WELLINGTON: “Stone-cold killers” are prowling New Zealand’s streets, farmlands and forests, and the Kiwis have had enough.
New Zealand has announced plans to eradicate feral cats by 2050, an effort officials say is essential to protecting native wildlife.
The shift, confirmed by Conservation Minister Tama Potaka in an interview with Radio New Zealand on Nov 20, marks a reversal from previous government policy.
While non-native predators such as stoats, rats, weasels and possums have long been on the country’s eradication list, cats – despite their ecological impact – had remained off-limits.
Potaka signalled that stance was no longer tenable.
“Feral cats are stone-cold killers,” he said, defining them as animals living entirely independent of humans. “They kill to survive.
“In order to boost biodiversity, to boost heritage landscape and to boost the type of place we want to see, we’ve got to get rid of some of these killers.”
Cats had been in New Zealand since the British explorer James Cook mapped out the archipelago in 1769. Whalers and early European settlers found their way to New Zealand, and with them came cats.
When the population of rabbits that were introduced in New Zealand in the 1830s for food and sport exploded, farmers and government agencies released cats into the wild to “fix the rabbit problem”.
In time, without a natural predator and an abundant food supply, feral cats thrived.
Potaka outlined a range of control measures under consideration, including poisoned sausage baits and tree-mounted devices capable of spraying toxins as the animals pass.
Such proposals are likely to draw scrutiny in a country where pet ownership is widespread and sensitivities around lethal control run high.
Natural-born killers
Still, officials argue the ecological case is overwhelming.
Feral cats now range across nearly every environment in New Zealand, from farmland to dense forest.
They prey on threatened species – from birds and lizards to bats and insects – many of which evolved in the absence of mammalian predators.
Near the North Island town of Ohakune, the ministry reported, more than 100 short-tailed bats were killed by feral cats in a single week.
On Stewart Island, they have been implicated in the near-extinction of the southern dotterel, a small shorebird.
The government also cited public health and economic costs, noting that toxoplasmosis – a parasite carried and spread by cats – has harmed dolphins, sickened residents and caused losses for farmers.
Predator Free New Zealand Trust estimates that New Zealand spends about NZ$10 million to NZ$20 million (US$5.6 million to US$8.2 million) a year on feral cat control and management.
Potaka said the decision reflects strong public sentiment.
More than 90 per cent of the nearly 3,400 submissions to a recent consultation on the Predator Free strategy supported tougher feral cat controls.
Conservation advocates echoed that view.
Writing in The Post, Jessi Morgan, chief executive of the Predator Free New Zealand Trust, called the announcement overdue.
“The response was loud and clear,” she wrote. “Feral cats belong on the target list.”
Further details will be released when an updated Predator Free 2050 Strategy is published in March.
In an effort to quell concerns among pet owners, officials emphasised that domestic cats are not part of the eradication plan.
Potaka said responsible ownership, including desexing, microchipping and keeping pets away from wildlife, remains essential.
“We know people want their local reserves, beaches and bush tracks to be full of birds, not predators,” he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
