The cat management policies of New Zealand’s SPCA have received international backing, with visiting American animal law expert William Gomaa, Associate Director of Law and Policy at Alley Cat Allies, supporting the approach at the NZ Companion Animal Council conference in Auckland last week.
Under their ‘Saving Lives’ campaign, the SPCA NZ have stopped killing urban stray cats, choosing instead to desex and return them. They also offer an outreach program, offering people with ‘semi-owned’ cats free and discount desexing. These targeted programmes have shown to “reduce the population humanely and effectively”.
Gomaa’s presentation detailed how Alley Cat Allies similar and long-established TNR programmes have been successful at reducing stray cat populations in Washington DC and other urban areas around the United States.
The commendation has unsurprisingly, raised the ire of well known cat-hater and millionaire businessman Gareth Morgan, whose ‘Cats To Go’ campaign branded cats “natural born killers” and “neighbourhood serial killers” that “love to kill”, and calls on authorities and the public to “fry the ferals”.
Morgan has previously gone as far as to offer the SPCA NZ a $5 bounty for every cat they chose to kill rather than save – an offer that was given a resounding no (ironically, most Australian animal welfare groups still accept the ‘bounty’ offered to them by local government for the same work). While the worst fears of animal welfare advocates have been realised, with the ‘Cats To Go’ website making the exact location of stray cats and colonies available to cat haters in the community, and seeing a surge in animal abuse directed at cats.
New Zealand scientists have largely condemned Morgan’s efforts. Wildlife ecologist and Landcare Research scientist John Innes, who has some 30 years of research experience and has been involved in major recovery programs for native birds including kokako and tui, said…
“The impact of cats – whether feral or pet – on valued wildlife remains controversial because it is site-dependent and ecologically complex, and because key impact questions are frequently unresearched.
“In New Zealand native forests, ship rats are the major prey, and this little-seen predator eats many more birds than cats do,” said Innes.
“The Gareth Morgan website refers to kaka, kokako, weka, mohua, teke and robins as endangered, perhaps implying that cat control might help them, but cats are not significant predators of any of these species, except possibly weka.”
… that there is “substantial uncertainty” over whether taking cats out of the equation would be better for native species, because cats also play a role in keeping other introduced predators, like rat species, at bay.
Mr Innes says past research would caution against interfering with one part of an ecosystem without considering others, and that removing cats would have to be considered alongside ongoing efforts to curb other pests.
“You can’t just say that cats are bad because they kill birds, it’s simply not that simple,” he says.
“The devil’s in the detail, you see. No one’s ever actually done the numbers to see whether the number of birds that those rats would kill [if cats were not there] is bigger or less than the [current] number that the cats kill.
“I’m not saying that [cats] are good for birds, but it’s not a stupid suggestion.”
Humane programs reducing the cat population and protecting cat welfare – vs – cats being culled by the thousands and being abused in the community. It really should be a no-brainer for an organisation allegedly on the side of animals, no? Well, no.
PETA Australia has weighed in on the NZ Companion Animal Council conference and the SPCA position of caring for unowned cats:
PETA Australia campaign manager Claire Fryer said the topic was “difficult and emotional”.
“We believe that, although altering feral cats prevents the suffering of future generations, it does little to improve the quality of life of the cats who are left outdoors,” she said.
“Allowing feral cats to continue their daily struggle for survival in hostile environments is not usually a humane option.”
She said PETA would “never encourage people to let their own cats outdoors to roam free” and are therefore against leaving stray cats outside to fend for themselves.
Do you know what the alternative is to leaving an otherwise healthy, untame, stray cat in its outdoor home? Death in a shelter. Not a quick death. Not a humane death. A relatively long, drawn-out process where an otherwise ‘wild’ animal is subjected to invasive and stressful capture, handling and transport, assessment, holding and then a medicalised, barbiturate overdose… kind of death.
PETA Australia is advocating for the status quo. The one that sees the best part of 100,000 cats killed annually in shelters, with no hope of a different outcome. PETA Australia is advocating for killing animals.
There is no sexy caged nude lady, or splash of red paint, for shelters who kill. No, they have the complete support of PETA Australia to continue killing, and to continue being paid by local councils to kill. They have sided with the Gareth Morgan’s and in the process have completely sold-out the live, healthy, happy cats whose only ‘crime’ is to currently be unowned. They are working to condemn them – to encourage people to loathe them – and to continue to see them killed in a wholesale killing process, that they would reject for any other animal.
PETA Australia is no friend to animals. And should be considered as backward and lunatic as Morgan himself.
