A Tauranga vet pioneering a citywide project to address stray cat issues is backing calls to enforce tougher measures on the high number of stray felines, labelling it a constant issue.

The Veterinary Association yesterday announced New Zealand has too many cats and work needs to be done to control and manage the population.

ARRC Wildlife Trust founder Liza Schneider and manager Sue Mackey. Photo: File.

Radio New Zealand reports Veterinary Association president Steve Merchant saying the growth of cats outstrips the available financial resources for managing the stray cat population in both Britain and America, and he's concerned the same is happening here.

The association has compared a number of overseas studies, which find that the worldwide population of cats is growing and exceeds 600 million.

Steve says Kiwi's are among the biggest cat owners per head of population in the world but that could also lead to a lot of feral cats and strays.

Humanely killing cats was one method of control which should be considered - but as a last resort.

He says: 'When there's no options and where we certainly see that on balance these cats aren't appropriately cared for, and their welfare is not taken into account, then certainly it's something that needs to be discussed objectively.”

Tauranga Holistic Vets director Liza Schneider says the underlying issue to the burgeoning stray population is responsible pet ownership.

She says if pet owners were responsible, including ensuring the pet is de-sexed, not leaving them behind when moving house or discarding them, the country would be in a much better situation.

Another notion Liza has is placing a cap of four cats per household and micro-chipping and registering cats.

In her role as founder of ARRC Wildlife Trust, Liza and the organisation has aimed at capturing unowned cats in Tauranga City through its Community Cat Project for the last two years.

Since its inception, the project has seen nearly 1000 cats (stray or feral) taken off the streets and de-sexed and rehomed, or if they are too feral to be rehomed they are humanely euthanised.

'We are leading the country but all of these measures need to take into account the welfare of the cats,” she says.

The Trust currently receives $3000 a year from both Tauranga City Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, plus some assistance from DOC and local vets and the public.

Liza is grateful for the support but says the trust is still highly underfunded, with the project costing about $120,000 a year.

'But even if we had all the money in the world,” she adds, 'the money needs to be spent on getting to the root of the problem, responsible pet ownership, to help this.”