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Nearly 400 feral cats have reportedly been killed in a controversial New Zealand culling competition.
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The annual hunt allows children and adults to kill mainly feral cats for cash prizes although deer, pigs, ducks, possums and rabbits are also on the hit list, the New York Post reported.
The U.K. Times reported that over 1,500 people, including 440 children, participated in this year’s event despite backlash that greets the hunt each year.
Animal rights groups like the Animal Justice Party think there are other ways to manage the feral cat population including a trap-and-neuter program.
But Hunt organizer Matt Bailey defended the event and called the country’s feral cat population “possessed by the devil.”
“Out here in the country, we do things a bit differently,” Bailey said on Tuesday after the event.
Bailey added the publicity generated by protesters has “been the best thing that has happened to the competition. These (feral cats) are possessed by the devil or like the devil on methamphetamine. These are feral wild beasts. They will try and attack you, if you get your hand near the cage, they will try and have you, you can see the evil in their eyes.”
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One person dispatched of 65 cats, winning the $500 prize for the most cats killed in the process while a $1,000 prize for the largest dead cat was also awarded.
The competition led to a clash between protesters and hunters with the former saying they were forced to leave when children began throwing rocks at them.
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The event originally began as a local wild pig hunt but eventually included feral cats as farmers noticed their growing population.
The hunt sees feral cats caught in box traps and a .22-calibre rifle used to kill them with safeguarding in place to prevent domesticated cats from being killed.
According to Bailey, people need to stop leaving unwanted cats in the countryside and new laws are required to enforce that from happening.
“They just turn up on the side of the road, so people coming out of Christchurch are just discarding these animals, thinking they’re doing the right thing because they don’t have the money to put them down,” he said.
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