Last year the event made global headlines over plans for a special category for under-14-year-olds to see who could hunt and kill the most feral cats.
The resulting outcry resulted in that category being removed, but this year’s event also attracted bad publicity over reports of a child dragging a dead cat through an obstacle course.
This year the adults participating in the event killed 370 cats, one man nabbing a $500 prize for killing 65.
The worry is that such polarising events detract from the bigger picture; that feral cats are a nationwide problem which needs attention on that scale.
It is estimated there may be as many as 2.4 million feral cats across the country gobbling up wildlife, including birds and lizards. There are also another 200,000 stray cats trying to eke out an existence, often lost or abandoned companion cats or unwanted kittens from such animals.
At this stage, feral cats are not included in the Predator Free 2050 Strategy list of targeted introduced predators, but the strategy is being reviewed this year.
This will include considering the question of whether feral cats should be added. Public consultation on any changes to the strategy is likely early next year.
In the Otago Regional Council’s pest plan feral cats are classified as a pest in the areas of Otago Peninsula, West Harbour/Mt Cargill, Quarantine Island and Goat Island.
The goal is to assist communities in these areas to sustainably control feral cats to prevent or lessen damage to the indigenous ecosystems. In these areas no-one is allowed to keep, hold, enclose or otherwise harbour feral cats or bring them in.
Attempts by various local bodies to tackle companion cat control over the years have been varied, and when considered in the national context, they are more of a meek miaow towards the problem than something worthy of the toughest tom in town, Lynley Dodd’s character Scarface Claw.
In Dunedin, for instance, the council encourages microchipping and desexing of companion animals but it is not mandatory.
Across the Ditch, there have been similar issues with cats and wildlife, and in an increasing number of places, cats are either required to be kept in at night or securely contained 24 hours a day.
The issue for many may have only come to the fore around a decade ago when Gareth Morgan invoked the ire of cat lovers across the country with the "Cats to Go" campaign, arguing we would never have a truly predator-free New Zealand until we managed our pet cats.
The argument cats needed to be managed in the same way that dogs were became a bit lost in the furore.
However, the question of the need for better cat management is not a new one, with a journalist writing for the then Forest and Bird Protection Society calling for cat-control legislation 90 years ago.
The issue was contentious then too, a recent article in Forest & Bird magazine explained, with fierce debates raging in the 1940s over a suggestion from the society there should be compulsory registration of cats.
Last year the environment committee, after considering a petition from Erica Rowlands, made a majority decision to recommend legislation be developed for cat management covering registering, desexing and microchipping, with appropriate exemptions.
We have heard nothing from the new government on this, but it would be good to see some joined-up thinking on companion, stray and feral cat control. What we have now is far from purr-fect.
