A bloody competition in which New Zealand children are encouraged to trap and kill wild cats has produced its biggest haul yet, with nearly 400 animals dead.
More than 1,500 people took part in this year’s event, held north of the South Island city of Christchurch, with 440 of those taking part aged under 14 years.
The event, as in past years, has been met with a storm of protest from animal lovers while being staunchly defended by its organisers, who include the farmer Matt Bailey.
“Out here in the country, we do things a bit differently,” Bailey said on Tuesday, saying the publicity generated by protesters has “been the best thing that has happened to the competition”.
He said New Zealand’s feral cats were dangerous beasts. “These are possessed by the devil or like the devil on methamphetamine. These are feral wild beasts,” Bailey told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday after competitors killed more than 370 cats.
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“They will try and attack you, if you get your hand near the cage, they will try and have you, you can see the evil in their eyes.”
One man killed 65 cats, landing him the $500 (£240) prize in the weekend competition for the largest number of cats killed, while the biggest dead cat earned a prize of $1,000 (£479).
The cat hunters also clashed with animal rights protesters who said they were forced to flee when children threw rocks at them.
A video provided by the Animal Save Movement showed footage of a child dragging a dead cat through an obstacle course.
Bailey said the event’s organisers were a group of farmers in the North Canterbury region who donated to their local school and to those in need.
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Feral cats prey on New Zealand’s native birds and eggs, lizards, bats and insects. The nation has one of the world’s highest rates of cat ownership per capita, with close to half of households owning a moggie. Cats are thought to be responsible for the deaths of up to 100 million birds annually in New Zealand.
The competition started as a local wild pig-hunting competition, later extended to include cats as farmers noticed their growing numbers. Participants also shoot deer, pigs, ducks, possums and rabbits.
“The cat side of it started as a meeting in a woolshed, we’d had a few beers and someone said, ‘oh, there’s a few more cats than the previous year and we didn’t have a category for them, let’s put them in,’” Bailey told Radio New Zealand.
“It’s nothing new to us, but unfortunately, New Zealand is a cat-loving country, so we’ve had controversy from different groups,” he said.
The cats were caught in box traps, which must be placed 10km (6 miles) from any residential areas, and the traps were checked everyday. A .22 calibre rifle is used to kill captured cats.
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Bailey said new laws were needed to stop people dumping unwanted cats in the countryside.
“They just turn up on the side of the road, so people coming out of Christchurch are just discarding these animals, thinking they’re doing the right thing because they don’t have the money to put them down,” he said.
In response to videos of children wearing animal costumes with the words “Animal Slay Movement” printed on them, Bailey said that was “just a bit of a laugh”.
“We’re just letting the kids do what they wanna do. Protesters can turn up and think they can say what they wanna say. We’re not too worried about their feelings,” he said.
