LAWRENCE GULLERY The claws are out and fur is flying as Hastings animal control officers are kept busy trapping their feline foes around shops, businesses and homes. Wild cats have posed problems before but the situation worsened recently when the SPCA decided it would no longer spend time trapping the animals. Instead itwants to concentrate on animal welfare, its core responsibility, and that's fair enough the Hastings District Council's animal control officer, Clinton Chadwick said. It did mean, however, more work and time from council staff dedicated to dealing with feral cats. And the animals were proving to be prolific breeders, living in empty homes, paddocks, commercial and industrial areas. Some were left behind by transients in rented homes or by people who came to the Bay for seasonal work. Other pet owners were just not bothering to neuter their animals and most turn wild and multiply, Mr Chadwick said. "It's hard to say on a week-by-week basis just how many cats we get, they seem to move where people are, maybe where people have been eating," animal control officer, Clinton Chadwick said. "They feed on the scraps, or the mice and birds feeding on the scraps. They're not tame cats, they're wild and we end up having to trap them," he said. Mr Clinton said the problem isn't confined to what part of the district, there were reports of problem cats from Flaxmere, Hastings, Havelock North and rural Hastings. "I had to remove 15 cats off a paddock in Napier Road (Havelock North) about six weeks ago," animal control officer Bill Jones said. "But when you're dealing with a number of cats, they get weary of the traps, they're not keen to go into the traps and you may have to leave it for a couple of months and then go back," he said. Mr Chadwick said when a cat is trapped an assessment is made to determine whether the animal could be turned over to the SPCA to be re-homed. The only other options was to have the cats "put down". "It's quite sad because we all have pets and to see people abandon them like this, it's not not good," he said.
