Cat gains accreditation to work as border control

By ANNE BESTON, environment reporter

A family cat has become a registered sea container inspector in what conservation lobby group Forest and Bird labels "farcical" new border controls.

Bolletje (Dutch for "little ball") the cat has an interim certificate from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry congratulating her on passing a simple online training course.

According to Bolletje's new accreditation, the ministry, responsible for protecting New Zealand's economy and ecology from container-hitchhikers such as snakes, spiders, ants and poisonous snails, will send a certificate in 14 days "as formal evidence that you are an accredited person".

But in the meantime, it advises the cat to keep the online form as "evidence of successfully completing the sea container course".

Forest and Bird spokesman Kevin Hackwell said it took just eight minutes to fill out a questionnaire on Bolletje's behalf.

A change in sea container inspections that came into force last year means checks are no longer the sole responsibility of MAF but can be contracted to private companies, including importers.

While all sea containers will be inspected under the new system, instead of the previous 25 per cent, Forest and Bird voiced strong opposition to private contractors doing the work.

The organisation's biosecurity spokesman, Geoff Keey, also registered as a container inspector.

MAF spokesman Mike Alexander acknowledged that anyone could apply for a certificate but he was confident someone would eventually twig to the application from "My Cat".

"I really don't think we will make it a requirement that somebody front up to a MAF desk with a passport photo or driver's licence or whatever," he said.

"At the end of the day I just don't consider it's worth it.

"I can't see any great advantage in impersonating someone."

He said accredited inspectors would deal with low-risk containers and MAF staff would still be responsible for high-risk containers from countries that posed a serious biosecurity risk.