Psycho killer

Midweek. This cat was trapped on a private property to protect the poultry and native species there. Supplied by Karen Hitchcock. WAG 17Feb15 - WAG 17Feb15 - THIS cat was trapped on a private

Cats in New Zealand are "psychopathic killers" slowly wiping out native birds and other wildlife, according to two men advocating for tighter controls on the nation's feline population.

Paul Martinson, an artist who has painted extinct birds of New Zealand, and Alan Fielding, an academic who once helped eliminate cats from Little Barrier Island, came to Midweek last week to present their views -- following a series of letters in the newspaper's opinion pages.

Mr Martinson first wrote to Midweek in January, criticising plans by Wairarapa SPCA to expand its cat facilities.

Two letters, including one published in this week's Midweek, disagree with Mr Martinson's views, and one correspondent sent in a photo of a stoat -- a native bird predator -- that had been caught by their own pet cat.

Mr Martinson has responded in kind to two of these correspondents, but found an unexpected supporter in a fellow Masterton man, Alan Fielding, who contacted Midweek last week on his behalf.

Mr Fielding is a retired lecturer who in the 1970s helped eradicate feral cats from New Zealand's Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf -- making the island much safer for native birds.

Seeing Mr Martinson's letters and recognising his name, Mr Fielding gave him a call and introduced himself, before contacting Midweek for a joint interview.

There it emerged that Mr Martinson, besides his enthusiasm for the pen (or keyboard), has some skill with the paintbrush.

Mr Martinson had collaborated with Alan Tennyson, fossil curator at Te Papa, on a book entitled Extinct Birds of New Zealand -- first published in 2006. Mr Fielding had seen some Martinson's wildlife paintings.

The book lists cats as the third-biggest cause of bird extinctions in New Zealand -- after people and rats.

Mr Fielding's own significant first hand experience of the cat problem in New Zealand was mainly in the 1970s on Little Barrier Island, in the Hauraki Gulf.

He was a volunteer for the Wildlife Service which had the "incredibly optimistic" aim of wiping out cats from the island, which he said "despite its name" was not little.

Sitting very still, the hunters could see up to a dozen cats go past one spot in a short time, Mr Fielding said -- but through a lot of hard work including dogs, traps and guns -- after many years the island was declared cat free.

Mr Fielding said cats kill for pleasure, which in human terms would be described as "psychopathic", and he questions why their lives and liberty are valued above that of New Zealand native species.

Mr Martinson says cats preying on native birds and lizards is "not a natural event; it's a disaster" -- with New Zealand known world wide for the number of its bird extinctions.

"Half our birds are basically extinct, and the rest are declining."

He disputes claims that cats are a pat of the ecosystem and are needed to keep other pets under control, saying that in New Zealand cats are "an apex predator", which unlike in the US don't have their own predators such as the great horned owl or coyotes to be concerned about.

Cats do catch stoats and other predators and "it's great when a cat does that, but cats are indiscriminate hunters".

Mr Martinson's Facebook page with his posts, Contain Cats New Zealand, has attracted plenty of interest.

"We've had to ban a lot of people for abusive language and threatening to kill," Mr Martinson said.

He advocates that cats need to be contained on a person's property, and even registered in the same way dogs are.

"No-one has a problem with a dog tied to a kennel all day or contained in a section," he said.

Fences are available with rollers on the top which prevent a cat leaving the property.

Mr Martinson says one the problems is that owners cannot be held responsible for a cat's behaviour, because cats are not required to be registered or chipped so they can be identified.

He once trapped a cat on his property after discovering a tui that had been killed -- and took the cat to the SPCA.

They said they would return it to the owners, but Mr Martinson did not know who the owners were.

The SPCA said they would therefore release the cat in the area it was taken from.

"They said, 'That's not our problem'.

"That's why I have a problem."