Cats in Whangarei District to be desexed and microchipped

The Team from Whangarei District Council

Due to very popular demand over many years, our new rules for cats requiring them to be microchipped and desexed come into effect today. 🐈

Good for cats 😻✅
Good for critters! 🦎✅

Our Health and Bylaws Manager, Reiner Mussle, has been part of the team to put this together. “Desexing cats will cut down on unwanted litters and strays which prey on native birds and lizards to survive. Desexed cats are also less likely to roam and get injured fighting with other cats. Cats' microchips registered with Companion Animals New Zealand can be returned more easily if they get lost.”

We’ll be taking an educative approach to this issue rather than taking a hard line with enforcement. This means working with owners to encourage them to microchip, register and desex their cats, and connecting them with other community resources to do this if needed. It’s about encouraging responsible cat ownership.

During the recent review of our Animals Bylaw the public

told us they wanted greater controls for cats. We received over 1300 submissions about cats, with very strong support for cat microchipping and desexing 🙀

Read more on our new webpage for Responsible cat ownership .