Hunters are legally obliged to check leg-hold traps daily, Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Invercargill Colin Bishop says.
If people were setting traps they also needed permission either from Doc, if they intended to set traps on Crown land, or private landowners, he said.
Mr Bishop said the catching of domestic cats on Doc-administered land was not a normal occurrence.
Otago SPCA senior inspector and Gore branch administrator Steph Saunders stressed that most hunters checked traps daily.
However, Ms Saunders was keen for the traps to be completely outlawed.
She described leghold traps as ‘‘barbaric''.
Animals caught in leg-hold traps experienced a great deal of pain and it did not matter whether it was a pet or a pest, all animals deserved a humane death, she said.
Ms Saunders questioned what it was going to take to have the traps outlawed completely.
She asked whether it would have to get to the point where someone's child was caught in one of the devices before they were completely banned.
There were a lot more humane devices available on the market for catching pest animals than leg-hold traps.
Those alternative methods resulted in an instantaneous death, she said.
A Biosecurity New Zealand pamphlet stated concerns had been raised about whether leg-hold traps were humane.
The main animal welfare concerns were injury and distress associated with an animal being trapped, potential for escape of injured animals and animals suffering if they were held in the trap too long.
Leg-hold traps set around residential dwellings and in areas including public walkways and picnic areas increased the risk of injury to pets, the pamphlet stated.
