Controversial campaigner Gareth Morgan has told a Rotorua audience he doesn't want to shoot all cats.
More than 100 people attended yesterday's opening of the two-day New Zealand Companion Animal Council Conference, held at the Distinction Hotel.
The event included a speech by businessman and philanthropist Mr Morgan, before he went head-to-head with the founder of the No Kill movement in America, Rich Avanzino, in a heated debate.
Mr Avanzino heads Maddie's Fund, an organisation against euthanising homeless cats and dogs in the United States, while Mr Morgan heads a campaign called Cats To Go.
In the past, Mr Morgan caused a stir when he labelled the cat a "friendly neighbourhood serial killer". On his website he said "that little ball of fluff you own is a natural-born killer".
During his speech yesterday he tried to make his position clear.
"Let's make it clear, I don't want to shoot all cats. That was just a whole lot of hysteria. It got people's attention all the same," he said.
Mr Morgan said he was calling for better management of cats in order to reduce their impact on native wildlife. He was also advocating for responsible cat ownership, with owners ensuring their cats were microchipped.
"This is an issue about wandering cats, not an issue about cats, however many you have, that stay on your property."
Mr Morgan said ideally cats found wandering should be taken to the pound and if the owner did not come forward, or could not be tracked down, the cat would be euthanised.
Simply catching the animal, neutering them, then releasing them back into an urban environment, would not do anything to solve the issue, he said.
Mr Morgan said cats posed a huge threat to native species and killed more wildlife each year than many cat owners realised.
Members of the Rotorua SPCA were among those at the conference.
Rotorua SPCA manager Eve Johnson said wandering cats were a huge issue in Rotorua. She said about 75 per cent of the 3000 animals the SPCA housed every year were cats.
"We need community support to help tackle this issue," she said.