MICROCHIP BYLAW FOR CATS IN TASMAN DROPPED

A proposed bylaw requiring domestic cats in the Tasman district to be microchipped has been dropped.

The Tasman District Council Cat Management Bylaw was scheduled to go out for public feedback in early 2022.

It was produced after submitters to the Tasman-Nelson Regional Pest Management Plan 2019-29 called for the Tasman District and Nelson City councils to do more to manage cats.

In November 2020, elected members directed staff to develop it for public notification.

A staff report says the council has received representations that a bylaw requiring the microchipping of cats would “assist in managing cat trespass, cat-transferred diseases, domestic cats being attacked by feral cats and threats to native birds”.

However, after a lengthy discussion on Thursday, a majority of elected members on the council’s regulatory committee voted against the proposal for a bylaw and going out for consultation. They agreed instead to a “non-regulatory” approach to responsible cat management via education.

Councillor Christeen Mackenzie, who seconded the lost motion for the draft bylaw, said it was “disappointing, given the huge amount of effort” staff had put into the proposal.

“We’ve actually up to this date as a group supported that work being done,” Mackenzie said. “It would seem at this point all for nothing. That’s very frustrating.”

Regulatory committee chairwoman Dana Wensley, who put forward the successful motion for a non-regulatory approach said she struggled to see the justification for the draft bylaw.

“It’s essentially an identification bylaw,” she said, adding that domestic cats and their feral counterparts both caused problems.

Wensley said she believed the potential for a $20,000 fine under the draft bylaw was “pretty heavy handed”.

Councillor Trindi Walker said she supported cats being microchipped but a microchip would not keep a cat on its owner’s section or stop a neighbour trapping an animal and putting it down.

“With everything that our community is facing and the way that Covid has amped up, all the other things that we’re going out … to consultation, I do not believe that this is good use of our money or our time or our resources,” Walker said.

Councillor Dean McNamara said he would rather spend the money on something other than a bylaw that was “unlikely to be enforceable” and unlikely to solve a problem with feral cats.

Mayor Tim King said the enforceability of the bylaw would be limited and there were many matters out for consultation from the council and central Government.

“I suspect the situation we’re entering into around Covid is unlikely to get better between now and February and people are going to be under a lot of pressure and stress in any event,” questioning if it was the right time for such a draft bylaw to be considered.

Councillor Trevor Tuffnell, who moved the original motion for the draft bylaw said it was a “very emotive issue”.

Many people had approached him over the matter and going out for consultation would provide the “complete feeling” of what the community wanted, Tuffnell said.

Modelled on a Wellington City Council bylaw that became operative in February 2018, the draft Tasman District Council version had also included a ban on feeding cats in public places.

The Ministry for Primary Industries revised Code of Welfare: Companion Cats says that for the purposes of control, it is necessary to be able to identify whether a cat has an owner or not. It points to microchipping as recommended best practice for that identification.

A Companion Animals NZ publication in 2020 says about 41 per cent of NZ households have at least one cat. Forest & Bird puts the estimate at 1.4m domestic cats.