Whoever kills the most will be rewarded: wild cat hunt open to children goes badly in New Zealand
|340 chats sauvages ont été abattus lors de l’événement. Envato Elements
Around 340 felines were slaughtered last weekend during an annual event intended in particular to regulate the population of small felines. Enough to trigger the anger of defenders of the animal cause.
“A certain vision of rural life”, comments Courrier International< /em>. In New Zealand, our colleagues report, 340 wild cats were slaughtered last weekend during a giant hunt which attracted 1,500 volunteers.
Special feature number one: almost a third of the participants were children under 14 years old. Special feature number two: the event could bring in several hundred euros. Almost 300 for the one who killed the greatest number of felines and more than 550 went into the pocket of the hunter who managed to trap the biggest cat.
Feral cat-killing competition that awards cash prizes to kids leaves nearly 400 animals dead https://t.co/28FPt8GGNR pic.twitter.com/8eBUeJ9Ut8
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This large-scale hunt is organized each year to regulate the presence of certain animals considered harmful which represent a danger for part of the local fauna. "The Feral and domestic cats pose a serious threat to New Zealand's biodiversity and native wildlife, explains The Guardian. These predators hunt endangered native birds and eggs, lizards, bats and insects."
The money raised during the event, approximately 34,000 euros, went to a school and a local swimming pool as well as the most deprived , adds 20 Minutes. According to Courrier International, most of the cats killed were domestic animals that had returned to the wild after being abandoned.