IN FROM THE COLD: TENDING TO THE DOWN-AND-OUTS OF THE FELINE WORLD

Aleisha Wickham has two kittens in her living room, Cheetah and Frog. Cheetah, a tabby, has stripes and spots, so the name makes sense, but there’s no obvious reason why her children have decided to call the other one Frog.

The pair are in a large crate, which both keeps them safe and means they can get used to the household. That’s important because these are rescue kittens, and Wickham is fostering them, as she and her husband have cared for many others over the past 10 years.

When you foster that many animals – up to 60 a year, guesses Wickham, who is a vet nurse – and you’re only going to have them for a few weeks, naming becomes a challenge best left to the children.

The family has Cheetah and Frog for just a few weeks as they grow big enough to be desexed. Then the family will have them for a further week before returning them to Paws 4 Life to be rehomed. It’s a short, intense time, which involved a lot of cleaning up and also a lot of attention from the two kids, along with some from the dogs of the household.

The intention is to have the kittens well and truly socialised and ready for a permanent new owner. It’s arduous as well as rewarding work, and there is never a shortage of new kittens to be rescued from under houses or on farms and everywhere in between.

Stray cats present, everyone agrees, a major challenge and Hamilton City Council has stumped up with an annual $100,000 desexing fund, dished out for the third year last month. The fund was kickstarted after Paws 4 Life founder Rachael Maher and manager Jay Johanssen lobbied the then mayor and councillors.

In a city estimated to have 24,000 cats, including companion cats, the fund has seen more than 1,500 strays annually desexed and given homes – which hints both at the scale of the problem and at the amount of work being done by not-for-profit groups.

It can feel like an unstoppable tide, but at least the council funding helps make it more manageable for the rescuers. This year, three organisations applied for and won funding: Paws 4 Life, New Lives Animal Rescue and the SPCA. The total is down slightly, to $82,250, but Council Animal Education and Control manager Sue Stanford says that relates to the amount of applications and the fact at least one of last year’s organisations had some money left over, which they will spend this year.

The funds are conditional on rehoming. “Because if you take your cat, desex and put it back, okay, you’ve knocked the breeding issue on the head. But you still got a cat that is free to roam the gully systems and pick on the wildlife and things like that.”

Stanford says the lack of a legislative mandate around the management of cats means territorial authorities such as Hamilton City Council “don’t really” have a way of managing strays. “We don’t have any legislative backing to be able to do a great deal,” she says.

“A lot of our rescue organisations do an awful lot for the strays in our city. And this is just a way that we can support them, and it’s a benefit to the cat and to the environment.”

There is a piecemeal approach to stray and feral cats through New Zealand, based on a paucity of data and in the absence of legislation like that regulating dogs. Waikato Regional Council says it doesn’t monitor or know the size of the feral cat population.

SPCA scientific officer Christine Sumner says her organisation advocates for national legislation to provide councils with more consistent mechanisms to manage cats.

At Rachael Maher’s Paws 4 Life adoption cattery below her house, healthy kittens are luxuriating in a large outdoor cage full of play opportunities. They are back here briefly after being cared for by fosterers like Wickham. The kittens have been desexed, microchipped, vaccinated and socialised for their new home. Tomorrow they will be taken to PETstock at The Base, and within no time will be whisked away by new owners.

Cattery manager Jay Johanssen says Paws 4 Life has been using PETstock for almost four years, and the store has done the most adoptions in Australasia for the last three years running, taking about 600 a year from Paws 4 Life.

Paws 4 Life itself typically has about 500 cats on its books at any one time, in various stages of the process of preparing them for new homes.

A combination of donations and fundraising sees the organisation able to pay both Maher and Johanssen modestly for what Maher describes as a 24/7, seven days a week job, supported by volunteers. “Our driving force is always to put the animal first, they come before us. It just so happens that this is our passion. We can’t say no to an animal in need and they’re kind of round the clock. So we just keep going.”

Last year, for instance, they cared for a total of 1,700 animals, and Maher, a former SPCA inspector, estimates the organisation has cared for well over 10,000 since she founded it in 2010.

One phone call can yield 50 cats, she says, if people let a situation get out of control. “You can imagine one cat has five kittens. Those kittens are breeding by 16 weeks old and the cycle grows.”

Like other rescue organisations, they focus on educating those people who seek their help, and on trying to solve the problem. They lend out cages “every single day” for people to trap cats that are too hard or dangerous to catch. “We take in wild cats, because if you leave them out there undesexed and diseased and they’re going to keep breeding, your problem of three or four is quickly going to turn into 30, 40, 50.”

Cats stay with them for as long as it takes, she says. “It’s fine for an animal to come in and be unsettled, be scared, be unwell, to have lost their entire world that they know and take some time to bond with us and figure out our routines and for them to relax. And once we’re confident that the animal is happy and healthy, then they’re ready for adoption.”

Sometimes a cat will have to have an eye or a leg removed; often, they are among those quickly adopted by future owners drawn to helping them. Inevitably, however, some have to be put down to alleviate suffering. Maher cites a wild tom that was brought in with a broken leg and missing and rotting teeth. “You can imagine the life of pain and misery that this animal is going through. Because every day he needs to get up, defend his territory, and go in search of food, water and shelter every single day no matter how he’s feeling, no matter that he’s got a broken leg or that his mouth is not working.”

A step or two from the kittens’ outdoor cage is a basement room with large crates for adult cats, also ready to be adopted out. It’s the kind of place where a visitor instinctively treads carefully, to avoid stepping on any cat that might be roaming underfoot. Some are in the crates as a safe space, some have the freedom of the room, depending on how socialised they are. Maher and Johanssen get to know each of them well, and Johanssen says they make no bones about being matchmakers when it comes to adoptive parents, firmly steering prospective owners to the cat that is suitable for them.

Dylan, for instance, a large grey, was handed in after his elderly owner could no longer deal with him.

“Because Dylan’s grey, he’ll be very, very popular,” Maher says. “He’s going to be no good for a family with young kids because that’s not Dylan’s personality.”

“He’s lovely, but he’s arrogant and he’s opinionated,” Johanssen says. “So when we find him a family, it’ll be somebody that’s a bit younger that doesn’t mind that he’s got attitude.”

Vet Kelly Andrews appears from a neighbouring room where cats are being desexed and checked. She and her team, which includes Aleisha Wickham, come twice a week to Paws 4 Life to attend to the cats.

Their biggest session saw them tend to a remarkable 58 cats. Christmas tends to be a busy time, partly because it’s the middle of the kitten season, and it’s not uncommon at that time to do three days, including being on Christmas Day call for emergencies or welfare issues. “I am part of the team,” she says.

She sometimes fosters kittens herself, including at the moment a couple of “foster fails” – kittens that she and her family ended up falling for and keeping.

Wickham, meanwhile, says Frog is good to go while Cheetah, from a different litter, probably needs another couple of weeks before being desexed. “It’s a lot of work because obviously, they eat a lot, they make a lot of mess when they’re playing and they go to the toilet a lot,” she says. But it’s also rewarding, bringing them through, getting them healthy and friendly and knowing they will be easy to settle in to a new home. Some turn up hissing and spitting and don’t want a bar of being touched, she says. Slowly, however, they work out people aren’t bad and that that’s where the food’s coming from. In one case, a feral kitten couldn’t be socialised and they found a home for it on a farm, where it has become a shed cat, shunning people but still with food and shelter.

New Zealanders love their pets, with a total of 4.35 million companion animals in 2020, according to Companion Animals NZ, which conducts four-yearly surveys.

Cats come out top, with 41 percent of households sharing their home with at least one. There are more than 1.2 million cats in the country, compared to 850,000 dogs.

Of the cat population, 88 percent are desexed, down from 93 percent in 2015. Microchipping has risen from 12 percent in 2011 to 49 percent in 2020. Companion Animals NZ estimates more than 600,000 cats are not microchipped.

Far less is known about the population of stray cats, defined by the SPCA’s Sumner as those whose needs are to some degree met by humans, whether it’s that people are feeding them, or that they are scavenging food from around town. Little is also known about ferals, those cats which have no relationship with humans. “There’s no shortage of cats that need desexing in this country, put it that way.”

When it comes to the impact of strays on native wildlife, the picture is complex, depending both on the abundance of wildlife in a particular area and the preferences of individual cats, she says.

Are cats a problem, for instance when it comes to wildlife depredation or even toileting in neighbours’ gardens? “Thinking that cats are problems can be very contingent on whether you own a cat or not,” Sumner says. “What we advocate for as an organisation is we look at the welfare of the cat as one of the primary concerns we have in any of these discussions around cats. And it’s really how we live in society with cats, I think is a better way to look at it.”

Regardless of point of view, the lowest-hanging fruit are desexing and microchipping, she says. The techniques have welfare benefits for cats while also offering a long-term solution to problem of the stray population. “It’s a more humane strategy than other measures. And certainly, it seems to be a strategy that more people find acceptable across the board.”

Containment of cats to their own section can also be useful. Partly, this is a welfare measure for the individual cat, reducing the chance of being hit by a car or fighting with other cats, for instance. And partly, it can reduce their impact on wildlife, as well as the nuisance to neighbours. Sumner says there are a range of ingenious means of keeping cats on a section. Paws 4 Life’s Johanssen says “catios” (enclosed outdoor patios for cats) are one popular option.

Catios can be useful for those who keep their cats indoors. Companion Animals NZ says there are 135,000 indoor-only cats in New Zealand, compared to just over a million indoor-outdoor and just under 50,000 outdoor only.

“Pets can be happy and healthy at home inside,” Sumner says. “You wouldn’t just keep them in without thinking, is the inside of my house somewhere where a cat’s going to thrive?”

Johanssen, who has some indoor-only cats, says the key is providing enough enrichment and making things novel, the likes of moving around scratching towers and changing out toys. “They love it. And they’re safe, that’s the biggest thing.”

It depends on the individual animal. “I’ve got one cat and you can’t get her inside for love nor money,” Maher says. “She just loves to be outside. But I know my animal. She’s not interested in birds.”

If she were, a collar with a bell could be one way of minimising the risk. Sumner says the SPCA is a fan of collars, partly because it means they can be readily identified as likely to be a pet, and partly because there is evidence some collar types help reduce a cat’s hunting success.

New Lives Animal Rescue’s Donna Young apologises if she’s veering off track; she’s had about two hours’ sleep after taking on 16 cats which arrived at 11.30 the night before, following a call for help from a Whakatāne rescue organisation. She says Paws 4 Life is also taking some. “It’s all about rescues working together.”

But Young is not veering off track; she has strong views about the problem of wild cats, and speaks with authority. Like Maher, she is a former SPCA inspector, and she founded New Lives in 2014.

She says what the council is doing with its desexing fund is great, but that a “tonne” of money needs to be spent on the wild cat problem – cats that can’t be rehomed or rehabilitated.

“I’m getting sick of people expecting me to take a wild cat. I don’t think a charity should have to be responsible for what I would call pest control.”

Breeding can quickly escalate out of control with cats capable of having three litters a year and able to breed as young as 16 weeks. In very little time, an inattentive owner can be overrun.

“There is a cat problem, a big one. I think to get a handle on that, we do need big desexing drives and we need to sort out something with ‘wildies’ breeding.”

Young says they have managed to “tame up” some wild cats, but it’s a fine line, and the experience of being held in a shelter can be terrifying for the cat. “It’s about being humane in everything.”

The reality is that occasionally a cat needs to be put down. Young says she hates doing it, but sometimes there is no other option. “I’m not going to go around desexing cats and just putting them back where I found them because that’s actually irresponsible, especially if they don’t have someone to look after them.”

She has offered one farm that she can help with desexing costs for its wild cats. “It stops the breeding, but it means you don’t kill the animal. But the people do have to take responsibility for that animal.

“I give them that option. I will only do that if they are prepared to look after that cat. And it means if they move from the property they deal with the cat, they don’t just leave it there for the next person.”

New Lives also runs an op shop, which helps fund the organisation’s activities, including some desexing days. A recent event saw Huntly owners bringing their cats to a vet and paying just $30 to have them desexed, with New Lives picking up the rest of the tab. Young thinks about 60 cats were desexed over two days, and she is planning further days.

The SPCA runs a similar “snip ’n’ chip” programme to subsidise owners looking to have their cats desexed and microchipped. Sumner says cost is “far and away” the largest barrier to people getting their cats desexed, and makes the point that desexing companion cats helps stem the flow of cats into the stray cat population.

Sumner also echoes Young’s words about pest control, saying that’s not the SPCA’s function. Like others spoken to for this story, she says their focus is on animal welfare – suggesting no cats should be seen as pests. But that currently leaves a shortfall. “We need more services and abilities to reduce stray cat populations. And it’s not a New Zealand special issue. This is globally. How do we manage stray cats humanely and effectively? It’s just a challenge.”