman District Council special projects analyst for biosecurity Paul Sheldon said with the Waimea Inlet site led programme within the current pest management plan, the council had been subsidising the microchipping of pets in that area, which was “part and parcel of trapping feral cats”.
“You want to make sure that the cat trapped is actually a feral cat, and not a domestic cat. So it’s the sort of gold standard in terms of being able to separate.”
In August the environment select committee made a recommendation for legislation to be put in place mandating the registration and desexing of cats.
The committee made its recommendation to the Government in August after considering a petition presented by Erica Rowlands in 2021.
In Nelson, a proposed rule includes prohibiting feeding or sheltering any feral or stray cat in “any named high value site”.
Sheldon said Tasman cats had been included in a Cat Tracker study, which used GPS collars to monitor their movements.
“Some are couch potatoes, and some roam over hundreds of hectares of bush country … and have multiple families they spend time with.”
Other pests proposed for inclusion in the Tasman-Nelson Regional Pest Management Plan (RPMP) review process are blue passion flower, boneseed, moth plant, pampas, sabella, water celery and Vietnamese parsley, and pest or wilding conifers.
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