A regional council in New Zealand has taken the unusual step of proposing a ban on domestic cats in an effort to protect its native wildlife.
Under Environment Southland’s “pest plan”, cat owners in the small coastal village of Omaui will have to neuter, microchip and register their pets with the local authority. After their cat dies, they will not be allowed to get another.
According to the BBC, cats have already been blamed for the global extinction of 33 species. In the United States alone, cats are responsible for killing between 1.4 – 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 – 2.7 billion mammals a year.
Omaui Landcare Trust leader John Collins is among those in favour of the scheme. He told “We’re not cat haters, but we’d like to see responsible pet ownership. And this really isn’t the place for cats.”
Ali Meade, the council’s biosecurity operations manager, said that if the move was approved the improvement for the environment and bird life would be vast.
Submissions on the pest management plan close at the end of October. However, not all members of the community are happy with the idea.
Omaui resident Nico Jarvis told that she was shocked and planned a petition against the plan. She said that her three cats were the only way to combat a rodent problem in the area. “If I cannot have a cat, it almost becomes unhealthy for me to live in my house,” she said.
Jarvis likened the plan to living in a “police state … It’s not even regulating people’s ability to have a cat. It’s saying you can’t have a cat.”
The move comes as New Zealand works on an ambitious goal to become predator-free by 2050. That plan is devoted to wiping out introduced species of rats, stoats and possums. Cats have also come under the spotlight for their tendency to target native birds.
>Juthy Saha
