We are against Compulsory Micro-Chipping, Curfews and Cat Rangers

CATS OR RATS? WHICH DO YOU PREFER, NEW ZEALAND?

Don’t let micro-chipping and curfews for cats become compulsory!

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There are people who say: “So what? If Micro-chipping for cats was compulsory – isn’t that a good thing? Then lost or stolen cats and their owners can be reunited, can’t they?”

Well, let’s put it this way: If this was the only effect, like in the statement that “stop smoking improves your health”, then yes, let’s go for it.

But there is more to consider:

Trusting in compulsory Micro-chipping is dangerous. Because it opens the door to kill all lost, stray cats who are not chipped. Compulsory Micro-chipping would be a death sentence for strays!

Imagine your own cat – although chipped, the moment she leaves your home and property, she will become more or less “stray” and fair game for all cat haters. The highly praised chip will not protect her from being killed. In fact, any micro-chipped, but nevertheless unwelcome cat can be destroyed and disposed of without any consequences – like before when there was no mandatory micro-chipping.

Would you like your beloved pet end up like this unlucky one who was caught by Bay Bush Action Group?

 

 

Not all scanners are created equal. Some are better than others at reading a wide variety of microchips. That means: A pet may get lost, found, scanned and euthanised if the scanner comes up ‘empty’.

On our blog page is a message from a supporter in
Whangarei who had her cat microchipped to access the Cat door.

This is only one of several  instances of a cat not being able to access
the house due to a faulty chip. In another instance of three microchipped cats
in a house, each cat was scanned and one who could not open the door returned with “no ID” on the scanner. Vets are aware that microchips fail, local vet
Alan Probert commented on this issue back as early as October
2012 here:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/119027/vet-concerned-at-faulty-microchips

or read what Veterinarian Roger Barnard from Kerikeri  has to say and compare it with our latest urgent news about failed microchips:

” Microchips placed into animals can be useful for identification, but there have been failures: Some expel from the animal soon after insertion, some fail to be read at some later date because of manufacturing failure and movement of the microchip to other parts of the body.”

What is then the point of having your cat micro-chipped if you can’t get him back?

By the way, there is always the possibility to tax Companion Cats once they are registered.

And what about curfews for cats?

Just imagine farm cats: How would they ‘work’? Contained and under a 24 hour or nightly curfew as often suggested? To such an extent restricted, their help to get farms rid of vermin would certainly be made impossible. Any farm cat has to be free roaming, which implies of course at least a certain ‘stray effect’. Moreover, many farm cats are actually stray – in the term’s true sense, as they only come home for their daily milk allowance, their tucker, and a cuddle from the farmer’s kids. Therefore it is very important to adhere to the 3 approved categories of cats (see Animal Welfare Act): Companion, Stray and Feral.

Dr John Flux, a New Zealand Zoologist and Ecologist, says: “Keeping cats indoors at night is the completely wrong thing to do if we want to protect birdlife in our towns and cities. Cats catch rodents rather than birds at night, and rodents are a much bigger threat to birds”.

When a cat has caught 10 rats, she has in fact saved the lives of hundreds of birds.

Doesn’t this ratio allow cats to catch a bird now and then? Especially considering our own devastating human impact on nature?

And there is something else:

Let’s call it the patronising of our society because of the authorities’ increasing distrust in the majority of their citizens. Don’t you believe that we know best what’s good for our family members? Without the interference of others?