City cats getting into a flap

Cat owners are to be urged to have their pets desexed so they do not turn into sex predators.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is about to launch a campaign, DeSex and the City 2006, next month in an effort to better control the thousands of unwanted cats in the Auckland area.

SPCA Auckland general manager Jane Thompson said a neutered cat was less likely to wander at night, get into fights and spread disease such as feline aids.

She said they hoped to desex more than 1000 animals during the two-week campaign.

If 1000 female cats could be desexed, it could mean up to 30,000 unwanted kittens were not born in the first year.

That was on the basis that each female cat had six kittens, half of those kittens had six kittens within six months and the 1000 mother cats had another litter.

"A number of vets from all over Auckland have volunteered their time. They are all going to come down to the SPCA here and we are just going to go mad and desex all the animals we possibly can," she said.

Ms Thompson said they believed there were more than 100,000 stray cats (not feral cats) in the Auckland region.

Stray cats survived because people left food out. Feral cats survived without human intervention.

- NZPA