VAGRANT CATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1939, Page 3

VAGRANT CATS

ABANDONED BY MOTORISTS. It has been complained often in New Zealand that many of the cats which find their way to the bush, where they prey on native birds, have been abandoned by motorists and other persons. The same kind of trouble has occurred in Australia. The board, which has control of the National Park'. New South Wales, has reported that “hundreds of former domestic pets have become ruthless destroyers of bird life

.... In one week, 32 cats were destroyed in one locality. “The only real way to deal with Ihe problem," comments the board, “is to secure the co-operation of the public by an apjaonl not to abandon their former pots in the Park, but rather if they wish to destroy them, to communicate with the R.S.P.C.A.. which will collect them and kill them in their lethal chambers, if no home can be found for them. The recent destruction of cats by the National Park Trust may perhaps have an effect on othei owners who now have to consider the I.<.s'siT)i 1 ity of a former loved pet being ' shot when abandoned in the Park." A report of the Provincial Game Commission of British Columbia, for last. year, states: “One of the greatest menaces to game birds throughout, the Division is the domestic (Wild) eat." In any district of New Zealand where it is represented, the S.P.C.A. will arrange painless death for unwanted cats, which otherwise may be a nuisance to the community.