Canterbury feral cat hunting competition returns, bolstered by controversy

Nationwide, it is estimated that feral cats kill up to 100 million birds each year while also predating vulnerable native lizards and spreading disease among livestock. Photo / 123RF

The organiser of a feral cat hunting competition says previous controversy has only bolstered the number of hunters keen to take down the introduced predators.

The North Canterbury Hunting Competition garnered significant controversy last year, making international headlines, invoking protests, and even copping a jab from British comedian Ricky Gervais.

Following the immediate backlash, the category was cancelled in the 2023 competition - only for the decision to be reversed several weeks later.

Organiser Mat Bailey said the controversy only served to “poke the bear”.

“It’s just giving us more and more energy and more drive to do our part for conservation because these animals need to die,” Bailey said.

Nationwide, it is estimated that feral cats kill up to 100 million birds each year while also predating vulnerable native lizards and spreading disease among livestock.

“The protesters and that, we enjoyed having them and hopefully they come back, but they probably had the opposite effect of what they wanted to achieve... Any publicity is good publicity,” said Bailey.

Last year, hunters in the competition took out 242 feral cats, a number Bailey said they were happy with but hoped for more this year.

A feral cat that had killed 102 bats from two trees 20m apart on the southern slopes of Mt Ruapehū, in seven days. Photo / DoC

“We’re probably expecting a few more this year because people have started hunting now, whereas last year we just kept to the three days or the actual competition.”

The overall competition will run from June 28 to June 30, while the feral cat category is open from April 30 to the competition’s end date.

Rules of the category state that feral cats must only be hunted with Box traps, which allow for humane capture and animal identification.

Cats will be scanned for microchips, and hunters will be disqualified if microchips are found.

The feral cats must then be killed using a minimum of a .22 rifle, the rules state.

Bailey believed a lot of the controversy was due to a lack of knowledge about feral cats as introduced predators in New Zealand - which are like “the devil on methamphetamine.”

“They’re basically a mini-lion - they’re just f***ing mad. You can see the evil in their eyes.

“[Protesters] don’t understand the issue. They think domestic cats are going to get caught up in it... They need not to worry, there’s rules in place you need to be 10km outside of residential and lifestyle areas.”

Bailey said the impact of feral cats on the environment was “huge.”

“Take a look at the recent articles about the southern dotterels, the Canterbury skink, the bellbirds, then we’ve got the black-fronted terns here on the Waiau, they have a nesting area here, they basically get deleted by these feral cats.

“It only takes one or two cats to delete 50 nests.”

“If we could have a country without feral cats, we would see fantails and tui in our backyards throughout the country.”

Department of Conservation kākāriki karaka operations manager Wayne Beggs said there were numerous examples from around the country where wildlife had been impacted by feral cats.

In Canterbury in 2020, a feral cat was found to have 17 native skinks in its stomach, while only 30 per cent of the endangered black stilt birds (kakī) in 2017survived to adulthood because of predation by wild cats and stoats, he said.

“There’s currently no centralised rules around management of cats as the same way there is for dogs,” he said.

Sponsors from across New Zealand have supported the competition, which has a Hilux ute, a motorbike, thermal scopes, hunting trips, and cash prizes up for grabs.

Fifty animals will be donated to food banks, and funds will go to the Rotherham community and other causes.

Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.