Animal Lovers Web Forum

There is a children's section to the feral cat killing competition in New Zealand. Children can win prizes for killing the most cats.
There are no safeguards to ensure that the killing will be done humanely. Many cats will suffer cruel and prolonged deaths.
Yes, New Zealand has a serious feral cat problem and something must be done to protect native wildlife. Paying children to kill the cats is not a good solution.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/a...s-backlash

Certainly there will be cruelty to animals. It just goes with this kind of competition.
I also wonder what it does to children to involve them in an animal killing contest. 
Some will be deeply upset by their involvement. Hopefully most will be upset. They should be upset.
I worry more about the kids that enjoy the killing contest.  That is not going to end well for them or anyone else.
I am shocked that New Zealand in allowing this.

I was just about to post about this - but saw that you had already done so, Catherine. Ironically, this event is a fundraiser for a school! See:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65320162
The feral cat problem has been discussed several times on this forum. TNR is the obvious answer. Yes, it would need money to fund the trained staff, but that must be better than encouraging young children to roam about shooting what they *think* might be feral cats. How can one be sure if a cat is feral or not, anyway? Allowing young children to roam the country taking pot shots is dangerous and misguided, apart from being morally repulsive. They will grow into adults who have no respect for animal lives.

No doubt they need to do something to solve the problem but this is disgraceful I can't imagine the effect it would have on the children,if it was my child I wouldn't give permission for it.

I wouldn't want any child I know to be involved with a hunting contest, especially hunting cats.
I don't know what they can do about the cat situation. Have children kill them is not the answer.