Phil’s backyard cat battle
Phil Evans is tired of cats tormenting his pet birds, so he’s trapping them and drenching them with water.
The heavy-handed tactics have some calling for the Hamilton cat catcher to be cuffed.
But he is unrepentant and wants authorities to join his battle.
Evans keeps four parrots and nine Japanese quail in an outdoor, headheight aviary attached to the back of his flat in Dinsdale.
If Hamilton animal control is open, Evans will hand the nefarious felines over. If it’s shut, he soaks the cat with a hose and leaves it caged outside for the night.
In the morning, he switches the hose to jet, releases the cat and blasts it off the property.
He’s trapped 11 cats in the past six months. Three have gone to animal control.
‘‘It is constant. Every night I have to protect the birds,’’ he says.
The 53-year-old is unemployed and lives alone. The birds are family.
‘‘What’s that? I can’t hear you,’’ he says to Pluk, resting on his shoulder. The parrot responds to him with about 15 words and phrases.
Evans knows all his parrots’ personalities in detail. Yoda will raise a tentative foot for a stranger’s finger. Pluk refuses to have his wings touched. Jakey loves to have his head scratched, but only if you tell him it’s coming. Snowball is the touchiest of the lot.
The cats can’t get into the aviary, but they wedge themselves against the wire, frightening the birds and occasionally snagging one. They also spray and poo on his lawn.
The trapping started last September, after he heard a panicked screech.
A quail, startled by a large tabby, got caught in the wire. The cat ripped its leg off and left it on the grass. ‘‘I just about about threw up.’’ Evans couldn’t save the bird and couldn’t bear to kill it. He filled a shoebox with tissue paper to make it comfortable and paid a vet to put it down. That’s when he bought the traps. He’s wrapped weed mat around the bottom of the aviary to obstruct a cat’s view of the birds, plugged holes and erected a wire fence.
‘‘I’ve contained my pets, but [neighbourhood] cats can come and s... on my property,’’ he says.
Evans expressed his frustrations in a presentation to council earlier this month, asking for a letter to be sent to all ratepayers to remind cat owners of their obligations.
Hamilton City Council’s bylaw says animal owners must ensure pets don’t create a nuisance to others. If a wandering cat is brought into council, the owner is advised how to keep better tabs on it.
Other councils have firmer cat-control bylaws.
Wellington City Council requires cats to be microchipped.
South Waikato District Council, Porirua City Council and Whangarei District Council require pets to be contained on an owner’s property.
Evans wants to see Hamilton City Council’s bylaw amended to include a curfew from 7pm to 7am.
If a cat is caught outside during curfew, the owner ought to be fined immediately, he says.
Cat owners should contain their pets and be compelled to desex them.
‘‘I’d like to be able to enjoy my birds, not have traps on my lawn.’’
Rachael Maher, owner of Hamilton’s Paws 4 Life animal shelter, says Evans should be arrested for animal cruelty.
‘‘What he’s doing is criminal. He’s basically stealing other people’s cats.’’
You can’t keep cats to a single property, she says. Evans needs to work harder to make his aviary predatorproof.
‘‘If you have an aviary where an animal can get to it, it probably will. It’s the food chain.’’
A good cat owner will have cats microchipped, registered, collared and in the house at night.
‘‘He’s completely nutting off in the wrong direction.
‘‘Council does a fantastic job of dog control, but they’re not cat control. It’s not what the ratepayers pay council to do.’’
Council has taken on board one of Evans’ suggestions.
City growth manager Kelvyn Eglinton says writing to all ratepayers isn’t realistic, but council will try to reach cat owners via social media and its newsletter.
Eglinton says trapping of cats is legal and Evans is doing it with the approved gear. He said council was unaware of Evans hosing the cats.
‘‘Not everyone would agree that every cat is a predator. These are the balancing things that we’ve got to consider.
‘‘Cat-approved trapping cages are available [for rent] and we would hope that people would use those if they have an issue.’’
Council staff have also visited Evans and discussed ways he could better secure his property.
In December 2016, council began taking in stray cats after the closure of the Hamilton SPCA. Animal control has since received complaints from two residents regarding nuisance cats, including Evans. Further cat-control measures will be discussed in six months. Those measures might depend on how many people bring in cats.
‘‘At this point, they’re waiting to see the result of that service [of receiving cats].’’
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