Neighbourly spat over feeding kittens ends up in Disputes Tribunal

A neighbourly spat ended up in the Disputes Tribunal, after one neighbour claimed the other was luring her cats. Photo / 123rf

A battle between neighbours over the feeding of two kittens has wound up in the Disputes Tribunal, resulting in a formal record of who actually owns the pets.

According to the decision released this month, the resident of one flat accused her neighbour of feeding the kittens and intentionally leaving her door open. She sought an order from the tribunal preventing her neighbour from luring the animals.

The decision says that the two neighbours discovered a litter of five kittens near their property late last year. Both agreed that one neighbour would keep two of the kittens and this person paid to desex them.

But by March, the owner of the felines said the cats stopped returning home. They did eventually return, but she believed her neighbour was intentionally luring them to her property.

She claimed the neighbour was feeding the cats and giving them flea treatment.

The neighbour said she was looking after other stray cats and did leave food outside, but denied attempting to steal the animals.

Tribunal adjudicator Elizabeth Paton-Simpson said although “the torts of trespass to goods or conversion” could potentially apply, the tribunal was limited in what it could order.

“The tribunal cannot order [the neighbour] to keep her door shut or to stop putting food where kittens can access it,” she said.

“If [the neighbour] were to cause harm to the kittens, such as if a flea treatment caused a problem requiring veterinary treatment, then there might be an action for damages, but that has not happened.”

The tribunal could order the return of property but the neighbour wasn’t actually detaining the cats, Paton-Simpson said.

Ultimately, the stray-feeding neighbour acknowledged that the cats didn’t belong to her. The tribunal recorded this admission in its decision and took no further action.

The case wasn’t the first cat dispute to land on the same adjudicator’s desk. Last year a family took a case to the tribunal after their cat went missing.

After pasting 100 posters around town, the family discovered a neighbour had taken their cat to a vet shortly after it disappeared. It was passed to a feline rescue service and subsequently adopted by another family.

The adoptive family refused to return the cat, but the tribunal ruled the rescue organisation was liable for the loss.

However, because the cat was in the possession of a third party, the tribunal couldn’t order it to be returned.

Ethan Griffiths covers crime and justice stories nationwide for Open Justice. He joined NZME in 2020, previously working as a regional reporter in Whanganui and South Taranaki.