Volunteers are ‘reaching breaking point’ dealing with Gore’s feral cat problem

Two volunteers are spending hundreds of dollars a week feeding and neutering stray and feral cats in Gore, and both have been verbally abused while doing so.

Andrea McMillan and Melanie Ferguson, members of the Cat Management and Control Sub-Committee, spoke to the Gore District Council’s policy and regulatory committee on Tuesday, which was considering the recommendations of the council’s Cat Management Working Party.

The recommendations include the creation of a formal structure such as a ‘Cat Rescue’ trust or association with charity status, and additional resources or funding to enhance trapping, de-sexing and re-homing of stray cats.

But their top priorities were desexing and educating the public on what they could do with kittens, funding and a building or base to house stray cats, Ferguson told the committee.

The committee voted to invite applications to its Grants Committee for funding for neutering cats, and a report on the costs associated with the establishment and operation of a facility for the management of cats will be considered as part of the Long Term Plan.

It also voted to write to the Government to advocate for enactment of national legislation by Parliament mandating the de-sexing and registration (micro-chipping) of companion cats, and to advocate to Environment Southland for additional support and funding of effective pest management, including feral cats within the Gore district.

A report will also be prepared for the development of a cat management policy.

The committees’ recommendations will still need to be discussed at a full council meeting next month.

The working party, chaired by Cr Glenys Dickson, estimated there are about 500 to 700 stray cats, and about 4000 feral cats in the Gore district.

This week the Environment Select Committee recommended that legislation be put in place mandating the registration and desexing of cats.

The committee agreed that it was time to legislate a nationwide cat management framework based on the notion cats should be registered, desexed, and microchipped with appropriate exemptions.

The Government was due to respond to the recommendation by October 25.

Predator Free New Zealand Trust chief executive Jessi Morgan said without national legislation, cat welfare and native species were at the mercy of individual councils, so it was great to see the Gore council being proactive with this issue.

She said the current goal was to have a national cat act, similar to dogs, so that councils have the tools to manage the different populations of cats: feral, stray and companion.

“This would include minimum rules for desexing, microchipping and registering companion animals – ultimately, we are eager to see Gore District Council supported nationally to do the right thing locally,’’ she said.

Morgan said many councils were struggling with cats in their communities.

Around 25 councils have bylaws relating to cats, but most just limit the number of cats per household and very few mandate desexing or microchipping.

“For example, Wellington City Council was the first to include compulsory microchipping in 2016, while New Plymouth City Council limits the number of cats allowed on urban properties to three and has rules around feeding feral or stray animals.

“It’s inconsistent across the country and an ineffective way to manage cats. We need compulsory microchipping to make it easier to determine an owned cat from an unowned cat, and desexing prevents unwanted kittens.’’

Under the Southland Regional Pest Management Plan, cats were not allowed on Stewart Island/Rakiura, and a permit from Environment Southland was required to possess a Bengal cat within the region. De-sexing and micro-chipping was a requirement of a permit.

In 2019, it was proposed banning new cat ownership at Omaui near Invercargill to support the work of the Omaui Landcare Charitable Trust, which had been trapping pest animals in a reserve in the area. The ban was overturned, as long as cats were microchipped, desexed and kept in accordance with Invercargill City Council bylaws.