![]() Hundreds of kilograms of wild deer mince and steaks were processed for local food banks, Bailey said. She said the question about skinning was written on an activist’s sign, and was not voiced aloud.Ībout 1,500 competitors – 400 of them children – killed hundreds of animals during the contest, including 243 feral cats, according to the contest’s Facebook page. She said her group had not called the children murderers. Jackson said her group – which numbered between six and 10 people – was taunted and heckled by adults and children, some holding dead animals by the tails, throughout the day as the protesters picketed outside the event. “They’re glorifying it and kids are being brainwashed into thinking it’s fun and a commendable thing to kill animals,” she said. Sarah Jackson, a spokesperson for Christchurch Animal Save, said her group attended the event to protest against the killing of animals for sport and prizes. He added that the children’s chant was prompted by protesters calling the children “murderers” and asking them how they would feel if someone skinned them. “It’s just our way of life.”īailey said he heard the children chanting “meat” and told them to stop, but rejected the suggestion that the standoff had lasted all day. Of the cats, he said: “We take the side of the kiwi and the kākāpo and the kea and every other species that’s in danger because of these pricks.”Ĭhildren in the rural region “grow up in an environment” where animals are hunted, skinned, processed and eaten, Bailey said. “I don’t feel worried about the feelings of people who don’t understand this issue,” said Bailey, who added that threatened native birds were less visible in the region due to predators. But residents of the rural South Island region north of Christchurch – including the competition’s sponsors and the local primary school due to receive the money raised – told him they supported it. Mat Bailey, the organiser of the North Canterbury Hunting Competition said the backlash against the event’s cat culling category had at first prompted its scrapping. The contest’s announcement in April was condemned by animal welfare groups and prompted a fraught debate about the management of New Zealand’s feral cat population. Video filmed by one of the activists and supplied to the Guardian showed children holding dead animals. ![]() Entrants aged under 12 had not been allowed to participate in the feral cat culling portion of the North Canterbury contest when it was reinstated, but were permitted to hunt other invasive pests, an organiser said.
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