‘Bird killing machines’: New Zealand cools on cats to safeguard native wildlife | Animals

“I shoot them,” says McConnell. “Seriously. If it’s a cat and I know whose it is, I’ll leave it. But if it’s a stray cat – it’s a gonner,” he says. “Even if it’s domestic and it’s out at night, I’m getting to the point where I’d shoot those as well, because they shouldn’t be out.”

McConnell is not a dyed-in-the-wool cat hater. Not so long earlier, his family had cats of their own. “I said to my wife: when they’re gone, we’d better not replace them,” he says. “Because it’s just not cricket any more.”

He is amongst a growing variety of New Zealanders – a number of them one-time feline owners – who are ending their love affair with cats, driven by issues over their terrible effect on Aotearoa’s native wildlife.

The nation has actually had among the world’s greatest rates for cat ownership per capita, with near to half of families owning one. New Zealand is more than 7 years into among the world’s most enthusiastic pest-eradication routines, intending to remove all possums, rats, stoats and ferrets by 2050. As tries to erase those less understanding targets roll on, nevertheless, other animals are coming under the spotlight, consisting of the family moggie. With more than 2 million feral cats, and about 1.4 million domestic ones throughout New Zealand, they are thought to be jointly accountable for substantial varieties of attacks on native birdlife.

“I definitely hear more and more people either tell me they’re a reformed cat owner, or that the cat they currently owned will be their last,” says Jessi Morgan, who leads preservation organisation Predator Free NZ. “Our attitude towards cats, and what responsible pet ownership means is really changing.”

For some New Zealanders, that suggests their days as cat-owners are over. “My wife and I love cats, but we will never have another one,” says Tony White, an estate representative in Pauanui. When they farewelled their last cat 15 years earlier, he observed how birds and native lizards started to recover the garden. Now, he says, “We have rare birds walking past our living room and nesting in our garden – kiwi live in the patch of scrub at the back of our house. They would not be there if we had a cat.”

“We love cats, but New Zealanders may have to choose whether we want cats or birds.”

“I have owned cats most of my life, many of which simply wandered in and adopted us,” says Simon Damerell, a retired person in Auckland. Now, he and his partner have actually chosen not to own a cat once again – seeing cat-ownership as merely “incompatible with our strong interest in promoting birdlife into the city”.

“Cats, though adorable and loving, are in essence bird killing machines,” he says.

Others – like McConnell – favour a more powerful method, arguing that domestic cats ought to be kept inside and feral cats euthanised. This year, the dispute over cat control was once again moved into the headings after a South Island hunting competitors assured kids rewards for shooting feral cats – and raised grievances from animal rights activists.

“It’s not considered neighbourly to shoot your neighbour’s cat,” says Joe Citizen, a teacher based in the Waikato. “But I do think that it’s time to have a serious national conversation about them.”

Native birds prospering

Part of the shift in mindsets towards cats might really be driven by the healing in New Zealand’s native animals, says Morgan. Cities like Wellington have actually seen substantial healing in native bird numbers, after developing big metropolitan bird sanctuaries that have actually seeded populations around the city. As those uncommon native birds significantly make their method into individuals’s backyards, they’re likewise entering into contact with their cats – and owners are being more straight challenged with their animals’ predation.

“It’s showing up on hotspots like Wellington where the biodiversity is really starting to thrive and come back into the city and the places that we live,” Morgan says. “People are confronted with their cats bringing tīeke [saddlebacks] in through the catdoor or kererū, or fantails – and suddenly that’s quite confronting for a cat owner.”

Aaron Lavack, of Wellington, lives near the city’s belt of forest. “It’s been a joy to see it slowly recolonised by native birds,” he says, particularly the spirited native kaka [parrots] that would have been a rarity a years previously. But the birds’ return likewise tosses a spotlight on the cats that eliminate them. “Sadly, lately I’ve started to see kaka that have been killed by local cats; making the conflict between the two clearer,” Lavack said. “My young daughter has started to ask for a pet cat, but instead I’m getting a quote to have our cat-door sealed up.”

Tamsin Orr Walker, of Kea Conservation Trust, says feral cats are a far higher hazard to native birds than numerous owners understand. The trust has actually electronic cameras established keeping track of kea nests and foraging websites – and tape-recorded cats not just hunting chicks in nests, however periodically handling and eliminating the adult birds – big parrots, of approximately 48cm and weighing around a kg. “We just need to rethink what our attitudes are to cats and to our wildlife as well,” Orr Walker says.

“If we want them to continue into the future and for our children and our children’s children to enjoy seeing our native birds flying around and native bats and reptiles then we need to seriously and urgently address this issue.”

Orr Walker is among those promoting for New Zealand’s federal government to action in with more powerful policy of cat ownership. This month, parliament’s ecological choose committee backed a proposition to present mandatory microchipping.

And, as New Zealanders end up being more associated with nationwide volunteer efforts to trap other insects, they’re challenged on trap electronic cameras with pictures of cats appearing on the hunt.

Dugald Wilson, of Christchurch, is among those who has actually performed volunteer trapping – and discovered that the trap electronic cameras were frequently getting cats. “When our neighbours have a cat the bird song is quietened – we find feathers of bellbirds, piwakawaka, and other birds,” he says.

“I like cats – and we have had three as pets, but no more.”