Thread: Taumarunui golf club cat / Facebook mob

Originally Posted by Flyblown

I’ve run into the problem of my dogs catching wandering cats in our property… it certainly isn’t a positive step towards friendly neighbour relations. I always remember this article from a few years back because of the interview with the cat owner…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/870...o-his-backyard

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Originally Posted by Musclebob

Property is pretty broadly defined in the Crimes Act, so S269 could apply. Cats have common law rights of trespass and are also considered property under common law.

I neither use, or allow my cats to be used to annoy (annoy hasn’t yet been criminalised by our dear leader) or cause damage, regardless, what the cat does is not likely to be something I am liable for (common law again) though I do take steps to mitigate the risk of the cat doing damage.

Unless you discharge a firearm in an annoying way , see Arms Act 1983 No44 section 48b.
I see this whole cats trespassing thing in a different way.
We are in a process of setting up a decent size joint QE2 covenant with a couple of our neighbours, about 106 acres. We invested a good amount of time and money into this project to protect the native fauna and flora on our land, so did QE2. So as far as I can see in our case someone else's property is causing damage in our property(the crowns property) so we are taking steps to mitigate the risk of loosing protected species. We are required to have a pest management plan and control all species that do not belong here (mainly rats and possums). I am aware of stomach contents studies both here and other countries where I have been involved with wildlife management. I agree that rodents will be the dominant part of those research findings but the amount of NZ native species is still significant enough for me to care . NZ got about 1.1-1.2M pet cats, lets say they only kill one native animal each a year, that is a large amount of wildlife lost. Than add to that the unknown number of ferals , some say around 200,000.
I will give a free get out of jail (cage trap)card for each animal that has a collar or microchip (I have a reader) the first time, trip down to animal control then owner can pay to release the animal from there. Late night meetings during rabbit control usually have a different outcome.
We are lucky to live far away enough from town to not have too many issues. Most people around here don't have cats, the ones that do got theirs microchipped and collared.

Well, the old fella that shot the cat on the golf club grounds got away with it… no prosecution. Needless to say the “justice for vinny the cat” Facebook group is apoplectic. The cat’s owner said:

The police advised me today that unfortunately they can't take the matter any further in terms of seeking a prosecution. They have spent weeks looking at all possible angles, looking through legislation/laws, going through case law and thoroughly investigating all possible options, with assistance from a detective, and talking to prosecutions, but have been unable to establish a case that satisfies the requirements of the prosecution team. It wasn't for lack of trying, and the officers who worked on the case are both cat owners and have no involvement with the golf club.

The golf club have apparently changed their pest control practices to exclude shooting cats and some time after lockdown ends I'll be meeting with them, probably at the police station, to find out exactly what their new policy toward cats is.

The shooter apparently feels bad about what has happened, and says he never intended to shoot a pet cat. I don't think I'll ever believe him though.


There’s a backstory to this. The cat owner (Geoff) is a cat nut who has multiple cats that come and go, lots of rehoming of strays and so on. One of those “community cat” people. At any one time he has 8 or 9, sometimes more, sometimes less, and they are free to come and go as they please. I have a big problem with that. Something that hasn’t helped him is that he has in the past posted several photos of the birds that his cats catch in the bush between him and the golf club. None too bright Geoff. The cat was shot a good distance away from his house. Definitely not in his backyard as originally intimated.

Word is some of the locals nearby are none too impressed with the burgeoning cat population in the north end of town. It seems that Geoff’s cats breed like flies. Again, all stuff he freely shares with the world.

So my take on it is that he has lost one cat out of a transient number of waifs and strays, and the more permanent residents as his place.

I would love to know how far the Police really took this investigation. If they were unable to secure a case against the shooter to the satisfaction of the prosecutor, then maybe some of the case law that has been mentioned in this thread isn’t as strong as was thought. Maybe they’re just fobbing him off. Maybe the mood towards wandering cats has indeed shifted in favour of birdlife and fewer feral / stray / companion apex predators marauding around on private property and public land. Ultimately we’ll probably never know.

Interesting case this, nothing is ever as it seems of course. Is it ever?

There's always two sides to a story and we only got to hear the cat owners story. It certainly seems it didnt quite happen as he indicated. Ie not even a charge of careless use of a firearm (cat owner had said the rifle was discharged while pointing at residential housing).

Good outcome by the sounds.