One submitter calculated there would be at least an additional 34,000 cats in Whangārei households by 2051. They took data from Companion Animals in New Zealand, which states there are 1.219 million cats already in homes across the country, and combined it with the council's forecasted population growth of 145,000 people.
"Therefore Council [sic] has an important role to ensure cats are humanely managed in a way that protects their welfare and our native species, ecosystems and unique environment, both urban and rural," they wrote.
And while cats failed to make the Department of Conservation's pest list as part of their Predator Free 2050 pledge it seems the issue of conservation was a hot topic for hundreds of submitters.
Forest & Bird Northland conservation manager Dean Baigent-Mercer was among the speakers to address the council.
He told councillors Forest & Bird was "in full support" of using non-regulatory approaches, such as council funded 'snip and chip' events, microchipping days for cats over four months old, and limiting cat numbers to three per household.
"However, this only reaches those that are responsible cat owners – and these people aren't usually the ones creating the problems," Baigent-Mercer said.
"We ask for clear and empowering regulations for the council's enforcement officers so that when a nuisance occurs, officers have the power to actually reduce the nuisance."
Currently, when cats aren't microchipped or registered officers have no way of knowing who owns the nuisance cats, Baigent-Mercer said.
"We would like to emphasise that we are not asking Whangārei District Council to become the Cat Police. We are not asking that council officers go door to door to find out household cat numbers."
But a three-cat rule, he said, would be "essential" for "when genuine complaints are made for enforcement".
Baigent-Mercer described Wellington City Council's "mistake" of passing a cat microchipping bylaw "alone".
"…which has meant that enforcement officers can only return cats, even if people house a great number of cats causing a nuisance," he said.
One Whangārei resident wrote about how their neighbour had up to 20 cats that caused endless issues in the area.
The Whangārei Cat Rescue said they were "so very pleased" with the proposed bylaws in their submission.
They hoped it allowed them to ramp up their current efforts with their low-cost desexing clinic, Mog and Dog Desexing Whangārei. They want "to go ahead full force" with education, desexing, microchipping and providing affordable parasite control to help address the cat issue.
Some submitters were miffed a mandatory option for an evening cat curfew wasn't available to support.
Others thought the options were too sweeping.
"The proposal is way to [sic] generic. There are significant differences between urban properties and rural properties and it appears there is no proposal to distinguish between them."
Another wanted to phase out cat ownership altogether over a 15-year stretch but this was countered by arguments that cats made great companions and were one of the few pets more widely accepted by landlords.
"Many people live alone and pets are the only connection they have...in lock down times they helped many people to get through that time. Why do some people want to regulate or stop this?"
Several criticised the idea of mandatory registration as "revenue gathering for the council".
Council senior communications adviser Ann Midson said the council now had to deliberate on the submissions and"decide where to from there".
The agenda for deliberations was yet to be complete as a date was still undecided, she said.
