Cat plan a fair ask of owners

Wellington City Council has been flirting all year with new controls on the city’s cats. This week the council passed a bylaw making it compulsory for owners to microchip their cats. The policy is meant to make it easier to identify owned cats as opposed to stray ones – so the latter can be re-homed or euthanased.

That, in turn, should be an aid to Wellington’s rebounding native bird population.

On the other hand, the council dropped further interventions it had initially considered: compulsory desexing; a campaign encouraging a 7pm-7am curfew for cats; and a limit (to three) on the number of cats a household could own.

So the councillors have only dipped their toe into the rough waters of feline regulation.

That is fair enough. The move is a good first step. It is far from meaningless – cat sceptic (and surely the person most responsible for the new policy) Gareth Morgan calls it ‘‘the big one’’ for a council.

It is not too cumbersome a burden for cat owners – half already do microchip their cats, while the rest ought to be able to shoulder the $30-$60 cost of getting it done. It’s part of the price of responsible ownership.

It also enjoys wide support – the SPCA backs it, and the council says that 80 per cent of cat owners believe it is a good idea.

Even so, there is some opposition. Cat-lover Kent Duston is promising a legal challenge. Despite having his own cats microchipped, he believes the council is stepping outside its mandate with the rule.

That is a legal question, so let the lawyers sort it out. It should be hoped that the council has some confidence in its position.

Regardless, Duston’s challenge is a taste of what could be to come if the council looks at more restrictions in the future.

Morgan has previously encouraged curfews and leashes for cats outside, and likened the species to ‘‘mini-tigers’’. He believes that the Government’s ambitious target of a predator-free New Zealand by 2050 will be meaningless without seriously tackling cats.

But New Zealand still has one of the higher rates of cat ownership in the world, and many owners feel intense devotion to their animals.

The truth is that there is a clash here, and its effects are still to be fully felt. As ever, the specific, personal loss faced by a large group will probably outweigh the more diffuse benefit of a city full of birds.

But perhaps the way around this is gradual change. The council says mandatory desexing of cats also gained wide support in its recent surveys, so that might be a reasonable next step – many dog owners already do that on their own initiative.

After that, household limits might be on the table. Perhaps along the way, more Wellingtonians might assess their own priorities, decide they value the birds most, and make the individual decision to refrain from taking on a cat.

That might be easier than trying to give a cat a life indoors, for instance, or vainly trying to stop it from hunting outside.

For now, this is still a city full of cats, as well as birds. Microchipping is a reasonable imposition on owners.

Further restrictions on cats will be harder to pass.