Gareth Morgan fires the first shot of WWIII

[dragontamer]

Cats, depending on how they are being looked after have always been a problem to not only native species but any species of small bird, rodent, insects etc .... this has been talked about for many many yrs reality ..

Talk and proof are two different things.  http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/8180514/Cats-not-NZs-main-culprit-killers  Granted they will take the easy prey, but rats, stoats, ferrets, pigs and *shock, horror* dogs do more damage. 

I think that cats should be spayed/ neutered unless a breeder owns it.

Were the quails native?

[donquixotenz]

Although I respect gareth I feel he is on a loser with this.
Registration does not work with dogs and would be impossible to achieve with any lasting effect.  Urban and mainland erradication or neutering progroms will not be effective as feral cats from areas outside quickly repopulate areas targeted and an universal hit nationally at same time is not viable or even logisticaly possible.
DoC programs on off shore islands although costly have had some sucess as they are isolated by water but have taken major manhours and related costs. And poison baits used on the mainland and bush areas have been ineffective with some danger to wildlife.

http://www.feralcat.com/sarah2.html

sorry gareth this boat is sunk........................

[dragontamer]

dragon...."going by the last few pearls they've reported from him...."

...oh no..whats he been saying now?

Google is your friend... but by the by he's become an expert on sport, and he said everyone should rent and let the rich guys buy the houses. 

[reality]

dragon..." he said everyone should rent and let the rich guys buy the houses. "

...would you be able to tell me where that was reported?

[dragontamer]

dragon..." he said everyone should rent and let the rich guys buy the houses. "

...would you be able to tell me where that was reported?

It was TV1 a couple of months ago.  And I did paraphrase.  I'm sure you can work it out though. 

[reality]

its not that I dont believe you...but I find it hard to believe that he would say that..perhaps its your edited version ...or taken out of context

[dragontamer]

Property developers should buy the properties and rent it to the people.  People shouldn't buy homes blah, blah, blah.  Save for retirement (investing with his companies of course) blah blah blah. 

Of course if you chose that path good on you.  But if you can be mortgage free by retirement, you're saving a lot of outgoings pa, and its an asset if you need cash, and he neglected to mention those bits.

[Lovelee]

Cats, depending on how they are being looked after have always been a problem to not only native species but any species of small bird, rodent, insects etc .... this has been talked about for many many yrs reality ..

Talk and proof are two different things.  http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/8180514/Cats-not-NZs-main-culprit-killers  Granted they will take the easy prey, but rats, stoats, ferrets, pigs and *shock, horror* dogs do more damage. 

I think that cats should be spayed/ neutered unless a breeder owns it.

Were the quails native?

We have a trapper lives here in the village and he keeps out anything feral ... the cats (2) were left here by a renter who shifted out and left them behind.  It was within 4 months that the quail were gone, then someone complained about the cats and he came down our end and got them.

I dont have the faintest idea if they were native, they are sooo cute waddling along about 5 - 7 behind mum & dad

[Lovelee]

I havent read this ... but was it in this article

http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/61892/gareth-morgans-blindingly-obvious-five-point-housing-plan-new-zealand-your-view

[reality]

sounds like he may have some good ideas there...the govt will be looking at everything that can improve house ownership I think

[Ferney]

Gareth must have too much money and not enough to do.  Good one NOT...get rid of all cats and we'll be infested with rats and mice.
I love cats and would have 10 if I had the space.      In the last 20 years my cats have only killed one bird.  My daughter lives by bush out Hunua way and her cats have only ever brought home rabbits and rats.

[Calliope]

We have two cats and neither of them has ever caught anything. We feed the birds on the railing of the deck and the cats just sit underneath the rail doing nothing. The birds are not afraid of them and they make no attempt to catch them. As for the birds - well we have minah's, sparrows, thrush, blackbird, grey warbler, bellbird, tui, wood pigeon, wax eye, and from time to time a visiting family of quail so fat they would make a nice meal. The cat's are just not interested.

[Newtown-Fella]

sorry but no animal is worth spending big dollars on to keep it alive and active ...

Pets who rule the roost: Blacky the wheelchair cat


OUTSIDE STROLL: Blacky the cat uses his wheelchair to zoom around the backyard.


Blacky the wheelchair cat

 My cat Blacky is proof that love and belief can change the life of one animal.

Blacky is a one-eyed cat due to an ulcer that ruptured in his eye. Several years later he was hit by a car and left with spinal nerve damage and paralysis in his rear legs and bladder. However, he can now feel his legs if you tickle them.

Just last year Blacky had perineal urethrostomy surgery because his bladder kept blocking. The surgery was a success and while he doesn't have his male bits anymore, he's still a boy.

Blacky's life has been spoilt rotten. He's the only cat with a wheelchair in New Zealand that we know of and he's been a bit of a celebrity on TV and radio.

Read the story of how Blacky got his wheelchair here. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4038687/Blacky-the-cat-gets-his-wheels

We'd like to thank everyone that helped fund his wheels. We're very grateful to Paw Justice, Trade Me and all our special friends.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/pets-who-rule-the-roost/8207512/Pets-who-rule-the-roost-Blacky-the-wheelchair-cat

[Lovelee]

aww hes a lucky cat ... his Mum & Dad must have enough money to be able to care for him in this way.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

PETER CALDER: Morgan puts cat among the pigeons

Calder At Large

The New Zealand Herald | 5:30AM - Wednesday, January 23, 2013


The problem is that it's rubbish. Unless you are in the habit of sealing
that cat-flap at sunset, your cat is out much of the night, ranging over
an area of more than 50ha killing for recreation. — Photo: APN.

IN THE still of the night, a sudden anguished screech shatters the still air. But there's no point investigating.

The explanation is wearyingly familiar and the creature in question is now well beyond help, a bird clamped tight in the jaws of a killer.

"It wouldn't have been my cat," the young woman next door says the next morning, when I mention the midnight marauder. "She spends all night curled up on the foot of the bed."

It's the standard denial response of many animal-lovers when confronted with the damage wrought by their beloved pets. The problem is that it's rubbish. Unless you are in the habit of sealing that cat-flap at sunset, your cat is out much of the night, ranging over an area of more than 50ha killing for recreation. And its victims are almost certainly birds.

These are just some of the facts that economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan is rubbing our noses in as part of his campaign to eradicate cats from the country.

The very idea sounds not so much outrageous as heretical. Keeping at least one cat is seen as a Kiwi birthright. But Morgan wants that to change. And his eponymous foundation has employed researchers to do some number-crunching that tells a sobering story.

New Zealand's 1.6 million households are home to 1.4 million cats. Cats bring home 13 pieces of prey a year, but that's only one in five of their kill. Do the arithmetic.

The real psycho killers are feral cats, but their populations are descended from abandoned or lost domestic cats. And both varieties share the same bloodlust; cats are the only animals that kill exclusively for pleasure, the campaign says.

Morgan says he's ready for the opprobrium that will be heaped upon him, but he's not advocating wholesale extermination.

"I am not suggesting people bop their pets on the head," he says.

"But a responsible cat owner will have the cat neutered, microchipped and keep it indoors. And when the cat dies I think people should consider not replacing it."

The "make this cat your last" proposal is not, in fact, as serious as it gets. Essentially, Morgan is looking for a withdrawal of the social permission that has been granted to cats, much in the same way as it was withdrawn, in the space of less than a generation, for smokers.

We would agree to agree that straying cats are destructive trespassers and trapping them is a socially responsible act that should be encouraged. That calls for leadership from local and central government: "If a cat comes on to my property," says Morgan, "I can trap it — these aren't gin traps, after all; they're humane cages — and take it to the council. If it's chipped, the owner gets fined. If it's not chipped, the cat is euthanased."

If all that sounds drastic, Morgan wants you to consider the alternative.

"New Zealand's unique ecology is a massive asset," he says.

"It's not just because we love hugging trees or seeing tui flying by. The more polluted the world becomes, the more valuable a place like this becomes because of its ecological assets. For me as an economist, the question is how can we capitalise on it."

"If you foster this asset it will be a place that talent wants to come and live and talent makes income and jobs."

The argument about how pure "100 per cent Pure" really is aside, this country has invested and continues to invest millions in re-establishing native bird populations. Eco-sanctuaries like Zealandia in Wellington and Maungatautari near Cambridge are testaments to a deep-seated belief that the dawn chorus that deafened Joseph Banks on the Endeavour ("the most melodious wild musick I have ever heard," he called it, "the most tuneable silver sound imaginable") should not be allowed to fall silent. Morgan's unimpressed.

"These eco-sanctuaries are nothing less than the most expensive cat food factories in the world. What the hell is the point in having all of these conservation projects, in pissing private and public money into these things, if the birds fly out of them and get slaughtered."

Morgan flew to China on Monday night to a family wedding. He chuckled when I suggested this would be a good week to be out of the country.

"I'll be back for round two," he says cheerily. "I've got another angle on all this once I see how round one goes."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10860823

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Crusader]

So I take it if he ever wanted to rename the Wellington Pheonix it won't be to something like Tigers, Lions, Bobcats etc?

[ssweetpea]

I think my profile pic adequately states which side of the debate I fall on.

What I have discovered is if I don't have cats or a cat that hunts (my current two boarder on incompetent) I have mice and rats and not the cute pet shop variety.

Both my cats have belled collars and name tags, which cuts down the bird kill rate considerably.

Bobby is micro chipped, I am happy to micro chip teen aged Sally if the need arises.

I am happy to register them.

To keep them indoors would require me to close the doors, which ain't happening in summer.

If I am not allowed to let them run outside I will build an aviary style enclosed outdoor space attached to the house.

If you want to ban cats you have to ban dogs as well for exactly the same reasons.

[reality]

Bwuss...."In other words, he shit all over other people in order to enrich himself at their expense."

...no doubt..being the most intelligent rail worker in the whole of Wankerton..you will have evidence you can give us about the allegation you make...feel free..please share

and while your at it....please share your thoughts about this

..yes..I agree...i would just say that i do find his comments interesting...i never knew anything about cats being a big problem to native species before..
i imagine that the Greenies( bruss and his clan)...will be right behind  Gareth Morgan  (the capitalist) on this...what a sight that will be

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Oooooooh.....it must be that time of the afternoon when the IDIOT gets let out of the rubber room and is given computer privileges.

I guess this means several hours of unintelligent bullshit from the person who calls himself Reality, yet has no sense of actual reality whatsoever.

I suppose the amount of meds he has/hasn't taken will determine just how fucked-up his posts will be.

I wonder if the IDIOT has learnt to spell Crusader yet, or if his inherent stupidity is standing in the way of him achieving that simple task?

[reality]

Bwuss..thanks for the compliments ..you are too kind..but there is still the matter of you running from this...

Bwuss...."In other words, he shit all over other people in order to enrich himself at their expense."

...no doubt..being the most intelligent rail worker in the whole of Wankerton..you will have evidence you can give us about the allegation you make...feel free..please share

and while your at it....please share your thoughts about this

..yes..I agree...i would just say that i do find his comments interesting...i never knew anything about cats being a big problem to native species before..
i imagine that the Greenies( bruss and his clan)...will be right behind  Gareth Morgan  (the capitalist) on this...what a sight that will be

[Lovelee]

you dont read much if u didnt know cats can be a problem to other wildlife.

[reality]

...nah...i work...some poor bastards got to pay for all the people who are non productive ...but still want to live

[reality]

and Bruss...just while i've got you there...

Bwuss...."In other words, he shit all over other people in order to enrich himself at their expense."

...no doubt..being the most intelligent rail worker in the whole of Wankerton..you will have evidence you can give us about the allegation you make...feel free..please share

and while your at it....please share your thoughts about this

..yes..I agree...i would just say that i do find his comments interesting...i never knew anything about cats being a big problem to native species before..
i imagine that the Greenies( bruss and his clan)...will be right behind  Gareth Morgan  (the capitalist) on this...what a sight that will be