![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\/571f8a3f-2940-4491-9a41-bf5ea60daa95.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn a nation of cat lovers, it was a decision New Zealand\u2019s political leaders had long put off.<\/p>\n
However, that changed on Thursday with the announcement that feral cats would finally be added to the government\u2019s official hit list of invasive species it is seeking to eradicate by 2050. <\/p>\n
Describing feral cats as \u201cstone-cold killers\u201d, the conservation minister, Tama Potaka, said they would \u201cjoin their buddies\u201d stoats, ferrets, weasels, rats and possums on the Predator Free 2050 list.<\/p>\n
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Tama Potaka<\/p>\n
HAGEN HOPKINS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
He said the apex predators were responsible for killing birds, bats, lizards and insects and will now be targeted as part of a government-sanctioned extermination programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to boost biodiversity, to boost heritage landscape and to boost the type of place we want to see, we\u2019ve got to get rid of some of these killers,\u201d he told the public broadcaster, RNZ. <\/p>\n
The decision has been billed as a change of tack by the centre-right coalition government, led by the prime minister, Christopher Luxon.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Istanbul\u2019s stray cats have sadly become victims of their own success<\/a><\/p>\n He had promised to include feral cats on the hit list during a leader\u2019s debate in 2023 but was thought to have shied away from the commitment amid fears of a public backlash in a country where almost half of households are cat-owners. <\/p>\n The Predator Free 2050 list was conceived in 2016 as part of a major conservation initiative to protect native species, introduced by Luxon\u2019s National Party predecessor Sir John Key. The goal was to provide funding and strategy at a national level to exterminate invasive predators<\/a> responsible for wiping out native bird, reptile and invertebrate populations.<\/p>\n Since its inception, only possums, rats and mustelids \u2014 stoats, ferrets and weasels \u2014 have featured on the list. But conservationists complained that feral cats, arguably the most destructive predator of them all, had been a glaring omission.<\/p>\n Many New Zealanders had baulked at the idea of culling cats like common pests<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n It is legal to kill feral cats in New Zealand, as they are not a protected species and considered a pest. Killing, typically by trapping and shooting, must be done humanely. <\/p>\n Many local authorities already have their own cat-extermination programmes, but residents are often forced to take matters into their own hands. Some communities in rural areas even hold controversial feral cat hunting competitions, with children allowed to take part.<\/p>\n Cats were brought over to New Zealand in the late 1700s by European settlers, who used them to hunt rats and mice aboard sea vessels. Since then, they have spread across the country. Today, New Zealand\u2019s feral cat population is estimated at anywhere between 2.4 million and 14 million.<\/p>\n In New Zealand, as around the world, they have been linked to the extinction of several species of native bird, the most famous being the flightless Lyall\u2019s wren. <\/p>\n![\"Abandoned](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\/4916a3bb-8269-43b4-a9cc-6f22226905b8.jpg\")
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