The feral cat hunting competition that has the world watching

Monday, 26 June 2023

It was meant to be harmless fundraiser, but the North Canterbury Hunting Competition came under global scrutiny.

Teachers received death threats and the New York Times came to investigate – but still the hunters came with their dead cats.

Children took a peek inside a small mound of sacks built up in a corner during Sunday’s weigh-in and prize giving, but most were oblivious to the feral cat cull that mired the North Canterbury Hunting Competition.

One organiser said they didn’t want to “make a big deal of it”.

Beside the weighing ring of death, two car parks cheekily labelled ‘Protestor’ were empty, and with just six protestors waving signs at hunters from the roadside, there was little public opposition to Rotherham School’s main fundraising event despite the “hoo-ha” one dad said it had caused.

Organiser Matt Bailey said the past couple of months had been rough for their tight-knit rural community.

Broadcaster Paddy Gower holds one of the feral cats that he was out hunting the night before the weigh-in for the North Canterbury Hunting Competition in Rotherham on Sunday.

After all, the farming community was doing what it had always done in hunting pests that threatened livestock and wildlife if left unchecked.

Bailey’s not exaggerating.

Protesters from Animal Save in Christchurch, including spokesperson Sarah Jackson, left, picket at the competition gate.

Back in 2015, Hawke’s Bay had a such a problem with feral cats that sheep were getting toxoplasmosis – a disease known to cause a high abortion rate in pregnant ewes.

Research shows that feral cats are vectors (carriers) for the disease. It led to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council land services manager Campbell Leckie to stating a reduction in feral cats would be an economic benefit to the region that would reduce the high abortion rates in ewes in the region.

But SPCA Canterbury was less than impressed when the organisers of the North Canterbury Hunt invented a $250 cash prize category for under 14-year-olds for whoever caught the “most feral cats”. The prize was further incentivised by having a $4600 spot prize for junior hunters in the form of a kid’s motorbike.

They announced they were investigating complaints they had received about the cat cull in April, and it caused an international firestorm.

Molly McGregor, 13, from Balcairn, runs through an obstacle course with a pig on her back – one of the games played at the North Canterbury Hunting Competition weigh-in on Sunday.

Suddenly an event that provided $25,000 to Rotherham School and enabled the retention of teacher aides made international headlines.

Comedian Ricky Gervais also weighed in, saying on social media: “Right. We need some new PR ideas to make the world love New Zealand… Maybe something involving kids & kittens.”

Bailey said the reaction was harsh, with teachers copping death threats. The organisers soon cancelled the under-14 feral cat category.

The category was made adults-only, and hunters had to use box traps for humane capture and “feral animal identification”. They also had to communicate with farmers and neighbouring properties for permission.

SAFE spokesperson Will Appelbe said it was “just not plausible” that anyone involved would be carrying microchip detectors.

But Bailey said he had to worry about the risk feral cats posed, in transmitting toxoplasmosis to his stock and was bewildered by the heavy media presence at this year’s event.

“It’s gone a bit crazy. But we’re pretty resilient farmers. We will have a good day.”

Bailey had been busy this week. He’d hosted a New York Times journalist and well known Kiwi journalist Paddy Gower – both wanted to know more about New Zealand’s pest problem.

Bailey was adamant the hunt was part of everyday farming life, and wanted those who did not live on farms to understand how damaging the animals that are hunted are – especially to wildlife.

A protestor from Animal Save said they had a “full abolitionist stance” against the exploitation of animals.

Christchurch resident Sarah Jackson, a member of Animal Save, travelled 90 minutes north to show she was opposed to all hunting.

Gumboots quickly get muddy at the weigh-in venue in Rotherham.

She believed all hunting threatened conservation and was nothing more than a “social event”.

Pictured with their catches are from left: Leo Chick, 9, Reuben Chimery, 11, Paul Ryan, 11, Tom Jackson, 9, Fergus Butters, 9 and Will Butters, 11.

She wanted New Zealand to look overseas for ideas about reducing pests.

Gower, who has been vocal about his support for culling feral cats, compered the event.

Gower was also filming for his series, Paddy Gower Has Issues, and talked to the protestors.

As he held up a dead feral cat, he told The Press he wasn’t into hunting, but was supportive of families that had been hunting for generations.

“I see it as people’s hobbies.”

Gower questioned why people saw a difference between killing feral cats and culling possums, rats and stoats.

He believed New Zealand’s Predator Free 2050 goal would have to include feral cats if it was to succeed.