Wild Whiskers of Tauranga, New Zealand do a great job in managing community cats

The photograph that you see on this page caught my eye, which is why I was drawn to writing about this rescue organisation: Wild Whiskers of Tauranga, New Zealand. In New Zealand there is an issue with feral cats. In line with their neighbours, Australia, the country want to kill feral cats and simply get rid of them in the most convenient and expedient way, which leads to cruelty. So it is particularly nice to read about this caring organisation, managed and owned by veterinary nurse Sharna Asplin.

 Wild Whiskers of Tauranga, New Zealand do a great job in managing community cats. Photo: Wild Whiskers.

Sharna is a smart cookie. She is very sensible and organised. Everything that she has said about community cat in her area is absolutely spot on correct. Every organisation concerned with managing and caring for community cats in the interests of the cats and the residents should see how she works.

She runs a volunteer-run group and they have two focuses. In the summer it is kitten season and over this period she uses her best efforts to take in feral kittens (she describes them as "wild kittens") and to socialise them so that they can become loved domestic cats in their adulthood. The kitten should be within that critical timeframe, the first eight weeks of life approximately, when they can be socialised successfully and relatively easily. It's much harder to socialise adult feral cats.

She has 20 foster carers across Tauranga who take the kittens in. They make sure that the kittens will become excellent companion animals and after that assessment they treat the kittens for fleas and worms and sterilise, vaccinate and microchip them.

They put them up for adoption. The other focus is during the winter months when they employ TNR techniques. They do this with considerable care and the involvement, wisely, of the residents. They make sure that the community cats are not owned by posting on social media. They also scan for microchips and if possible they place a "found cat collar" on the cat. They also contact local veterinary clinics. They then neuter the cats and release them back to where they came from.

She says that they only conduct TNR where there are proper systems in place, namely that there is a volunteer to manage the colony or cat and a regular food source so that the cats does not present a danger to native wildlife.

Sometimes they have to euthanize a feral cat because of injury and/or sickness.

She says that they have rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed over 100 kittens in the past season from October to April and they have trapped, neutered and returned adults.

She makes the excellent point that as these are community cats she needs to ensure that she engages with the community to obtain their cooperation. This, I'm sure, helps to avoid antagonism and it also helps to create a community spirit in dealing with what is a community problem. She says that if a citizen of the area finds a stray cat the best thing that they can do is to take photographs and post a description of the cat online. This helps to get the ball rolling because they can find out whether the cat is feral or owned.

It can be difficult to distinguish between a domestic cat which has become a stray, looking dirty and starving, and a genuine feral cat. People should not assume that because a cat is dirty and thin that it is a feral cat. The same by the way goes for behaviour. Often domestic cats can be fearful of strangers which is a behavioural trait of feral cats. For this reason, I have always argued that people should not be shooting at cats that they believe are feral (if approved by the local authority). It might be shooting someone's pet which has become lost or has been abandoned. Anyway it is essentially very cruel.

In acknowledgement of her good work the local authority has provided her with a $4000 grant which has been a great help to her during the coronavirus pandemic because it precluded her ability to raise funds. Well done to Sharna.

My thanks to Sun Live for the report.

New Zealand shooter kills a "monstrous" feral cat

ANALYSIS: A man in New Zealand, Jesse Feary, likes to shoot possums and was out hunting when a very large black cat crossed his path. He tracked it down and shot it from about 50 metres away. He believes that it was some sort of "baby big cat" (are you joking Feary?) which is absolutely ridiculous because it is clearly a very large black feral cat. It is known that feral cats grow to a very large size on the Australian continent and in New Zealand as well (perhaps more rarely) because they have available prey and therefore over many years they have evolved into bigger animals.

Photo: Jesse Feary

You can see in the photograph that he took above that this feral cat is about the length of his rifle when you factor in the legs. I don't think this is monstrous but it is certainly large for a feral cat. It isn't the first time that very large feral cats have been shot by New Zealanders or Australians. Both these countries contain citizens who like to kill animals. They both appear to have a hatred of feral cats although I am generalising because there will be lots of people who are more sensitive towards stray and feral cats.

For an outsider like me it is disgusting to be perfectly frank. I hate to see it and it is highly insensitive, crude and basic in nature. You know, the guy was going out possuming which mean shooting possums for the fun of it. The guy just likes to shot whatever he can legally; whatever he can take pot shots out. It's all ridiculous in my book. But there it is; this is the photograph and you decide for yourselves whether this is a small big cat or just a big feral cat! It's a no-brainer it has to be a feral cat. The cat was shot in in the North Canterbury area, as I understand it.

NZ: Law Allows Cat Hoarder to Remain Anonymous

This is an interesting story. It concerns an aspect of cat hoarding I have not covered before. A lady living in Invercargill, New Zealand was in breach of the city by-law by failing to care for a specified, limited number of cats. I don't know the restriction but perhaps we don't need to know because she kept at least 25 cats according to her neighbour because he saw them on the drive. That is too much for any standard house/apartment in a residential area.

The lady was also in breach of the NZ Health Act 1956 in creating a nuisance. She had been charged with keeping too many cats. At the initial stages of criminal proceedings she was allowed to keep her name confidential. I don't know what the law or protocol is in NZ which allows this but it must cover all criminal proceedings under certain proscribed circumstances.

Subsequently, a judge in the case, Michael Turner, ruled that the court could no longer justify suppressing her name. Her name is: Averil Maree Gardiner.

She appealed the decision but it was obviously a misplaced appeal because her name was, at that time, in the public domain and you can't put it back into the "anonymous box" once it is out. She withdrew her appeal.

I understand the driving force in going too far in cat rescue but a rescuer must know her limits. To fail to do so puts the person at risk of neighbour disputes and criminal charges. More important than both of these acute problems is that it ultimately hurts the cats because the rescuer can no longer cope, neglects cats and the cats suffer major health problems and worse.

The story.