Previews – FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015

SocietyJune 25, 2019

‘They’re not rampaging down Queen St. Yet.’ Auckland’s lead rat hunter speaks

Contributing writer
Previews – FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015

It was the story that circled the globe – giant rats, writhing across Titirangi. But rats were here long before it was fashionable or “newsworthy” – as were rat hunters. Don Rowe talks to Phil Brown, Auckland Council’s head of biosecurity about the realities of fighting rats in the big smoke. 

Last week I journeyed west from Spinoff HQ, deep into the forested hamlet of Titrangi village in search of rodents. There I found an infestation – not of drum circles, yogis or chakra prophets, but fat, wet, Norway rats. They scuttled and scampered, twisting over one another to grasp at husks of grain left out for the village chickens. But the patchouli rats infesting Colin McCahon’s old turf aren’t the only vermin plaguing the nation. From Whangarei to Wellington, Cambridge to Christchurch, the nation is facing a mast season like we’ve never experienced. And as conservationists are warning, the warmer things get, the more mast seasons we’ll face. These would be beneficial to native birds in a better time, but every pink rat fetus squirted onto the pavement in our rapidly warming climate is another juvenile rodent thriving on the flesh of young tui, pīwakawaka and kererū.

Like any war, the council is utilising a combined arms approach, poisoning and trapping vermin in their thousands. More than $30m has been set aside to deal with the ecological fallout of this, one of our hugest mast seasons, but a scorched earth strategy remains both impractical and politically unpalatable, with household pets and natives too vulnerable.

I spoke to Phil Brown, Auckland Council’s head of biodiversity, about the reality of the front line of pest control this mast season.

Phil, what’s the latest on the plague? How bad are things on the ground?

We’re growing our biosecurity team as fast as possible, but a lot of the talk at the moment is how do we also grow our biosecurity programme so that more Aucklanders can do a better job of protecting our wildlife from rats. That capability is what I’m focusing on, but our teams are out there dealing with the rat issue, which is obviously pretty bad.

Recently my in-laws bought a house that’s a bit rural and the rats were so big and numerous that they were creating paths across the lawn so you could see during the day where they’d been running at night. The first night I went out I was going to be the big man and get in amongst these rats, but they were climbing out of every hole and on every tree and I had to go back inside to get my dog to come back out again because the rats were so big I was slightly worried for my safety. I don’t know if it’s quite got to that stage in Titirangi but it sounds like people are concerned that’s the way it’s heading.

What about in the CBD? It’s more bush out there in Titirangi, but what’s happening in the city?

I think every autumn we get a big boost in rat numbers, because it’s the end of the breeding season and there’s a lot of food around in autumn, and then as we get into the later end of the season and it gets cold then they start getting back into places where people see them. And so in the city people will probably notice at this time of year more rats around. Not that they’re rampaging down Queen Street or anything. Not yet anyway.

You might spot them in greater numbers in some places but they’re not affected by the abundance of the wild food like they are in Titirangi, where there’s also these people feeding the chickens. Obviously we’re encouraging people to make sure they’ve got their control in place, both because it stops the nuisance problem of the rats but it can also really protect our wildlife as we come into spring again, because if there are less rats around it protects the new eggs in their nests.

What methods are being utilised by the council when you’re called in to deal with a rat problem?

We have a whole big menu of options and so we’re always trying to use the most effective option for the site. We have to make sure that it’s humane and that it’s safe for people and any other non-targets. It’s always dependent on the location of course – I have three traps in my backyard that I can handle no problem, but if you’re doing the entire Waitakere Ranges where you need 300,000 traps it’s a bit more of an ask.

We’ve been using 1080 in the Hunua Ranges and it’s super effective in those large wild areas but it’s clearly not suitable for Titirangi or downtown in Queen Street.

There were concerns from some people that the rats were in fact a conspiracy theory to encourage the use of 1080 – was that ever even on the table?

It just couldn’t happen. We have very tight controls in New Zealand over how 1080 is used. It’s a very effective toxin, and clearly there’s a lot of concern about it, but used properly it’s completely safe. That means keeping it away from houses so we have an exclusion zone of something like 200m from houses – in the Hunua Ranges any house that’s up in the bush we had to fly right around it. It’s just not possible to use it in a place like Titirangi.

People were talking about these rats being as big as cats and then the next person said they’re as big as small dogs. What are some of the bigger rats that you’ve encountered?

Well, there are two types of rats that you will see around Auckland. There are the ship rats which have a really long tail and people sometimes think that they’re big because they can see this really long tail as well as the rat, but the ones that get bigger in the body are the Norway rats. I’ve seen some pretty big Norway rats, but they’re not as big as a cat. When they’re getting into that kitten size though they are pretty scary. Those are the sort of rats I’ve seen. They’re much chunkier and they can be quite intimidating if you’re not used to seeing them.

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    You don’t want to see a plague of them running at you and leaping like they’re going to take you down. I know the feeling and it’s not nice, but it’s not usually the case. Usually they’ll run away. But sometimes they’re not so shy.

    Have you had staff request to not be put on the rat round? What is the attitude at the coal face?

    We’ve got some good, tough staff and fantastic contractors that like a challenge and yeah, sometimes the work that we do… But we’ve got all the traps and so on out and there’s a large number of rats, so it can actually be quite satisfying to get rid of them. You can really see the impact of your work. We’ve got guys out there now and you know, good luck to them. They’re are chomping at the bit.

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    Litter of puppies in animal shelter. (Getty Images)
    Litter of puppies in animal shelter. (Getty Images)

    SocietyJune 24, 2019

    Our animal welfare laws are barking up the wrong tree

    Guest writer
    Litter of puppies in animal shelter. (Getty Images)
    Litter of puppies in animal shelter. (Getty Images)

    Animal rescue organisations in New Zealand are overworked and overflowing with stray animals in need of a caring home, Ellen Sinclair reports. 

    The SPCA takes in over 40,000 animals every year, and with rescue organisations all over the country full with abandoned, dumped or stray pets, New Zealand has a serious surplus of animals in need.

    The dire state of our animal welfare system has prompted the formation of a new collective of independent rescue organisations to lobby government for more support. The organisations from throughout the country, including HUHANZ, Husky Rescue and Chained Dog Awareness, realised “how incredibly busy we all are and how overwhelmed we all are,” said Carolyn Press-Mackenzie, from HUHANZ (Helping You Help Animals New Zealand), a no-kill shelter based in Otaki. “If we’re all this busy and so overwhelmed, and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it, then there must be something fundamentally wrong with the systems in New Zealand.”

    The collective took their issues to the Green Party’s animal welfare spokesperson Gareth Hughes, who has been examining the Animal Welfare Act to see how our current laws protect our animals, and what could be improved. He says in New Zealand, “we really need to up our game. The animal welfare act itself needs an absolute overhaul, because we’re failing animals in a country that does pride itself on loving animals.”

    Hughes also questioned why the SPCA, the largest animal welfare group in New Zealand, must be dependent on public donations to do its work. “We shouldn’t be relying on charity to do basic animal welfare 101 to comply with our laws.” According to the SPCA’s latest annual report, it receives $400,000 in government funding but the annual cost of running the organisation is $42 million. The difference is fundraised with support from the public. The SPCA is the only group entrusted to enforce the animal welfare act, alongside MPI and the police.

    According to the collective, Hughes, and SPCA CEO Andrea Midgen, the most urgent change is the mandatory de-sexing of domestic pets, with a view to restricting animal breeding to only licensed breeders. Over time, these changes would reduce the number of unwanted pets, relieving the pressure currently felt by rescue organisations.

    Backyard, or unlicensed breeding of animals, particularly dogs and cats, “needs to stop immediately because all of our shelters are full, all of the time,” says Michelle Attwood, from Husky Rescue NZ, an organisation taking in surrendered or abandoned huskies. Husky Rescue assesses the dogs’ health, organises de-sexing and vaccinations if needed, and cares for the dogs until a suitable home is found.

    The animal welfare collective agreed that New Zealand has “too many backyard breeders who are breeding to create an income,” said Christine Breen from Chained Dog Awareness NZ, a group of volunteers advocating for change around dogs who are kept on a chain or tied up for a majority of their lives. “We’ve got dogs that are life chained and are not de-sexed who have litter after litter on the chain, and then the pups are passed around the neighborhood,” says Breen.

    Green Party animal welfare spokesperson Gareth Hughes and SPCA CEO Andrea Midgen.

    Education is key in stopping this cycle of animal mistreatment, says Midgen. The SPCA runs a programme in 2,500 primary and intermediate schools across the country to teach kids about responsible pet ownership, and what owning a pet requires. Education is also used by the SPCA as the first response to situations of minor animal mistreatment. As Midgen says, “A huge part of each inspector’s role is about education,” and inspectors can issue notices warning owners to improve their animal’s situation before any punishment occurs.

    “If someone has ignorantly not treated an animal well, left it tied up all the time and not given it water or something, it’s not because really they intended it, they just didn’t even give it any thought,” Midgen says. “You get a much better outcome if you teach them about what’s wrong with that and how they can do it better, than putting them in prison for months or community detention for months.”

    The SPCA cares for 40,000 animals a year in its shelters, with the help of over 4,000 volunteers, and 77 inspectors investigating 15,000 welfare complaints every year. Midgen says only around 1% of complaints are for high-level, serious issues, therefore under 1% of complaints result in prosecution. She attributes this to the SPCA’s focus on education, providing struggling owners with extra resources if needed, and its introduction of an infringement system last year. Minor offences, such as leaving a dog unattended in a car, result in an infringement notice and a fine.

    The Animal Welfare Act outlines minimum standards for food, shelter, water, and exercise. The SPCA receives complaints regarding chained dogs, but an SPCA inspector, “can only deal with what the law says, so if that dog also didn’t have access to water, and it didn’t have shelter, it wasn’t fed, and didn’t have any exercise, then they could do something about it. But the mere fact a dog is chained up is not an illegal act,” says Midgen.

    MPI is currently responsible for animal welfare in New Zealand, but Hughes and some rescue organisations are raising the possibility of an independent commissioner or animal welfare minister, as “MPI are also charged with growing the dairy industry, so it’s a complete conflict of interest”, says Husky Rescue’s Michelle Attwood. Gareth Hughes says we need “more independent voices for animals” so he has been “promoting the idea of an independent commissioner for animals, someone to be a voice for the voiceless, to represent to government on their behalf.”

    So how can we help create a better New Zealand for our animals? First and foremost, says Hughes and Midgen, is de-sexing domestic pets. As well as supporting the charities and supporting political change, Hughes suggests you do some research to ensure your next pet isn’t coming from a puppy farm (if you must buy online or from TradeMe). If your family wants a pet, consider adopting from the SPCA or one of our other overflowing rescue organisations.

    Furthermore, councils could help by offering registration discounts to rescue centres, says Attwood. But most importantly, “we really need to make sure that dogs that are starving, that have no shelter, that are being beaten, that are being abused in ways that you don’t even want to know about, are actually getting some protection.”

    Society