13/09/2026
Please put your name in the comments to support our letters. This is urgent as the next two car killing competitions start Friday!
**UPDATE:**
WOW. You've all have blowen me away with your support today. What a massive effort! So much heart and it makes me proud to see everyone stand up for the cats💪🐈
We will have close to 500 names I think.
I will be updating and collating all the names tonight, along with our final edits. Any names coming in after 8.30pm can still be on the list, it will just be on our second round of letters. Realistically the letter will be published tomorrow evening all going well. Those of you that have requested a copy, I will get this to you as soon as possible - being tomorrow evening.
Cats now have a bounty on their heads.
Anne Batley Burton, myself and many other co-signatures have recently written formal letters to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) over how "feral" cats are being defined, hunted and killed under current government guidance, and how Companion, Stray and Displaced cats are being swept up and killed alongside them.
Here's what the letters say, in short:
There is no such thing, in law, as an "unwanted" cat — but government material inventing that category has opened the door to any cat someone personally doesn't want being treated as fair game.
MPI and DOC's own identification guidance can't actually tell a feral cat apart from a companion, stray, colony or displaced/lost cat. No collar, being frightened in a cage, ordinary coat colour, none of it is unique to feral cats. By DOC's own wording, a feral cat's coat and colouring look exactly like a companion cat's. It's practically impossible for any participant, let alone a child, to reliably tell an un-microchipped, free-roaming pet apart from a genuinely feral animal before a shot is taken.
Hunting competitions are proving the point in practice. Cats are shot first and checked for a microchip afterwards, once they're already dead, with no oversight of how they're killed, so wounding and prolonged suffering go unchecked. Well over 1,000 cats have been killed through the North Canterbury competition over the years it's run, and close to 400 in its most recent event alone.
Two more competitions are now promoted for the same weekend in September 18th, one of them explicitly marketed to children, the other as a family day.
Companion cats have been reported stolen from their own homes, along with missing cat statistic's, rise rapidly within the region's these competitions are being held. In effect, cats now have a bounty on their heads.
We're calling on MPI, DOC, and every councilor and candidate in this election to commit to three reforms:
🛑 Ban cash-prize killing competitions — no more bounties or cash incentives for killing domestic or invasive species.
🛑 Fund humane alternatives — invest in Trap-Neuter-Return and Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNR) programes instead of unmonitored hunting incentives and invest in Rescues, Colony Carers around New Zealand.
🛑 Licensed pest control only, confined to deep bush — end backyard and public trapping and killing of cats. Feral cat control should be carried out only by licensed, certified professionals, and only in the genuinely wild deep bush areas MPI and DOC themselves say it should be confined to — never in urban, lifestyle-block or semi-rural areas.
With the general election approaching, this is becoming an election issue, and we need your help right now:
If you believe:
Our cats are perishing at an alarming rate since being placed on the Predator Free list, and their welfare and safety are at extreme risk, we need you to help us push this letter further.
1. Let me know if you want your name added- every name is compiled and provided directly alongside our formal correspondence. Either PM me, email or comment.
2. Letter is due tomorrow evening, we will send you a copy to email your local councilor and MP — tell them you expect their commitment to these three reforms, and ask where they stand before you vote.
3. Share this post — the more people who see what's actually happening to New Zealand's cats, the harder it becomes for government to ignore.
No cat should lose its life because guidance can't tell the difference. Will you add your name today?
Marice Butler Feral No More Wendy Hodson Kathy White Jane Darby PUSSN BOOTS KITTY Rescue Natasha Lovett The Kitten Orphanage Predator Free Watchdog Gypsy's Paws Clare Waddick Elaine Mander Stacey Ess
