A couple of Kiwi sport hunters, Cameron Slater and Simon Lusk, have set up a website which includes a competition to shoot what they describe as ‘wild cats’ (this must be a reference to feral cats). It is called the Morgan Score after Dr Gareth Morgan who recommended that New Zealanders eradicated feral cats. He, by the way, does not condone the competition as it promotes a vigilante style shooting spree against cats outside the home.
And there lies the big problem, other than the fact that it is cruel. I have checked the law on shooting cats in New Zealand and it is not straightforward. However, feral cats are not listed as ‘game’ in the country and therefore can’t he hunted as game. They are not listed as pests either. My understanding is that if a known feral cat (unowned cat) is on someone’s land and the landowner grants permission to a hunter in writing, the hunter can shoot the cat.
The big issue is that a hunter may find it difficult to be certain that he is shooting a feral cat. If the cat is owned (i.e. a domestic cat) the shooter will be committing the crime of criminal damage and animal cruelty.
The website owners completely disregard the fact that they are promoting the causing of excruciating pain in an animal. That does not enter their heads. They openly admit that feral cats are ‘tough’ and hard to kill with a bullet. They recommend a high performance rifle with a scope using a .204 to .22 bullet. And hunting a night is preferred. It goes without saying – but I’ll say it – that you can’t shoot cats without causing a lot of pain and suffering. This is not instant death; a form of euthanasia or humane killing.
Hunters are incredibly arrogant. They have an unshakeable belief that humans are special and superior to other animals. They are not. In the press today there is an article referring to a study about dogs and how they are more able to read our emotions than vice versa. The same probably applies to cats although cats are asocial hunters while dogs have developed better social skills as they live in packs.
To flippantly suggest that hunters should participate in a cat shooting competition in the interests of New Zealand wildlife is crass behaviour. It is unpleasant and it cannot be condoned in a civilised country.
There are no genuine ‘wild cats’ in New Zealand. Therefore the reference by Slater and Lusk to ‘wild cats’ must be to feral cats. But as mentioned you can’t have hunters wandering around the countryside taking pot shots at cats at a distance. Unless you are miles away from home owners who may have a cat companion, you might end up killing someone’s pet, slowly and in a cruel and gruesome manner. You’ll be in trouble with the law if law enforcement is at all interested, which is far from certain.
The laws governing this situation are:
- Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 2015
- Wildlife Act 1953
- Wild Animal Control Act 1977
- Conservation Act 1987
- and possibly others.
Sources:
- stuff.co.nz
- legislation.govt.nz
- whaleoil.co.nz
- thewild.co.nz
These guys, as all gun nuts, rationalize and justify their stupid behavior. Also, I worked as a partner with a guy from New Zealand. He was a character but had a black and white way of looking at things, but his black and white wasn’t anybody else’s that I ever knew. He rubbed people the wrong way and really held a grudge if you didn’t agree with him. Difficult. Way too macho. He gave me a look at what guys are like over there and while I like the country, I don’t think I’d like the people there; not the men anyway. We talked about it and he said yeah, they’re all like me.
How do you justify all those animals that you pay to have BOILED ALIVE and made into cat-food for you? Complete and total hypocrite much?
I don’t want dogs, cats or any animal shot unnecessarily! Of course, these louts consider shooting cats as necessary. And the chance of hitting a house cat is too great. Not to mention the possibility of getting shot as a human, as in the case of the woman who was shot on her own property by a hunter, carrying a pistol of all things, who thought she was a deer!
Promotes cat hate does nothing to solve the core issues.
Perhaps rural America should sponsor the feral dog shooting contest. Quite frankly the number of loose unaltered and often vicious dogs allowed to roam free is much more dangerous than any feral cat. Since most don’t wear collars or chips so the owners won’t face paying damages how do you know which is feral and which is an owned pest(pet)?
The Root Cause is negligent pet ownership. TNR had been proved to work when the population is not added to by negligent owners and pet dumpers. The life of a feral cat on it’s own in pitifully short. Which is why TNR works. The songbird myth is just that. Again that goes back to humans taking habitat.
We live in a global society where first world countries can’t say enough good things about dogs and make enough jokes about how awful cats are.
If a hunter skulks around at night shooting kitty cats does that make him a real man ?
>Promotes cat hate does nothing to solve the core issues.
It completely solves the core issue. If you let your unaltered cat roam free it dies. People learn to finally treat their cats like a non-expendable animal-sacrifice for attention for themselves. Non-sterilized free-roaming cats are the very source of the feral cat infestation on all continents.
>Perhaps rural America should sponsor the feral dog shooting contest. Quite frankly the number of loose unaltered and often vicious dogs allowed to roam free is much more dangerous than any feral cat.
It is already the law in every state of the USA to shoot any dog on sight that is seen harassing wildlife. Perhaps you should educate yourself to the laws written to protect the lands and its native animals from human values and activities.
>Since most don’t wear collars or chips so the owners won’t face paying damages how do you know which is feral and which is an owned pest(pet)?
Doesn’t matter. If they actually cared about their cats they wouldn’t let them roam free in the first place to get ran-over by cars or worse. What’s the harm in killing an animal that even the owner doesn’t care how it dies?
>The Root Cause is negligent pet ownership. TNR had been proved to work when the population is not added to by negligent owners and pet dumpers.
There is no community on earth that has had their cat populations reduced through TNR for over 60 years now. Name one. You can’t. Even your most revered TNR researcher, July K. Levy, pleaded with the whole world last year for anyone, anywhere, to show some proof that her belief in TNR works. She was laughed off of her own forum when nobody anywhere in the world could prove that TNR works to reduce cat populations.
>The life of a feral cat on it’s own in pitifully short. Which is why TNR works. The songbird myth is just that. Again that goes back to humans taking habitat.
And they take it with their cats too. The worst people on earth that destroy more wildlife than any other (on the order of 10X’s more than all other humans) are cat-advocates and cat-owners.
>We live in a global society where first world countries can’t say enough good things about dogs and make enough jokes about how awful cats are.
Perhaps you should use this as a clue to the lack of mental functioning in all cat owners.
>If a hunter skulks around at night shooting kitty cats does that make him a real man ?
No, it makes him a responsible adult human who knows what it means to be a good steward of the planet. It takes a real spine and strength-of-heart to destroy man-made animals that would cause the demise of all other natural life on earth. An adult spine and strength of heart seem to be both something that you sorely lack.
I have published your comment but don’t start insulting people.
This is not always true. You peddle falsehoods.
The trouble is that people like you shoot cats on sight too which is illegal. I know more about animal welfare law than you do, much more. People like you tend to ignore the law in your quest to kill animals.
You quote unverified statistics and extrapolated estimates on feral cat predation in support of your blood lust. You love to insult people. You are tormented by the thought of cats attacking birds when both are sentient beings with equal rights. You conveniently brush under the carpet the actions of the world’s most efficient bird and wildlife killer: humans, you and me. You need to loosen up and become less biased and angry.
You might want to do more than cherry-picking sub-section citations of laws out-of-context to support what you falsely believe. It only makes you look like an uneducated fool. But I guess that’s what you want, so keep doing it–as you will–and I know you will. You have no choice in the matter. The Toxoplasma gondii parasites that are now in control of your brain demand it of you.
(Hint: Start by educating yourself on depredation control, nuisance animal, pest control, invasive species, property-rights, and zoonotic-disease containment laws. ALL of which supersede any laws you’ve ever cited or read or know about. You know, all those well-known laws worldwide that make all your “I know more about animal welfare law than you do” citations into absolute nil to nothing codswallop.)
Wood-head the troll is back.
“Wood-head” – I like that.
The Root Cause is negligent pet ownership. TNR had been proved to work when the population is not added to by negligent owners and pet dumpers. The life of a feral cat on it’s own in pitifully short. Which is why TNR works.
Speaking of cherry picking. Actual feral cats not tended colonies by the way live much shorter lives. Most predators in the wild succumb long before the reach advanced old age as the lose the ability to hunt through disease or injury. The root cause is humans not the cats. Humans repopulate the feral cat situation on a near daily basis because cats are as disposable pets and for some reason their humans think they can simply dump them out to fend for themselves.
TNR works when the population is not being seeded by humans.
When you shoot, poison, kill , club or who knows what method of destruction you choose to dispose of an nuisance animal the people again are the core issue. They simply replace the offending animal with another. I’ve got 25+ years plus dealing with my cretin in laws next door.
What you fail to realize in your ramblings is that in some ways you are preaching to the choir sans the killing anything that moves part. Pets are treated as disposable commodities by a large portion of cat and dog owners. I was plagued at one time by over 35 cats probably many more due to the ignorance of my SIL and her drag a litter home nonsense. Dying and dead kittens, cats in my yard not to mention the sea of crap in my gravel driveway. Funny I resolved it without hating the victims. There is a huge difference between doing what has to be done and enjoying it.
It’s a good thing they are doing this at night! That will make it much more likely that someone will shoot the hunters after seeing them skulking around in the dark with a weapon. Is there a related contest to see who can bag the tallest hunter?