Right now, in the rural farming community of North Canterbury, New Zealand, hunters are sharpening knives and loading rifles – ready for a weekend of blood-sport (10-12 July).
Their target? Cats. As many as possible because for each cat they kill, they get a bounty. This is the North Canterbury hunting competition – an annual hunt where men, women and children compete for cash prizes by shooting, poisoning, trapping and killing as many cats as they can. In the process, many cats are injured and left to suffer and die alone in the bush.
The authorities claim the slaughter protects native species. But senselessly and indiscriminately shooting and poisoning cats is a cruel and highly ineffective method of population control.
What you are seeing is not sport – it is a brutal annual hunting competition where cats and other animals are killed en masse for cash prizes and then proudly displayed. This must be stopped. Source: Supplied
You can help humanely help New Zealand’s cats.
There is a humane way to protect feral cats and the native wildlife of New Zealand. It is called TNVR – trap, neuter, vaccinate and return. We know it works and we are asking you to help us start sterilizing cats, removing any excuse to shoot them for fun and profit and vastly improving population control.
Piles of dead cats are proudly put on display. And protesters are taunted with their corpses, with the bodies used as props for mockery. Source: Supplied
What Network for Animals is doing right now.
A single donation today funds the work to stop this slaughter:
- $35 (£25) for one cat to be safely trapped, sterilized, vaccinated and released back to a managed colony – alive and free from future suffering.
- $80 (£60) for emergency veterinary care for an injured stray pulled from the firing line.
- $160 (£120) to equip our New Zealand partners – like Cat Rescue Christchurch – with the traps, transport and vet clinic time they urgently need this season.
- $675 (£500) to underwrite the next round of legal and advocacy pressure – including petitions and digital campaigns – that finally forces the New Zealand government to act.
Donate now – before the next weigh-in.
Cornered, terrified and completely defenceless – this cat is at the mercy of a hunter’s dog, with nowhere to run and no one to help, a video celebrated by hunters. Source: The North Canterbury Hunting Competition
With your support over the past months, we have built coalitions with international and local partners, written to the New Zealand government demanding a review of the Predator Free 2050 strategy, mobilized supporters and worked alongside frontline rescuers like Cat Rescue Christchurch who remove cats from harm’s way.
The New Zealand government has refused to answer us. The hunt is going ahead between 10 and 12 July. And the cats – thousands of them – are running out of time.
Please donate today – whatever you can – and stand with us and with the feral cats of New Zealand.
