CAT OWNERS MAY HAVE TO MICROCHIP THEIR MOGGIES IN TASMAN DISTRICT

Cat owners in Tasman District may have to microchip their moggies if a draft bylaw gets the go ahead.

Tasman District councillors on Thursday agreed to instruct staff to develop a bylaw to help manage the domestic source of feral cats and address “health and nuisance effects”.

Some residents are expected to get their claws out over the matter.

“We know that a lot of people are very passionate about their cats, they’re emotionally attached to them,” said deputy mayor Stuart Bryant. “I think, there needs to be a long lead-in time around the consultation.”

Regulatory committee chairwoman, councillor Dana Wensley said a draft bylaw would affect many ratepayers for whom domestic cats were crucial members of the family “and we seem to be imposing a very broad obligation on them without any clear direction”.

Wensley was referring to the wording in a section of the draft bylaw that says cats shall be kept “in a manner that is not, or is not unlikely to become, a nuisance, dangerous, offensive, or injurious to health”.

“What does this mean?”

Council biosecurity and biodiversity team leader Paul Sheldon said the nuisance “really relates to cat trespass, cat defecation, issues with identification of the owner of a domestic cat”.

“Those are the types of nuisance that one could – under the Local Government Act – make a bylaw.”

Sheldon said enforcement would be handled largely via vet practices and the SPCA “advising people with cats they needed to be microchipped and advising them it was a good idea to be able to identity the owner of the cat should the cat come to any harm”.

Modelled on a Wellington City Council bylaw, the draft rules suggest cat owners be required to microchip their moggies once the felines reach 12 weeks of age and then register the microchip on the New Zealand Companion Animal Register.

A grace period of 18 months is suggested to give owners time to meet the new requirements.

Sheldon said the council was limited in what it could do by the absence of national legislation. Being able to identify whether a cat was owned or not was a first step, he said.

Councillors also agreed to instruct staff to liaise with Local Government New Zealand and relevant central Government agencies to prioritise national cat legislation.

The move comes after some submitters to the Tasman-Nelson Regional Pest Management Plan called for the Tasman District and Nelson City councils to do more to manage cats.

A staff report listed “negative impacts” for pet cats including a biodiversity threat as they could prey on small animals. Cats also presented “community, amenity and health threats – nuisance and disease including cat trespass, wildlife predation in gardens, transmission of disease through contact, and cat bites and scratches”. They also posed economic and environmental threats for pastoral farming and marine environments.

“While feral cats can be addressed as pests, management of domestic (stray and companion) cats is outside the scope of the Biosecurity Act (unless they are considered to be ‘pest agents’),” the staff report says.

It’s not the first time the feline issue has been raised in Tasman District. In 2016, a dozen cats were tracked with GPS collars and cat cameras in a three-month trial near the Waimea estuary. It was a joint project involving the Waimea Inlet Forum, the Department of Conservation, Tasman District Council and Tasman Environment Trust.

Council staff will now finalise the draft bylaw and prepare a Statement of Proposal in anticipation of public notification. Consultation is tipped to begin in early 2021.

Sheldon told councillors correspondence from Nelson City Council group manager for environmental management Clare Barton said the city council was keeping all options open “but she didn’t support a bylaw approach”.

Marlborough District Council rules restrict cat numbers to four without council approval while Invercargill City Council allowed a limit of three cats to be imposed in some circumstances.