Bob Kerridge, New Zealand’s best known champion of the animals has this month been chosen as the National President of the Royal New Zealand SPCA. The article below shows just how he’s helped make compassion for pets, a community concern…
Cause of the cat people
New Zealand Herald, March 2009Bob Kerridge called and the cat ladies came.
On a day of lashing rain and wild wind, women from around Auckland grabbed their brollies and, some clutching cages of kittens, made their way to the Auckland SPCA, drawn there by the region’s best-known animal welfare whisperer.
A few men who turned out too, but women make up most of the small army of people who quietly care for the legions of cats living in our school grounds, in vacant lots and in carparks, under bridges and in churchyards.
These cat-carers slip out at night under the radar to provide what SPCA chief executive Kerridge says is a vital public service.
They feed, trap and desex colonies of stray cats, mostly paying out of their own pockets. They often stump up for the vet bills to treat mange and fleas, or the eye disease which gums the eyes of kittens tight shut.
Some spend thousands on stray cats and many have half a dozen at home – some a whole lot more.
It’s also true a few of them fit the elderly white female profile of the cat-obsessed.
But not all. Many are ordinary folk with families who care about cats and who have similar stories of how they got involved; that first hungry, ratty cat foraging in a bin which tugged at the heartstrings.
They’ll talk of how one cat led to another… and another.
So call them fanatical, they say, just don’t call them nuts because caring for stray cats is a serious business.
The problem of stray cats is so serious, in fact, it’s why Kerridge called the cat-carers together for a summit at the SPCA’s education centre in Mangere.
At the end of the day, a new co-ordinated “Cat Coalition” had been born.
As the day wore on and a few different philosophies emerged, with only the tiniest of cat fights towards the end, the one thing everyone in the room had in common was this message: desexing is paramount.
The aim of even the most cat-heavy cat lady, or man, is to reduce the stray cat population.
If this small army of people did not exist to desex stray cats, the already high population would fast explode in numbers hard to imagine and cruel means would likely be employed to get rid of them.
To these people, prevention is better than culling.
Mark Farnworth is a Unitec animal scientist who came along to get some tips for future research. He has already studied New Zealand attitudes towards stray cats and has found that while New Zealand likes to think itself a nation of animal lovers, when it comes to the cat we are below countries such as Italy and America where trap, neuter and release (TNR) schemes are accepted as ethically sound.
The SPCA wants to educate the public about the soundness of TNR because Farnworth’s studies show the public would rather see strays destroyed.
One of the problems here is a blurring in the public’s mind on the difference between stray and feral cats.
Stray cats are the ones which originate from pets whereas feral cats are born in the wild and have no reliance on humans and are designated pests under the Biosecurity Act.
Even with feral cats, though, the jury is out on how bad they are for native wildlife.
Kerridge refers to a study in the bush of the Orongorongo Valley in Wellington which analysed cat scat (faecal remains) and found rats and rabbits were their stable foods, though they also ate some birds, lizards, fish and invertebrates.
The study concluded: “Our results suggest that cats are having little effect on most forest birds, especially those who do not feed on the ground, but that they are important predators of rodents and rabbits.”
Cats are demonised beyond what is fair, Kerridge tells the horrified audience, and explains how through history cats have played their role.
It’s a well-known historical fact, he says, that London’s great plague was caused as a result of the cats being eliminated. During the papal period cats were seen as devils and were killed but the rat population exploded.
He hopes the day will come when New Zealand has cat-friendlier laws, saying that in Rome in 1991 a law was passed which gives cats the right to live free.
They must be desexed but by law they are protected and must not be removed from their colony.
The result is well-managed colonies and happy cats.
Says Kerridge, “Perhaps we can do as Rome does – recognise and support those who care for cats, assist by funding their desexing to control their population, and provide sustenance for their continuing wellbeing. After all they too are valuable inhabitants of our city.”
