CAT FEEDING FURORE

Michael from Trentham

Cats within a suburb in Christchurch are getting fed by a neighbour or neighbours and within some of the food given are poisonous substances enough to kill some of them and make others seriously ill requiring vet attention.

This is bad and sad.

People should never feed a cat unless they know for sure that the cat is an absolute stray who is extremely and obviously hungry. I know it is difficult for some people to resist.

Less than dogs, but nonetheless, cats can suffer from food allergies and so these allergies can be from any one of the proteins (meats) or in fact all protein as well as many other types of food. So a person who feeds a wandering cat may be harming the cat seriously simply through lack of knowledge in not being the owner of the cat. Same thing here in giving a cat "treats".

Of course, giving a cat food often means that the cat will use your property as a second home.

The other thing is double dipping on food ie - the owner and a neighbour, can create unwanted obesity in a cat.

One of my son's experienced a Siamese cat coming into his stand-alone flat and he said that he didn't have any food to give the cat. Thank goodness for that. It is 100% unlikely that an expensive Siamese cat in any case is a stray.

There is a cat problem where everyone lives in NZ (there are a million cats here) apart from any new housing areas where cats are banned. There is a cat problem growing in the Wallaceville Estate in Wallaceville. More than twice a week, someone is missing their cat is one issue. Just recently on three occasions I noticed an almost pure white coated cat coming through my fenced property late at night - well into the time a cat should be kept indoors in their own owner's property.