A proposal to make the village of Omaui, Southland in New Zealand ‘cat-free’ has been postponed until next week

A proposal to make the village of Omaui, Southland in New Zealand ‘cat-free’ has been postponed until February 18 and February 19.  A plan being discussed is to neuter the cats already there and to ban any cats that die in Omaui from being replaced with another cat.

New Zealand Cat
New Zealand Cat. Photo by Sids1 on Flickr
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

The topic drew criticism in 2018 when more than 127 submissions were received then the proposal was put on the table about the Southland Regional Pest Plan, which will oversee the management of biosecurity over the next ten years.

Michael (PoC) posted an excellent article back in August where he noted that John Collins of the Omaui Landcare Trust stated

“We’re not cat haters….But we’d like to see responsible pet ownership and this really isn’t the place for cats….”

New Zealand poll about cats
New Zealand cat poll 

New Zealand hopes to wipe out predators by 2015. Their plan includes getting rid of cats. The cats are blamed for killing birds and those in Omaui believe that by ridding the village of cats the birds will be protected.

This may be their goal, but it’s not likely to prove successful and even if it did, cats aren’t the only danger to birds. Dogs kill birds and birds also fly into buildings.

Some residents have spoken out that the proposal to get rid of all cats would create an unmanageable rat problem. Has New Zealand become unreasonable in what they think should be done?

The hearing was postponed until next week because so many residents want to make submissions. Let’s hope there will be enough people who step up to protest the cat ban.

It would be a more worthwhile effort to create ordinances for all cats to be spayed or neutered and basically be more responsible cat owners.

Omaui map

Instead, Omaui could become like Auckland where there’s a no cat rule in Kapiti Island’s Kotuku Parks subdivision. All non-microchipped cats wandering in that area where wildlife is deemed ‘ecologically significant’ will be euthanized.

I wonder whether it’s even possible to eradicate cats from an area. From everything that I’ve read the residents don’t support the cat ban proposal. It will be interesting to see what the final decision will be next week.

New Zealand coastal village wants to ban all cats

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