Cat hunter wanted.

Does anyone know someone possibly in the pest control industry in Auckland who deals with cats?

I’ve got a wild cat problem at work. We border the Waitemata harbour, and have a couple hectares of recently established native plants, which have created an ideal hideout for feral cats. Combined with the neighbouring properties there’s a lot of cover. Unfortunately cats have become established in there, and numbers have grown.

I suspect they’ve made quite an impact on the birds as we did have a lot of Tuis, but they’re hardly seen now, although it could be seasonal? Pukekos, are definitely in lower numbers too.’


I want the cats gone, guns are obviously out of the question given the central location. I suspect it will take a sustained period of trapping. Is there anyone out there keen?
Either a professional, or perhaps a retired hunter? I’m more than happy to pay either way.
If there is a retired hunter out there who’s got a bit of time, I’d buy the traps and anything else you need, and of course pay for your time.
We’re on Rosebank road, so pretty central to most areas.

Cheers Mike

Shotguns are nice and safe for urban shooting. You'd need to inform and work with police though as joe public is pretty ignorant about it.
I should think poison would be more effective than traps, but that comes with attendant permits, and potentially killing "domestic" cats which would make you unpopular.
Not sure on cage traps but used to be you couldn't trap within 150meters of a non-consenting dwelling...
Good on ya for planting tho. More people should!

Who doesn’t love a dead Cat

Start pre- feeding them with a bait suitable for traps - lambs hearts cut in strips, then once they are hooked trap them with cage traps borrowed from the local council if they have a few. The traps fit into a wheelie bin full of water for baptism

try Ditch Keeling Coastal Pest Solutions good contact nice bloke very professional if he is unable to do it he may know some one who could

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Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Start pre- feeding them with a bait suitable for traps - lambs hearts cut in strips, then once they are hooked trap them with cage traps borrowed from the local council if they have a few. The traps fit into a wheelie bin full of water for baptism

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Suggest you have that post removed - it is illegal to drown an animal (pest or not).

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Originally Posted by Nickoli

Suggest you have that post removed - it is illegal to drown an animal (pest or not).

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Didnt mention or condone drowning

"Agripest" Might be a bit far from you, but could be worth a call.

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Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Didnt mention or condone drowning

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Own it, yes you did

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Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

try Ditch Keeling Coastal Pest Solutions good contact nice bloke very professional if he is unable to do it he may know some one who could

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Second this comment

Baptising cats is not drowning - I used to trap them when they were harassing my birds (cage bird breeder) and then put the cat in it's box trap, into an old bath (empty) I'd then throw cups of water at the cat until they got the point, when released they never came back.

If any one thinks that's cruel, I ask, If I had a predator that went next door and terrified someone's pets to the point, that the terrified pet would try and escape through the wire of it's enclosure, allowing the predator animal to tear it to shreds, with long claws through the wire, I think I'd be prosecuted.

Maybe I should get a Wolverine, hard to train I'm told...

i catch a few cats on my place, i use a cage trap. If you catch a domestic pet they cringe in the cage looking sorry but if you catch a wild one it hisses ,spits and runs around like richochet rabbit. they are easy to distinguish from each other. Also they are really hard to shoot with a 22 as the move so fast in the cage

Thanks for the suggestions fella’s. I’ll try the two pro’s suggested.

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Originally Posted by Gibo

Own it, yes you did

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I love the movie 'Oh brother where art thou'

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good old way
And who shall wear the robe and crown
Good Lord, show me the way!
O brothers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on brothers let's go down
Down in the river to pray
etc

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Originally Posted by MarkN

Baptising cats is not drowning - I used to trap them when they were harassing my birds (cage bird breeder) and then put the cat in it's box trap, into an old bath (empty) I'd then throw cups of water at the cat until they got the point, when released they never came back.

If any one thinks that's cruel, I ask, If I had a predator that went next door and terrified someone's pets to the point, that the terrified pet would try and escape through the wire of it's enclosure, allowing the predator animal to tear it to shreds, with long claws through the wire, I think I'd be prosecuted.

Maybe I should get a Wolverine, hard to train I'm told...

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Setting a garden sprinkler under the cage trap which is positioned with each end on a box for a night is also a good method which I have used to 'reform' a wayward cat

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Originally Posted by MarkN

Baptising cats is not drowning - I used to trap them when they were harassing my birds (cage bird breeder) and then put the cat in it's box trap, into an old bath (empty) I'd then throw cups of water at the cat until they got the point, when released they never came back.

If any one thinks that's cruel, I ask, If I had a predator that went next door and terrified someone's pets to the point, that the terrified pet would try and escape through the wire of it's enclosure, allowing the predator animal to tear it to shreds, with long claws through the wire, I think I'd be prosecuted.

Maybe I should get a Wolverine, hard to train I'm told...

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Good man! And I believe you are a good chef too, French or Italian?

Cats like birds but they like mouse more because it `s easy to catch on the ground and play with. The majority of people think is the cats killed and drove birds away, but never thought what if is because the 5G networks, station towers & radio waves, human activities that caused magnetic charges, a diesel power generator is not only generate electricity....I am cats owner for over 30 years so I know cats and I know what those scientists told on the TV is misleading, for them without new ideas, new projects, it means no budgets and personal gain, and that `s why "the bat lady" spend years in those remote caves to catch bats and invented SARS-Cov virus as known to the world now is Covid-19.

But if you ask me should we control the cats population, my answer is yes, we should and we must, start from to control and educate those people who treat cats like doll. except kill them, another way is to take away their natural habits, feed them with any food you have once a day. Wild cats only live up to 3 years, I never see one lived above 3.

I've trapped cats using cage traps for many years. I found wild rabbit to be the best bait.

Drowning cats is illegal, and trapping or killing people's domestic pets is also illegal, even if they are on your property. And your idea that domestic cats are a serious threat to native bird life is not backed by much science.

Wheres the popcorn eating emoji when you need it?

Cats - feral or domestic - eat birds when the opportunity arises. To say domestic cats dont do that just aint so. Cats are natures killing machine. A fancy collar does not remove the predator from the pet.

Actually there is plenty of examples of the damage domestic cats do to native species, this one comes to mind from Kaikoura. Undoubtably ferals do way more damage but a domestic model with a strong hunting instinct can still do an awful lot of slaying.
[URL="https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/123112899/banded-dotterel-slaying-a-devastating-loss-for-kaikura-study[/URL]

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Originally Posted by winchesterM69A

Wheres the popcorn eating emoji when you need it?

Cats - feral or domestic - eat birds when the opportunity arises. To say domestic cats dont do that just aint so. Cats are natures killing machine. A fancy collar does not remove the predator from the pet.

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The worst bit is that they don't even kill to eat. They torture things for sport. Nasty feckn things. (And cat owners "aw my little moggy bought me a present of this mangled corpse" ... sheesh)

There is plenty of evidence the damage domestic cats do.
If you let your kids do what cats do (fucking and fighting with the neighours, ripping up and shitting in their garden, roaming at all hours, torturing animals etc) you'd probably find yourself having a conversation with a government department about your unsuitability to have them!
#garethmorgan24 :D

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Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Didnt mention or condone drowning

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Only an illiterate would read it otherwise. I'm all for dispatching pests. However, I consider that it needs to be done ethically, just like game animals. Quick and clean.

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Originally Posted by Growlybear

Only an illiterate would read it otherwise. I'm all for dispatching pests. However, I consider that it needs to be done ethically, just like game animals. Quick and clean.

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An eight year old at Sunday school could explain the difference between a sacrifice and baptism. For the sacrifice of a cat in a cage trap, in an area that a firearm cannot be used, some disciples place the opening of the trap in a large sack and shake the cat into the sack and then finding the head use a heavy hammer after uttering "In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti"

Baptism in this context means frightening the domestic cat to such an extent that it never comes back when released

The only close neighbour neighbour I have has a big fat domestic cat. "Just stays around the house and grounds". My several trail cams tell a completely different picture. Wander in and out of our farm on a bi weekly basis, as far as 1.5km away from her house, one vid even shows it in 'hunting' stance.

They can't help their genes. They are a predator, plain and simple.

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Originally Posted by winchesterM69A

Wheres the popcorn eating emoji when you need it?

Cats - feral or domestic - eat birds when the opportunity arises. To say domestic cats dont do that just aint so. Cats are natures killing machine. A fancy collar does not remove the predator from the pet.

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I can tell you for free the numbers of birds that cats get are a fraction of the numbers of things that don't fly. And the numbers of birds that the average cat gets that are not of it's own kill are higher than you'd think. They might be natural predators but your average domestic is also as lazy as F and won't put in the effort required to seriously dent the bird population. Having said that you do get outliers like with any statistics, but locally the domestic cat population (with the appropriate motivation) does more to keep the rats in check than just about everything else that humans are doing - this is in a lifestyle block area which is one of the worst culprit landholding types for reservoir populations of rodents etc.

Rats do more damage to bird populations than cats - as they tackle the eggs which removes all chance for the breeding population to breed and also once the pairs are stressed they tend to move out of the area which creates more issues.

On the other hand, feral cats are utter bastards and there is no place for them on this god's green earth.

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Originally Posted by Growlybear

Only an illiterate would read it otherwise. I'm all for dispatching pests. However, I consider that it needs to be done ethically, just like game animals. Quick and clean.

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I can assure you, I'm not illiterate. But hey, suggesting the cage fits nicely in a wheely bin full of water (who want's to be "baptized" in a wheely bin?) would be interesting reading for those reading the forum who are truly "illiterate" and disagree with almost every other view expressed on this site.

We are surrounded by a cat owners, every few hundred metres there is a house with a cat or two. All owners have been schooled in what will happen to their pussy should it go onto neighbouring properties, especially the farm opposite us which is an award-winning native regeneration block with a zero tolerance policy (where I shot the goat yesterday). On our house block it will die either in a trap or by being Staffied.

Most of the non-cattish properties around here are running kill traps up in trees, catching both possums and cats and the occasional ferret. To date only one person has been uppity about the risk of their cat being disappeared, everyone else has been fine. It pays to be a matter of fact and straightforward.

The observation is that both domestic and feral cats are hunting rats & mice around buildings, birds relatively high up in trees (especially at this time of year) and rabbits & rats out on the farm. Cat sightings are followed up usually by me, firstly in an effort to shoot it and secondly to try and find evidence of what it’s been up to. I’ve found three small populations of feral cats within about half a kilometre radius of my house since 2016. In a dry culverts, under old building rubble and in the foundations under old dairy shed. I would say I shoot a cat in the open roughly every eight or nine months or so. Not a lot, way more are trapped then shot, primarily by the guy opposite us.

He uses the Alan SA2 trap. There’s no need to drown the cat after it’s been caught in one of these.

https://goodwood.nz/products/steve-a...trap-mechanism

Something that I’ve realised over the years is that farmers here in New Zealand are infamous for having their own private uncontrolled rubbish dumps, so they don’t have to take their rubbish into town. They dig a pit with the tractor and fill it up and try and burn it, which always fails and then they cover it up and dig another one. A lot of them are even happy just to throw the dead carcass over the bank just far enough away so that she can’t smell it indoors.

you know it’s true.

If you take a trail cam and go and check what is happening on your private rubbish dump at night, you will be unsurprised to learn that it is the favourite place of the NZ feral cat. Chockablock with rats and cats & ferrets chasing the rats. Pig dumps are the other favourite.

Sometimes I think that some of our farmers are deliberately trying to prop up the feral cat population… Man it gets up my nose.

Interesting. I read it as drowning the cat in a wheelie bin too and that the baptism comment was sarcasm.

Likewise I am not sure its legal to kill animals with a hammer If MPI statements on such are anything to go by.

Regardless of all that, no one needs to go down either route. Either trap them and take them too animals control spca etc for them too deal with, or use one of the very fine kill traps intended for the purpose, which would be the route Id take. Clean and efficient.
https://www.connovation.co.nz/collec...um-master-trap

The option is too use a cage trap if you are worried about domestic cats in the area and build a solid wood box of 5 sides that the trap can fit in ,for humaine dispatch via .22. The wood catching the bullet fragments from a suitable HP sub sonic projectile.

Something like this would be ideal.

https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfi..._hp/6-970.html

The other thought that pops into mind is that many of the possum cage traps that I used in the past are not quite strong enough for a full size feral cat and I have had a couple of big bugger bust out as I was approaching. Bent door the result.

Havahart Racoon traps are the go. Nothing escapes from them.

And they fit in a wheely bin - water optional

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Originally Posted by winchesterM69A

Havahart Racoon traps are the go. Nothing escapes from them.

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That bit, but not the other bit. Havahart traps are a quality USA made trap, cry once, not when the cat has escaped from a $50 special and is now impossible to catch.

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Originally Posted by whanahuia

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Likewise I am not sure its legal to kill animals with a hammer If MPI statements on such are anything to go by.

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Source for that? I know there was a muppet whopping cows in the head with a sledgie that got on the news a few years ago, but I dare say estwing has been the tool of choice for possum trappers since...well, possum traps.
Anything will die "humanely" if you destroy the brain stem, whether with a .50bmg, or a ballpoint pen. (I don't recommend either for trapped possums btw)

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Either trap them and take them too animals control spca etc for them too deal with,

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The spca, at least in town here, has a policy of not killing them, but "rehoming" them. So I do not consider that a solution at all.

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Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

An eight year old at Sunday school could explain the difference between a sacrifice and baptism. For the sacrifice of a cat in a cage trap, in an area that a firearm cannot be used, some disciples place the opening of the trap in a large sack and shake the cat into the sack and then finding the head use a heavy hammer after uttering "In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti"

Baptism in this context means frightening the domestic cat to such an extent that it never comes back when released

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Thanks for clarifying that, Padre.

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Originally Posted by 11mms

Source for that? I know there was a muppet whopping cows in the head with a sledgie that got on the news a few years ago, but I dare say estwing has been the tool of choice for possum trappers since...well, possum traps.
Anything will die "humanely" if you destroy the brain stem, whether with a .50bmg, or a ballpoint pen. (I don't recommend either for trapped possums btw)


The spca, at least in town here, has a policy of not killing them, but "rehoming" them. So I do not consider that a solution at all.

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Ill provide what I know, but to be fair, I did say Im not sure, and this is why.

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Trapping of Cats
The Act (see section 36) provides that for any trapped cat, the following obligations apply:
• any traps set must be checked daily within 12 hours after sunrise, commencing from the day after the trap is first set; and
• any cats caught must be attended to without delay.
Where practicable, it is recommended when trapping stray cats and cats in colonies that traps be checked
more frequently.
Any trapped cat must be provided with basic care to meet the requirements of the Act or be released if it is uninjured or be killed humanely if it is a feral cat. Any cat released back into a colony must be in sufficiently good health to be able to fend for itself, and have ongoing access to adequate food, water and shelter to meet its daily needs.
The Act (see section 141) provides that, where a stray cat is trapped and placed in the care of an approved organisation under the Act (such as the SPCA), that organisation must take reasonable steps to identify the owner of the cat, and may take steps to prevent or mitigate any suffering of the cat. If the owner of the cat cannot be identified then, after 7 days, the cat may be sold, found a new home or euthanased.


feral cat
For the purposes of this Code, means a cat which is not a stray cat and which has none of its needs provided by humans. Feral cats generally do not live around centres of human habitation. Feral cat population size fluctuates largely independently of humans, is self-sustaining and is not dependent on input from the companion cat population.
ill-treat
As defined in section 2 of the Act, “ill-treat”, in relation to an animal, means causing the animal to suffer, by any act or omission, pain or distress that in its kind or degree, or in its object, or in the circumstances in which it is inflicted, is unreasonable or unnecessary.

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Id suggest there is grounds there that might well cover hitting on the head with a hammer- given its unnecessary- But im not a lawyer and dont know fully how it would be interpreted.
Im also not sure if feral cats come under the pest classification that possums do either?

I wish our cat,or the neighbours or the ones up the street would catch the friggin tree frog (non native) that has decided our section is nice place to live,sits outside bedroom chirping away all night,they are size of top joint of your finger so not easy to find...multiple hosings of rhody bush we think its in seems to quieten it for a day of two then its back.
if our cat catches a bird,she wears collar with bell for rest of day......stays well away from them for weeks n weeks after that.HATES the collar.if I see her looking at birds,only have to jingle collar and she slinks inside.

Our cat was the arsehole off the neighbourhood. He only hunted other cats...

Cage trap and a suppressed 22 is the answer.

I had a feral cat bolt hole in our rented flat once. Ended up in behind the tv cabinet, from there into the kitchen cupboards up on the wall, feral stinky bastard. Ended up in the heavy welding gloves to try airmailing it out the door, got bitten on the finger through the gloves and the bastard touched bone. Into the heavy leather gloves, bastard bit me harder on the forefinger of the other hand, down to bone again and that was when it worked out it could hurt me.

From there it was war, the thing wasn't taking no for an answer and neither was I. Got the .22LR out and proceeded to try to corner the little arsehole. About 20 minutes of chase and hide and hiss and swear at each other, I ended up standing on it's head while the thing was trying to slice through my leather steelcapped work boot... Women, get me the gun! That dealt to the bastard - out the door, clean up the house and disinfect for 1/2 an hour then off for a tetanus shot and some precautionary advice for the two punctured fingers. Went to sort out the corpse the next morning, the stink had soaked into the concrete... The feral cat had an abcess on it's head that had taken an eye probably from a fight and it was on it's last legs. Good riddance... Next time I'd be smarter and grab the cray noose from the shed and deal to it with that while the gun was pulled out and assembled and fed.

Nothing more dangerous than a feral cat that's worked out it can hurt you - they are a flat no from me. Instant death sentence.

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Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

Drowning cats is illegal, and trapping or killing people's domestic pets is also illegal, even if they are on your property. And your idea that domestic cats are a serious threat to native bird life is not backed by much science.

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I am disgusted someone on this forum would put that out there - when you let tiddles out side what do you know or think that bird killer does hmmm - sun bathe - get bloody real

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Originally Posted by whanahuia

Ill provide what I know, but to be fair, I did say Im not sure, and this is why.



Id suggest there is grounds there that might well cover hitting on the head with a hammer- given its unnecessary- But im not a lawyer and dont know fully how it would be interpreted.
Im also not sure if feral cats come under the pest classification that possums do either?

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Cool cheers for the info. Always something to learn, and it has been -just a couple- of years since I've trapped at any real scale.

Pretty sure feral cats are a legislated pest. Even the quote you link differentiates "when trapping -stray- cats" and "killed humanely if it is -feral-"
and then also mentions "companion" (lol sure) cats.

Follow up... if whopping them in the nut is "un-necessary" ... how would you humanely despatch one, given the town setting?