A children’s feral cat-hunting competition in New Zealand has been cancelled following condemnation from animal welfare groups.

There are up to 2.5 million feral cats in the country and they are considered a pest and a risk to the country's biosecurity.

This year, the North Canterbury Hunting Competition this year added a new category encouraging children to hunt the wild cats.

Participants aged 14 and under were encouraged to kill as many feral cats as possible but were told not to kill domesticated cats.

The child who killed the most feral cats would have won NZ$250 (€141).

The hunt was cancelled after animal rights groups warned that the children might hunt and kill a house cat by mistake.

Neutering

In Ireland, there are currently believed to be around 2,000 feral cats and on The Pat Kenny Show, DSPCA spokesperson Gillian Bird said owners must neuter their cats to keep the population down.

“Hopefully your domestic cat will be neutered, that’s the big thing.

“Your undomestic cat – if they’re not neutered – will mate. The male would be out every day during the breeding season.”

Starting as young as six months, female cats can produce “three litters in a year,” said Ms Bird.

‘Trap, neuter and return’

Ms Bird explained the “trap, neuter and return” (TNR) method is the best way to prevent overbreeding.

At the DSPCA, they “neuter all the kittens before they leave at nine weeks of age”.

As well as this, Ms Bird noted that “there’s a huge amount of cat welfare groups, and individuals who take it upon themselves to go out and trap and neuter and return the feral cats”.

Urging pet owners to educate themselves on the risks of overbreeding, Ms Bird said, “the population does appear to be decreasing and that is mainly due to education.’

DSPCA

Ms Bird rejected the suggestion the “cats should be classed as vermin” and said Ireland’s wildlife has far bigger issues than feral cats.

“It’s, unfortunately, the environment we have,” she said.

“It’s the cutting of the hedgerows when you shouldn’t be cutting them; it’s the digging up all the stuff, it’s all the building work that’s going on, it’s the knocking down the natural habitats that’s doing more damage to the native wildlife and the birds and the population unfortunately than the cats.”

“We are trying to keep the cat population under control, and at the end of the day, it usually comes down to irresponsible pet owners not neutering their own pet cats, or lovely caring people who find a cat, decide to feed it, but then take no responsibility for the outcome of not neutering them.”

Reporting from Faye Curran.