Any New Zealander sending threatening emails in Paihia's cat colony debate can be prosecuted, police say.
The catch is that most of the emails in an online campaign targeting community board members originate overseas, making prosecution virtually impossible.
Members of the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board have been inundated with emails from cat lovers around the world urging them to allow a stray-cat colony to remain in central Paihia. The email campaign went up another gear last week after the board barred Betty Chapman, 86, and her fellow volunteers from feeding the strays on council land.
The decision, based on legal advice that the feeding station was an "unauthorised structure" breaching the Reserves Act, was made behind closed doors because the board feared more harassment.
Board member Belinda Ward told the meeting she had been "harassed beyond belief" and targeted personally with "nasty and vindictive" messages. Fellow board member Harko Brown said anyone who didn't agree with the campaigners was labelled "a cat murderer".
He said the campaign had been fuelled by misinformation that the colony was to be destroyed, when it was only a feeding station that had to be removed. He admired the passion of some correspondents but others were simply abusive.
"I've never had such vindictive, vitriolic emails, or so many," he said.
Paihia police Sergeant Peter Masters confirmed he had received a complaint about "extreme harassment" via Facebook and email. Another member had raised concerns with Kerikeri police.
"If we can identify, or have identified for us, a person in New Zealand who's been sending threatening emails, we can follow up and prosecute," Mr Masters said.
District councillors and Mayor Wayne Brown have also been at the receiving end of the email campaign, but the mayor has been giving back as good as he gets.
A Facebook page run by the Cats to Stay Army called on cat lovers worldwide to support "the Battle of Paihia" by emailing community board members. A list of addresses was provided.
The page administrator urged the "Soldiers of the Cats to Stay Army" to be civil but make their voices heard.
Supporters were also urged to hold on to their correspondence, because some responses had been "horrible and abusive" - thought to be a reference to Wayne Brown's pithy replies.
The group also urged a tourism boycott of New Zealand, and specifically Paihia, if the board's decision went against the cat colony.
Several cat-themed websites, mostly based in the US, have joined the fray by providing lists of district councillors' email addresses.
Bay of Islands SPCA manager John Logie said his group supported Mrs Chapman's cat colony but did not condone threatening emails.
New law due by end of year
An international email campaign sparked by plans to remove Paihia's cat colony comes just as the government is fast-tracking a new cyberbullying law.
The law is expected to come into force later this year.
Netsafe chief technology officer Sean Lyons said abusive or threatening activity online was covered by existing laws - but new cyberbullying rules would allow quicker resolution, without having to wait until a complaint reached the courts.
Under current law the Crimes Act prohibited threatening harm to people, property or businesses; the Harassment Act, Privacy Act and Human Rights Act could also apply to the online campaign, Mr Lyons said.
The problem was that those laws relied on both the victim and perpetrator being in New Zealand.
If the offender was overseas Netsafe's best results were achieved by working directly with Google, domain name providers or social media sites such as Facebook.
If someone was being targeted by a Facebook page Mr Lyons suggested contacting Facebook directly. If that failed Netsafe could try to mediate, but it would not interfere with people's right to express their views.
Facebook would remove a post or page only if it had been set up with the intention of harming someone.
''There's been a lot in the media about cats in the last six months, and feelings are running quite high. It's a passionate issue - it may blow over, it may not.''
The problem was not limited to people in public office. Ordinary New Zealanders suffered similar issues every day, Mr Lyons said.
The proposed new cyberbullying laws will create a new offence of using a communications device to cause harm, punishable with up to three months in jail or a $2000 fine. Inciting suicide will be punishable with up to three years in jail.