New Zealand Couple Accept Disappearance of Six Cats in Six Years

I don’t understand cat owners who accept, without question, the loss of six cats over six years. I don’t wish to be harsh but it is not good enough. A cat owner’s first duty is the safety of their cats.

: Photos: ILLYA MCLELLAN/STUFF.

This couple, the De Boers, live in New Zealand where a significant proportion of the population appear to dislike feral cats and cats preying on wildlife. The anti-cat lobby of Australia appears to have rubbed off onto New Zealand citizens.

Knowing that and know that I had lost six cats in six years and knowing that I lived on a small farm with lots of outside space, I’d bloody well build a large cat enclosure where my cats could enjoy the outside safely. Why not? It makes sense.

Yet the de Boers who have a small farm smile for the camera when one of their cats, Jemima, drags herself back home after being lost for ten days because she had been shot and had a broken leg.

The website stuff.co.nz reports on a female cat, Jemima, who dragged herself home over ten days. Jemima was already a rescue cat adopted from the SPCA. She vanished in late December 2017. After she disappeared the de Boers believed that they’d never see her again. That must have been a natural consequence of losing six cats previously.

On her arrival home Jemima was taken to the vets where and x-ray showed a bullet wound had destroyed the nerves in her shoulder and chipped her sternum.

Penelope de Boer said that she hates to think how their other missing cats might have died. Yes, I agree. More reason to build a large outside enclosure asap.

The vet said she thought that Jemima had been shot while she was sitting and looking at the person who shot her. Charming. You see what I mean about cat haters and shooters.

It does not take much imagination to believe that the six disappearing cats have been shot as well. That fear would change my attitude about free-roaming cats. And I would not have waited until six had disappeared.

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Comments

New Zealand Couple Accept Disappearance of Six Cats in Six Years — 5 Comments

M.E. King on January 15, 2018 at 9:51 pm said:
I have some insight though no explanation to this type of thinking. A discussion with my FIL while he was loving on and petting a cat of they owned that lived outside. I asked him how he could cope with the loss if this sweet cat went missing. His answer was for me confusing. One goes away ( he avoided the word dies) and another comes along.
It would seem on some level you can love an animal but still be able to disregard it’s safety when doing otherwise would inconvenience you or cost money.
Of course since none of their pets are fixed this one cat to the next is easy and comfortable as an old shoe to them. Appalling to civilized people but normal to them.
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Frances A Danna on January 15, 2018 at 6:41 pm said:
I agree completely Michael. For whatever reason, six cats missing in six years raises big questions in my mind, especially now that a seventh cat, Jemima, reappeared after ten days with gunshot related injuries. Precautionary measures to protect all of the cats on the farm would be my first instinct also. I feel really sad for those poor cats.
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- Michael Broad on January 15, 2018 at 7:06 pm said:
  Thank you very much, Frances, for agreeing with me. It is nice to have somebody agree with me because I do feel that sometimes I am sticking my neck out. However, in this instance I do feel that it is justified. It just seems to me to be too slack.
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Jenn on January 15, 2018 at 4:27 pm said:
Poor babies. I hope that their owners wake up and stop being so stupidly naive. And New Zealand and Australia need to stop being stupid as well. There’s already been a study showing that the near eradication of cats only led to an increase in bird deaths. Why? Because the cats, who may have been killing some birds, were no longer there to be a predator to those other predators who were very much killing a lot of birds.
The only humane way to keep feral cat numbers down is to TNR. Make spay and neuter mandatory for owned cats except those who are licensed cat breeders.
It’s very bad publicity for those countries to do what they’re planning, which is to kill (via poison) at least TWO MILLION feral cats. Poisoned bait is their choice, last I heard, however, those idiots don’t realize that anything out there may eat it. Any hungry animal, native or not, will eat the dead cats. They WILL do more harm than good.
My best friend lives in Australia and I don’t want to go to visit until I know that the government will pick another means to “control” the feral cat numbers. I won’t give them my tourist money.
It shouldn’t take a genius to realize that a cat that cannot reproduce will not contribute to rising numbers of feral cats. The governments also need to deal with bad owners who willfully abandon cats, or as here in this story, those who willingly allow their cats to free roam. I don’t know if it’s an overseas thing, a British/Aussie/New Zealander thing, but a lot of cat deaths (via car or murder/torture) could have been prevented by owners being responsible and keeping their cats inside.
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- Michael Broad on January 15, 2018 at 7:09 pm said:
  Thanks Jenn, I agree completely and I have corrected those typos (and deleted the follow comment as a result).
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