Gareth Morgan: Euthanasia for cats in wildlife areas

Gareth Morgan wants cats in sensitive wildlife areas put down. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Lock up your moggies if you live near a sensitive wildlife area, or they could be put down - that's the latest suggestion from Gareth Morgan's environmental group in its bid to stop cats harming native birds.

Geoff Simmons from the Morgan Foundation made the suggestion in a submission on Wellington City Council's biodiversity management strategy.

He said the strategy's plan to manage predators that had an impact on native wildlife was for the most part "fantastic".

However, there was a "glaring omission" around the issue of cats.

Mr Simmons suggested any cats found wandering around sensitive wildlife areas, where birds would breed, should be humanely trapped and returned to their owners.

If the cat was not microchipped, it would be dropped off to the SPCA where it would be re-homed or euthanised.

There was no way to tell an owned cat from an unowned cat, he said.

His submission also suggested a cat curfew, such as in certain parts of Australia where cats cats were shut away at night, or during the day as well.

"So if a cat is found wandering off a property then it is returned with a fine or, if it doesn't have a microchip, then it is humanely euthanised.

"And we think that that's the model that we'd look at doing in sensitive wildlife areas."

Areas such as the Zealandia wlidlife sanctuary in Karori, Wellington, would have a complete cat ban, Mr Simmons said.

The Morgan Foundation is headed by outspoken philanthropist Gareth Morgan, who has made headlines in the past with his alternative ideas to rid New Zealand of introduced pests, most notably his Cats To Go campaign, which branded the beloved pets "friendly neighbourhood serial killers".

Last year, he introduced a scheme to encourage students to get involved with conservation - by trapping rats in exchange for free beer.