VAGRANT CATS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 68, 13 December 1939, Page 5

VAGRANT CATS

Destroyers Of Bird Life It has beeu 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 the problem,” comments the board, “is to secure the co-operation of the public by an appeal not to abandon their former pets is the park, but rather, if they wish to destroy them, to communicate with the R.S.P.C.A., which will collect and kill them in lethal chambers if no home can be found for them. The recent destruction of cats by the National Park Trust may have an effect on other owners who now have to consider the possibility 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) cat.” In any district of New Zealand where it is represented, the S.P.C.A. will arrange a painless death for unwanted eats, which otherwise may be a nuisance to the community.