Another council joins the chorus
In: Tamworth Council calls for legislation mandating all cats to be contained, Eliza Spencer (THE GUARDIAN, 14 November 2023), reports that:
THE REGIONAL NSW COUNCIL made the submission at a state parliamentary inquiry into the management of pounds.
Tamworth Regional Council has called for cat containment and desexing to be made mandatory across New South Wales at a hearing into a state parliament inquiry into animal pounds.
The director of liveable communities at Tamworth Regional Council, Gina Vereker, told the inquiry on Tuesday that the council would “encourage legislation to require a mandate for cats to be desexed and contained”.
“Whether that’s an inside dwelling or with an external enclosure, it’s one of the big issues,” Vereker said. “Cats are harder to rehome, we have more of them, and because they roam freely, it makes it very difficult for us to control, particularly when they aren’t desexed.”
It echoes a recommendation made by conservationists in response to the draft national plan to reduce feral cat numbers.
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Feedback for plan to tackle stray cats problem
WE AUSSIES ARE WELL KNOWN around the world for getting rid of native animals at an alarming rate. This story appeared on National Public Radio in the US: Australia weighs cat curfews and neutering requirements to rein in feral felines, Joe Hernandez (September 12, 2023). He writes:
The Australian government is looking for public feedback on a plan to tackle one of the country’s most hairy issues: stray cats.
Stray cats — or “feral” cats, as they’re called by Australian officials — kill more than 1.5 billion native mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs as well as 1.1 billion invertebrates in the country each year, the government says. They can also carry disease.
Tanya Plibersek, Australia’s Minister for the Environment and Water, announced a plan offering a raft of possible new strategies to tame the country’s feral cat population, including regional laws that would impose curfews on pet cats and require that owners keep their pets indoors.
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Cats have been introduced to a landscape where they don’t really belong
From beloved pet to biodiversity villain: what now for Australia’s cats? Our feline friends kill millions of native animals a year. Can we keep them and protect our wildlife too? Katie Cunningham, (THE GUARDIAN, 12 Nov 2023) reports:
BY DAY, TREVOR BAUER IS AT WAR WITH CATS. As part of his job with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, he works at large-scale properties in far-western New South Wales that are designed to keep feral cats out. First, tall electric fences are erected around these properties. Once they’re up, Bauer and his team use bait, traps and occasionally firearms to eradicate every feral cats inside. Then small native mammals such as the numbat, bilby and bettong – normally easy prey for cats – are reintroduced.
By night, Bauer can be found cuddling with his pet cat, a tortoiseshell called Titian, on the couch.
“It is something that a lot of people find funny or weird,” he says, laughing. But Bauer doesn’t feel particularly conflicted about owning a cat and arranging to have cats killed.
“My cat is 18 years old; she’s lived her whole life indoors,” he says. “She’s none the wiser of what goes on outside. And I guess I feel like it’s not like the cats’ [fault].
“Cats are beautiful animals; they’ve got a good design. And that design [means] they’re really good at killing animals. Unfortunately, for the cat, they’ve been introduced to an area where they don’t really belong – the Australian ecosystem.”
Featured in MMM: Issue 41, Dec.23 – Jan.24