Source: Radio New Zealand
Brad Windust and Wero, which translates to ‘challenge’. RNZ
Some days Brad Windust’s job gets repetitive: throw a ball again and again for Wero.
Wero is one of the few dogs in Aotearoa certified by the Department of Conservation to sniff out cat poo.
“He just loves to play,” says Windust. “When he finds cat scat and lies down to show me where it is, then his reward is his ball, which he loves.”
Windust is a trapper who travels the length of the country and offshore islands trapping feral cats and stoats for various organisations.
His dog is an essential tool and Windust is keen to make sure people understand the German short-haired pointer only detects poo, which helps Windust know where to put traps. Wero doesn’t attack the cats. The muzzle Wero wears while working, along with his high-visibility coat are part of his working attire, much the same way a construction site worker always has a helmet.
Wero, a certified cat scat detection dog, wearing his work outfit. RNZ
There are days where he doesn’t cover much ground, as he has to stop and throw the ball for Wero so frequently.
“People don’t see cats because they hunt at night, but wherever you are in this country, not far from you there’s a feral cat. When you have a dog that finds scat you soon realise they are everywhere,” says Windust.
He sees firsthand the damage feral cats do. Little blue penguins and woodpigeons are favourite cat snacks, as are lizards.
On the remote sub-antarctic Auckland Islands he’s seen the devastation they cause to endemic shags and other birds. As much as cats benefit from being in a country where native species developed without defences against mammalian predators, it can still be a miserable existence.
“All the cats on Auckland Islands had no bottom teeth from ripping limpets off the rocks to eat them,” he says.
Nobody knows for sure how many feral cats there are in the country, but one estimate is 2.4 million. Being naturally wary, cats aren’t an easy species to get rid of. Trapping is time-consuming and work is still being done to perfect a poison-bait formulation specific to cats, which will hold its form when dropped from a helicopter.
New breeds are adding another wrinkle to the feral cat problem. In the 1990s, the government approved the importing of Bengal cats, which are a cross between a domestic cat and an Asian leopard cat. With their unique leopard spots and large build, they’re a prized pet.
Although New Zealand’s rules state Bengal cats coming into the country need to be domesticated for at least five generations, Windust says they are still born hunters, bigger than a standard moggie, excellent at climbing and unafraid of water.
Brad Windust. RNZ
It’s what happens when one strays and breeds with the feral cat population that has Windust worried.
“Those genetics can go through and increase the size of our feral cat population, which is a real concern for our kiwi, because these big cats could easily take down an adult kiwi.”
He’s already trapped a feral Bengal cat, and a feral Maine Coon cross, which is another large-growing breed. The Main Coon cross was so big it couldn’t be caught with a standard cat trap. Windust believes these larger cats could easily jump over some predator free fences.
Brad Windust with a Maine Coon cross he trapped. Supplied
“These cats are in the wild now, they’re breeding. They are going to be absolutely devastating for our wildlife.”
He wants a ban on the breeding and sale of these breeds. He would also like to see stricter rules in place for cat owners, such as desexing and microchipping. Finally, he wants cats contained to their owner’s property.
Slinking through the cracks
For the most part, very few rules exist for cat ownership.
Some local government bodies have introduced cat-specific rules. Owning a Bengal cat is banned on Stewart Island and in the rest of Southland a permit must be sought to own one. The breed is included in Environment Southland’s pest management plan. Council staff monitor online trading sites and pages to make sure people are following rules.
The breeds aren’t banned elsewhere in the country, but there is a patchwork of councils with rules requiring cats be microchipped and some councils have limits on how many cats are allowed per household. Far North District Council recently introduced a rule requiring desexing as well as microchipping.
A national Dog Control Act has been in place since 1996, but no similar nationwide legislation is in place for cats, although attempts have been made.
A petition proposing registration and desexing of domestic cats found favour with the Environment Select Committee, which recommended the rules be put in place. However, in December 2024, the National-led coalition government opted to reject the committee’s recommendation, saying there was no scope to progress the proposal and that it wasn’t a priority.
That position took on a different hue this week, when Conservation Minister Tama Potaka suddenly – and unexpectedly – announced feral cats will be included in Predator Free 2050. Potaka, who called feral cats “stone cold killers”, said the questions about what the change meant for regulation of domestic cats were “for another day”. But he added: “I’m sure that our government, at some stage will look at that more intensely,” noting the interest National Party backbencher Barbara Kuriger has shown in the topic.
Kuriger and Green MP Celia Wade-Brown have a Member’s Bill sitting in what’s known as the biscuit tin at Parliament, which calls for the microchipping of domestic cats.
If regulations don’t form part of Predator Free 2050 changes, the bill may find other paths into law.
Kuriger is hopeful that if the bill isn’t drawn from the tin soon she may be able to get it through via a new mechanism, where if it has the support of 61 backbench MPs it can go straight to a first reading.
“Ministers are so busy doing all sorts of things, in my view, this is something that Parliament could take care of. It would give it longevity.”
She thinks if some small changes are made to the bill, there’s a chance it might reach the magic 61 number needed to get the wheels in motion.
“I think we’d all agree that we want to save our native birds and our native species. I don’t think there’s any disagreement on that discussion.”
National’s Barbara Kuriger is trying to get support from backbench MPs across Parliament for a bill to require the microchipping of domestic cats. VNP / Phil Smith
Kuriger sees a link between companion cats and feral cats. Better controls of companion cats can turn the tap off, stopping them from adding to the feral cat problem.
She wants cat owners to be responsible for their pets and for them to be microchipped and registered. That way, if cats become lost they can be reunited with owners instead of becoming strays. After the Christchurch earthquake, 86 percent of microchipped pets were returned to their families.
“We’ll just keep making more of them [feral cats] if we don’t deal with the issue.”
Although Kuriger says she favours desexing requirements, the bill doesn’t include it. It was omitted to minimise the cost on current cat owners, she says, but it could be included in the future, with plenty of lead time built into the requirement.
Another campaign is being waged by a group of seven different organisations including the SPCA, Predator Free NZ Trust, and the New Zealand Veterinary Association. The National Cat Management Group is campaigning for a national cat management act to be introduced. The group splits cats into three categories; companion, stray and feral, and suggests different strategies for each group.
Its catch line is “every cat in a lap” but it recognises feral cats are unlikely to be lap cats. It calls for a humane approaches to managing cats, including killing feral cats.
The other measures this group supports look to stem the flow of companion cats to strays, and the proliferation of stray cats into what can eventually become feral cats.
Chistine Sumner is a science officer with the SPCA who focuses on cats.
For each of the three categories of cats, she says the goal is to minimise their impact on wildlife. For companion cats, this might mean owners keeping them contained in areas such as a “catio”.
For friendly stray cats, the organisation would like them to have a home. Otherwise, if there is a stray cat colony that isn’t affecting wildlife, a trapping and desexing approach might be used to reduce their numbers over time.
For feral cats, the organisation accepts killing them is the best approach.
“When you get down to it, it’s currently realistically our only option at this point.”
The SPCA advocates only humane methods be used for this and does not support poisons.
“It just takes too long and the things they experience are too harmful.”
The preferred method is a live capture cage trap and the use of a gun to swiftly dispatch the cat.
“We want to see more money, more funding because we think we can do better.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand