[imagesource:pixabay]

New Zealand’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have kicked up a stink about the inclusion of cats to the North Canterbury Hunting Competition, which sees children being rewarded for killing animals like wild pigs, deer, and hares.

A new category was introduced this year to encourage children aged 14 and under to hunt feral cats, which the organisers say is a risk to New Zealand’s biosecurity.

The tree huggers however fear that gun-toting teenagers will target domestic cats and end up killing people’s pets.

As if that’s the worst that could happen.

A representative argued that children, along with adults, would not be able to differentiate between “a feral, stray or frightened domesticated cat.”

The organisers of the annual hunt say that youngsters have been instructed not to shoot pets, but to otherwise kill as many feral cats as possible for a prize. The child who kills the most animals by the end of June will be rewarded with NZ$250 (R2 800).

The Kiwi SPCA was not having it, and argued that children should be taught empathy towards animals and not be ‘handed the tools to kill them.’ New Zealand is not ‘Murica.

The BBC reported that the hunt was planned as a fundraiser for a local school on the South Island, a largely rural area of New Zealand where hunting is popular. The organisers believe this could have been a ‘controlled culling’ of the wild cats, which in recent years have caused a lot of environmental damage.

There are an estimated 1.2 million domestic cats in New Zealand, with feral cats only being half as many, meaning there is a good chance of someone’s little furball being culled.

On the other hand, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society estimates that feral cats are responsible for killing almost 1.1 million native birds every year, as well as many more millions of non-native birds. It seems one of the two species has got to go. But still, it’s kitties…

Dr Helen Blackie told Radio New Zealand that feral cats were responsible for the extinction of six bird species, as well as the decline in populations of bats, frogs and lizards.

Hopefully, somewhere in the fight between who gets to stay, and who gets the bullet, parents will consider the burden placed on kids when you ask them to shoot cats. It’s a little close to home, even if there is a prize.

The morals of hunting are too big a discussion for this post, but everyone knows you don’t f#@k with cats. Maybe that’s why the All Blacks have been playing so crappy lately. God must be a cat person.

[source:bbc]