Southland man admits to killing 170 cats and burying them in his veggie garden

  • 07/09/2018

A Southland man has admitted to killing 170 cats and burying their bodies in his vegetable garden.

Ian Gamble made the admission in the comments of an Environment Southland post asking for submissions on plans to ban cats in Omaui.

Mr Gamble suggested they should ban cats in his area of Otatara, prompting other social media users to react angrily.

"Cats do not belong in bush suburbs. If they are not banned they should be contained indoors," he replied.

"I have lived here for over 30 years and have 170 cats in my veggie garden, which is the best place for a cat in a bush suburb."

Other commenters were angered by his claim and said they would be reporting Mr Gamble to the SPCA.

"Your comment re 170 cats buried in your garden is quite frankly saddening and sick," Rachel Hucklebridge replied.

Mr Gamble stood by his admission though and admitted later on in the comments that despite his morbid history with cats he doesn't actually eat meat or dairy.

He told Stuff he used a humane trap to kill the cats and since then he had seen a rise in the number of birds he saw on his property.

"When I moved here 30 years ago there weren't any neighbours here and there were cats everywhere living in the bush," he said.

"Some of them had three legs and some had serious eye diseases. They were all over my section and were living under my house."

A representative for the Invercargill SPCA told Stuff they were aware of Mr Gambles claims and has begun investigating.

Newshub.