Cat de-sexing fund creation hailed as 'a game changer'

Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Paws 4 Life are inundated with kittens and cats. Trustee manager, Rachael Maher and shelter manager, Jay Johanssen with some the cats at the shelter.

Moggy's midnight mating may soon be muted after the Hamilton City Council established a new $100,000 fund to stop stray cats from breeding in the city.

It's believed to be the first time local government has taken such a bold move in cat control and the return on ratepayers' coin could eventually be heard in increased birdsong.

The annual contestable fund has been lauded by the SPCA chief executive Andrea Midgen as 'phenomenal' in the fight against unwanted cats and kittens.

'This will be a real game changer for Hamilton and for all of the charities and volunteers and people that are donating their personal funds to help solve this problem. This is going to make a big difference.'

**READ MORE:

* Fluffy, you need to be home by 10pm

* Sneaky cat owners milk cut price desexing scheme

* Auckland cat vigilante has trapped and desexed more than a thousand cats

* Vets share on-call workload so both pets and stock well covered**

She praised the council for taking ownership of the issue.

'This goes a really long way to resolving the cat challenge across the country.'

Cat abandonment was a huge problem and could produce an enormous amount of kittens over the summer breeding season, which ran from October to May.

'It's a real top of the cliff strategic move by the Hamilton City Council - it's just amazing.'

Councillors voted 8-4 to have the funding allocated in part of its deliberations around the 2019-20 long term plan at a meeting in council chambers. It then later confirmed the creation of the fund in a 7-5 vote. It will be included in the draft annual plan, which will be voted on by councillors on June 20.

The fund can only be used for de-sexing abandoned cats within the city boundaries and applicants must show they have a track record of being able to do this activity.

Stray cats were a problem within Hamilton and creating this fund was something the council could do to make a difference, Mayor Andrew King said.

He said about 3000 cats were de-sexed annually in Hamilton and the fund would go a long way to protecting biodiversity.

He credited councillor Mark Bunting for facilitating a meeting between himself and animal welfare charity Paws 4 Life, who outlined how serious the issue was.

Bunting said many animal charities were in a 'tenuous state' financially, and urged councillors to vote for the funding.

'They are only coming to us because they need our help. They are not doing it for their jollies.'

Stray cats were 'a real city-wide biodiversity issue', he said.

Paws 4 Life's Rachael Maher and Jay Johanssen spoke to councillors about the urgency of the fund during the public forum.

'The Hamilton region has a massive stray cat problem - abandoned cats, neglected cats, abused cats, unwanted cats breeding which in turn creates more cats,' Maher said.

Cats are prolific breeders, capable of breeding after four months of age.

'The problem gets out of control very quickly.'

Maher told the council that in the last 12 months the group had taken in 1500 cats and kittens off the streets.

She emphasised they were not seeking help to subsidise the de-sexing of owned cats, but to de-sex stray cats.

Johanssen said they were taking stray and wild cats from farmland, gullies and parks.

'Hillcrest is terrible for neglected, stray and abandoned animals. We're also clearing out schools, we just cleared all of the cats out of Melville High School - that was last week and the week before so these people can go back to school and there's not going to be excrement all over the playground anymore, theres not cats breeding under the classroom anymore.'

Paws 4 Life took in these cats. Its euthanasia rate had 'gone through the roof', because it will not trap neuter and release wild or dangerous cats, Maher said.

It costs Paws 4 Life $25 to euthanise a cat and $45 to de-sex a male cat and $70 for a female cat.

Maher said their issue was not with cat owners who did not de-sex their animals, but to try and clean up the city, taking cats from schools, kindergartens, from elderly people moving into care, and kittens that are dumped by the public.

'We're not pro-cat, we're pro welfare and pro this city. The impact on the environment is massive.'