A cat whose paw was caught in a steel leg-hold trap dragged it around for days before being euthanised last night, prompting the SPCA to condemn the traps as cruel and a threat to children and pets.
Ross Nixon, SPCA Wairarapa's dog compound manager, received a call from a woman in Oxford St who noticed the injured cat on her property.
He said the cat's paw was caught in the trap and an infection had spread up its back leg, which meant it had been stuck in the trap for some time.
Amputating the cat's leg was considered but because the infection was so severe it was taken to a vet, given morphine and euthanised.
He said it was not the first time he had seen cats caught in such traps, especially in Oxford St where there was a colony of wild cats.
"It's just hard evidence that this is happening."
The distressed cat could have been wild or stray, but it also might have been someone's pet, he said. It was someone's cruel solution to the stray cat problem. "This approach achieves absolutely zero, it's a long-term issue."
Mr Nixon said the incident was a wilful act of cruelty.
The trap was most likely designed to catch small game but could easily injure small animals and children, he said.
"You could be looking at amputations on kids."
Mr Nixon said even though the trap did not have teeth or the same power as a gin trap, it could break bones.
People setting the traps could be prosecuted under the Animal Welfare Act, he said.
Tina Goodin, acting centre manager for the SPCA, said the traps were cruel, inhumane and illegal.
She said the "trap, neuter, release" strategy, where cats were caught, neutered and released into cat colonies, was used by some SPCA centres but the Wairarapa centre could not afford to de-sex the large numbers of wild cats in the area.
Jamie Falloon, president of Federated Farmers Wairarapa, said feral cats were a problem in the region but could not say whether many farmers used the traps.
Jim Flack, a spokesman for the Greater Wellington Regional Council, said the council had pest control programmes but used kill traps only for feral cats.
The council used the traps where there were high numbers of native animals in remote places, not in urban areas. Gin traps were made illegal in 2008 but leg-hold traps are available from most pest control suppliers.