The Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare group (ARRG) is calling for the registration, microchipping, desexing, and limiting numbers of cats per household, in a bid to protect the birds, and other inhabitants of the riverbed.
It says a cat control bylaw is urgently required.
ARRG has called on Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon to take heed of its plea for action, with the group’s operation’s manager presenting him with photographic evidence of cats at nests, and at predator traps the group has set. The traps are not for cats.
The group says cats are the second worst predator of endangered braided river birds on the river — Norway rats being the worst.
‘‘We do this on behalf of all river inhabitants, particularly braided river birds, and to prevent continued cruelty to cats, which are often abandoned to lead a precarious existence in the wild,’’ ARRG says.
It urges Mr Gordon to promote going further than a Selwyn District Council bylaw, which requires registration and microchipping of cats.
During a recent three month trial on baits for traps, there were 79 visits by cats, the most of any predator.
ARRG says controls would add a layer of protection for endangered birds, giving the various species a chance to breed successfully. The number of unwanted litters of kittens would also reduce, the group says.
‘‘Bylaws to control cats will, in the long term, lead to fewer cats being dumped and breeding in the wild,’’ a group spokesperson says.
‘‘We know from experience in Canterbury that feral cat populations are huge, and not easily controlled.’’
