Dannevirke: Threats halt move to cull stray cats

A stray cat culling programme has come to a halt due to threats.

With the claws out in Woodville, volunteers carrying out the town's cat cull have called off trapping the town's more than 100 stray cats.

The culling programme was put in place by Woodville Districts Vision (WDV) to try to rid the town of cats running wild, fighting, stealing food and spreading disease while continuing to breed.

"We've had to call a halt to capturing the nuisance cats and having them euthanased because the volunteers who were carrying out the trapping got called so many dreadful names and had nasty notes dropped into their letterboxes that we decided, b****r this, we don't want these people subjected to such aggressive and negative stuff," Robin Winter, the chairwoman of WDV, said.

"They were being talked about as if they were murderers and there was no need for it."

Ms Winter said the cat-trappers were taking away sick and diseased cats - not family pets.

"They were starving animals," she said.

"One resident is feeding more than 30 cats left near her by other people who had died or moved away. Nothing was done with their cats. So she fed them.

"And she really can't afford to keep them, but according to the law because she has been feeding them, they now belong to her. Many of these cats are wild and won't tolerate a human touch, so they kept on breeding and spreading diseases.

"She asked to be helped so WDV organised volunteers to trap the cats and vets offered a good price to euthanase them. Needless to say, the lady with all the cats is upset now the job may not be completed and she is still left with cats she never wanted in the first place."

Although the campaign to rid the town of stray moggies was spearheaded by WDV, Ms Winter said so many donations had rolled in that money from the council had not been needed.

Yesterday, Ms Winter presented a submission to Tararua District Council on its long-term plan, hoping for some action.

"The council doesn't have a bylaw but we've now got an environmental health issue here in Woodville, which we were going try to deal with through the cull." Tararua District Mayor Roly Ellis said the council had not discussed the issue. "Whether we put in a bylaw or let nature take it's course, we have to decide."