Council’s decision last week to develop a Cat Management Bylaw shows we appreciate the vulnerability of New Zealand’s unique wildlife and that feral cats are major killers.
I appreciate many households have much-loved pet cats. We have Shasta and Leo – they are on a much better deal than I, getting cuddles and attention and not having to do household chores! However, I think we can develop a bylaw that does not unduly burden families with pet cats, while reducing cat-related nuisance and impacts on wildlife.
The proposed bylaw will consider microchipping and desexing, with a desexing exemption for cats belonging to registered breeders. The microchipping is to enable pets to be distinguished from feral cats. The desexing is to reduce the number of unwanted kittens. Too often people cannot bring themselves to have kittens put down and release them into our reserves.
One of the greatest privileges of my life was serving as Environment and Conservation Minister for this beautiful country multiple times during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. I became acutely aware that, while on most environment measures New Zealand ranks very well, our standout environmental problem is biodiversity loss. We have thousands of unique species, particularly birds, that have evolved in isolation from mammalian predators and are at risk of extinction.
The big issue last century in protecting our wildlife was loss of habitat from clearing forests and wetlands for development. We should be proud of Nelson’s leadership in creating National Parks and ending the clear felling of native forests. However, the greatest threat today is introduced pests such as possums, stoats and cats.
Our region has taken outstanding steps on pest control with initiatives like Project Janszoon, Nelson Nature and projects such as the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. We undermine these initiatives by ignoring the cat problem. There are 2.5 million feral cats nationally and about 100,000 in Nelson-Tasman.
This is an opportunity for us to lead on this cat problem. We are working in parallel with Tasman District Council and have the support of the SPCA and local vets. The next step is developing a draft cat bylaw for community consultation.
