The ferocious predator lurking in your backyard – Editorial
There’s a ferocious predator, and it’s lurking in our backyard.
Feral and domestic cats are estimated to kill as many as 100 million birds every year in New Zealand.
And yes, that includes the gentle creature curled up in front of your warm fireplace.
That cute, fluffy exterior belies the natural hunter within.
As Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research says, feral, stray and domestic cats are a “major ecological problem” as they are “opportunistic broad-spectrum predators” that contribute globally to biodiversity loss.
Among cats’ prey, the institute named rabbits and hares, rats and mice, bats, lizards, birds and bird eggs, wētā and other insects.
One Whanganui man is hoping his local council will introduce cat control measures despite public reluctance.
Bill Simmons, a former operations manager at the Department of Conservation (DoC), former marketing executive at pest management company Orillion and an independent pest management consultant, has asked Whanganui District Council to introduce a “cat curfew” to protect native wildlife.
Simmons’ submission on the council’s Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees Bylaw said domestic cats should be indoors from sunset until daylight.
That was when they were “most actively hunting and wildlife is most vulnerable”.
Simmons told the Whanganui Chronicle cats killed more animals than they would eat.
His property used to attract many native birds, but dead birds started “turning up” when his dog died.
“Cats just decimated them. You can see them on the security cameras, and I’ve had a gutsful of it.”
And in March, former Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chairman and Cabinet minister Rick Barker told Hawke’s Bay Today that cat attacks causing the worst dotterel breeding season at Bay View and Westshore in Napier should be a “wake-up call”.
Cats were caught on camera destroying 18 of 42 monitored nests.
“Whatever it takes is what should be done,” Barker said.
“You’re either on the side of the birds, or you’re on the side of the predators.”
Despite all the carnage cats can cause, most conservation proponents want cats to be controlled rather than banned altogether.
Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research says cat management is controversial in New Zealand “because cats are highly valued as companion animals“.
Results of a survey suggested cat owners are reluctant to adopt measures such as keeping cats indoors at night and having them wear collars with bells.
But they might be more easily persuaded if cat welfare, rather than protection of wildlife, is highlighted.
New Zealanders are cat lovers. We have some of the highest rates of cat ownership in the world.
But we need to balance that love with some care for the other living creatures in our backyards. We can – and should - do both.