April 19, 2023 at 10:15 am CET
Updated 43 minutes ago
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Organizers of an annual hunting competition in New Zealand came under fire for announcing an event for children to hunt wild cats
A children’s cat hunting competition in New Zealand has been canceled after backlash against the event.
Organizers of an annual hunt have been criticized after announcing a new category for wildcat hunting for those under the age of 14.
The animals are considered a pest and a risk to the biosecurity of the country.
Juveniles were told not to kill domestic animals, but otherwise were encouraged to kill as many feral cats as possible for a price.
The child who killed the most between mid-April and late June would have won NZ$250 (£124; $155).
The event was immediately condemned by animal rights groups.
On Tuesday, New Zealand’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was relieved the “children’s wildcat shooting category” would not go ahead.
A representative argued that children and adults are unable to distinguish between “a feral cat, a stray cat or a terrified domestic cat,” according to the AFP news agency.
There were fears that this would mean that domestic cats would be killed unintentionally.
“We should teach our Tamariki [children] Empathizing with animals rather than giving them the tools to kill them,” a spokesman for animal rights group Safe told local media outlet 1News.
The event was announced as part of a June fundraiser for a local school in North Canterbury on the South Island, a largely rural area of New Zealand where hunting is popular.
Every year, hundreds – including children – compete to kill wild boar, deer and rabbits in the competition.
Organizers of the North Canterbury Hunting Competition announced the cancellation of the cat event on Tuesday, saying they had received “disgusting and inappropriate emails”.
“We are disappointed and apologize to those who were excited to get involved in something that works to protect our native birds and other endangered species,” the group wrote on Facebook.
They also pointed out that anyone participating in their hunts is required to comply with firearms and animal welfare laws.
The post received more than 100 comments from users, many of whom defended the event. People said the hunt may have been a “controlled culling”.
“If only people knew the damage wild cats do here,” wrote a local.
“They also [have] Impact on our agriculture. Feral cats carry diseases…we’ll just shoot them as long as we see them,” she concluded.
It is estimated that there are 1.2 million domestic cats in New Zealand and more than twice that number of wild cats.
Measures to control the latter population are the subject of heated debate in New Zealand, where the animals pose a major threat to native species.
New Zealand’s largest conservation group, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, has estimated that feral cats could be responsible for the deaths of up to 1.1 million native birds, as well as tens of millions of non-native birds, each year.
A biosecurity expert, Dr. Helen Blackie, told Radio New Zealand that feral cats are responsible for the extinction of six bird species, as well as declining populations of bats, frogs and lizards.
They are also known to transmit the parasitic infection toxoplasmosis, a disease that has had a significant impact on the New Zealand sheep industry.
dr Blackie also said that because feral cats are not officially classified as vermin in Canterbury, there are no measures in place to monitor or control them.