New Zealand’s remarkable birdlife evolved in a land without apex predators. However, introduced cats have decimated their numbers, leading to a call for cat ownership changes in the country. The Lyall’s wren, a small, flightless bird, had adapted to a mammal-free New Zealand until the arrival of the Polynesian rat, and then the cat. The species was wiped out, with the last known example killed by a cat on Stephens Island in 1895.
Conservation groups have campaigned for a national cat management act and the addition of feral cats to the list of eradicated pests. New Zealand’s Predator Free 2050 campaign is aimed at eradicating rats, stoats, ferrets, weasels, and possums, but not cats, the country’s most popular pet.
While nearly half of New Zealand households own a cat, and many cats roam free, conservationists argue that even well-fed cats still kill birds and other wildlife. The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society has estimated that feral cats could be responsible for the deaths of as many as 1.1 million native birds annually, and cats are blamed for a significant drop in kea numbers.
Currently there are many rules imposed by both central and local governments concerning dog ownership and control however there are no such rules for cats.
