Jaana Dielenberg, Charles Darwin University

Australians have more pet cats than ever before – more than 5 million in total. With the growing number, expectations on pet owners are shifting.

Many cat owners are now voluntarily keeping their cats indoors or in secure runs, and local governments mandate it in some areas. But most pet cats in Australia still roam local streets and gardens.

Broader adoption of keeping cats safe at home would have large benefits for cat welfare, human health, local wildlife and even the economy. So, should pet owners be required to keep their pets contained to their property, as dogs are?

We put that question to thousands of people in a national survey in late 2023, and recently published the results.

We found most people support requiring owners to contain cats. Just one in 12 people (8%) are opposed. The time might be right for nationwide change in how we manage our pet cats.

Local councils are embracing cat containment

From November 1, Geelong City Council will join a fast-growing group of local governments in urban and regional areas that require pet cats to be securely contained 24 hours a day.

More than a third of local councils in Australia now require cats to be contained overnight or 24 hours a day. Most are in the ACT and Victoria.

Given how good cats are at climbing and jumping, containing cats usually requires keeping them indoors or in secure runs.

The main reasons cited by local governments for these regulations are:

• Improving pet welfare: contained cats live longer and healthier lives with fewer vet bills because they are protected from traumatic injuries from car accidents, dog attacks and cat fights, infections, diseases and other misadventures.
• Saving wildlife: four out of five cats allowed outside will hunt and kill an average of two to three animals per week. With millions of pet cats in Australia, each year this adds up to 6,000–11,000 animals killed in our suburbs per square kilometre and 323 million native animals killed nationally. Night curfews only protect nocturnal species such as possums.
• Reducing nuisance to neighbours: containment results in less disturbance from cat fights and prevents the neighbour’s cat killing the birds and lizards living in your backyard or nearby park, which many community members value.

The public health toll of roaming cats

Another major benefit is less talked about. Stopping pet cats from roaming would greatly reduce rates of cat-borne diseases.

Several diseases which could not exist without cats can be passed to humans. These cost Australia more than AU$6 billion a year based on costs of medical care, lost income and other related expenses.

The most widespread of these diseases is toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be passed to humans but must complete its life cycle in cats. Australian studies have reported human infection rates between 22% and 66% of the community.

Cat-borne diseases cause considerable community harm, with an estimated 8500 hospitalisations and 550 deaths from acute infections and also from increased rates of car accidents, suicides and mental health issues in infected people.

Pet cats are crucial to the rates of these diseases in the community. In suburbs that do not require containment, you’ll find up to 100 roaming pet cats per square kilometre.

Eliminating stray cats from our suburbs is also important to reduce disease rates – just one of the reasons why people should not feed stray cats.

Most Australians support containment

A policy requiring all cats to be contained has clear benefits. But would it have support? Rules only produce benefits if people follow them.

This is why colleagues at Monash University and I surveyed more than 3400 people on whether they would support policies that “require cat owners to keep their cat contained to their property”.

We found a clear majority (66%) of people support cat containment. A strikingly small proportion of people, about one in 12 people (8%), are opposed. The remaining 26% were ambivalent, selecting “neither support nor oppose”.

Other surveys have found almost half (42% or 2.2 million) of Australia’s pet cats are already kept contained by their owners.

Some councils can’t legally require cat containment

Our findings suggest communities would broadly support their local councils if they moved to require cats to be contained.

While councils are responsible for pet issues, state and territory laws greatly influence what councils can and can’t do.

In New South Wales and Western Australia, state laws actually prevent local councils from requiring cat containment (except for in specific circumstances, such as in declared food preparation areas in NSW).

Rules are just the start

To boost compliance, councils need to invest in communicating new rules and the reasons for them. After a grace period, council officers will also need to monitor and enforce the rules.

Communities may need support too, especially if there are costs involved. Councils could, for example, offer rebates for flyscreens to stop cats slipping out of open windows.

Working with other colleagues in 2020, we surveyed Australia’s local governments about their approaches to cat management. Most reported tiny budgets for cat management.

Local governments should not be left to shoulder the cost alone. Federal, state and territory governments are also responsible for Australia’s wildlife (and human health). These governments have a range of projects covering both feral and pet cats.

The Australian government collects AU$3 billion a year in GST from spending on pets. Diverting a small proportion into responsible pet ownership programs would make an enormous difference.

Policies such as rebates for the cost of window screens could help the community to transition to keeping cats indoors. Photo: Jaana Dielenberg

Containment has wide backing

Our research shows the community is ready for widespread reform of how we manage all these cats.

Requiring pet cats to be contained is a sound policy choice. But to realise the full benefits, we also need to invest in effective communication for communities, provide rebates to help contain cats, and make sure the rules are followed.

Kim Borg, Melissa Hatty and Emily Gregg contributed to the national survey, and Sarah Legge, John Woinarski and Tida Nou contributed to research on cat impacts and management.

Jaana Dielenberg, University Fellow, Charles Darwin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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“In just the first six months of the new regulations coming into effect, the number of complaints relating to cats received by council has decreased by 70 per cent from 2022 totals.”

All cats in the city, 40km northeast of Melbourne, must be confined to their owner’s property or under effective control when outside. Additionally, all newly registered cats must be desexed.

These measures were endorsed by the Council as part of the Domestic Animal Management Plan 2021-2025. Recognising the significant change for cats and their owners, the Council provides support and information, including educational materials, videos, and practical advice for a smooth transition away from free-roaming.

While educating the community on cat containment remains a priority for the Council, since the beginning of February, cat owners who who do not comply with the new regulations may face penalties of AU$96 for a cat that is roaming, and AU$384 for a cat that has not been desexed.

Pictured: The Oscillot system of cat-proof paddles (or “rollers”) is a popular choice for Australian cat owners wishing to keep their cats safely contained.

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The Committee was considering a petition presented by Erica Rowlands in 2021, and heard submissions from the Ministry for Primary Industries and several other organisations, many of which were part of, or supportive of, the New Zealand Cat Management Strategy Group. The group promotes responsible cat ownership, balancing the views of cat owners and environmentalists. It collaborated with other organisations to produce a report in 2020 which contains recommendations for humanely managing cats to protect both cat welfare and the New Zealand environment.

In its report, the Committee stated:

Hon Eugenie Sage MP, Chairperson of the Environment Committee

We commend the petitioner and the other interested organisations that made submissions for their work and advocacy to improve the management of cats in New Zealand. We appreciate the companionship that pet cats provide to people. But we accept the evidence presented by submitters that the current, largely unregulated approach to cats does not serve the welfare of the large numbers of stray and feral cats. Moreover the stray and feral cat population decimates native wildlife.

 

We agree with submitters it is time to legislate a nationwide cat management framework based on the notion cats should be registered, desexed, and microchipped with appropriate exemptions. Such a framework already exists for dogs and we believe it is time to apply the same approach for cats. We consider that a nationally consistent approach to cat control would provide a more effective outcome than bylaws. Public education and gaining community support for change will need to go hand in hand with legislative and regulatory action but we note the significant and positive change in public attitudes to dog ownership since the enactment of the Dog Control Act in 1996.

In her petition, Ms Rowland noted the problems created by irresponsible cat owners:

It is widely known that cats cause a problem for native species, and that rescue groups face relentless battle against the effects of irresponsible owners. We have committed as a nation to invest in the goal of being predator free by 2050, but with no improvement in sight for the management of pet cats, or the elimination of feral populations. Requiring cats to be registered and desexed will reduce their populations, enforce responsible cat ownership, and protect our wildlife.

The Government was expected to respond to the Committee’s recommendation by 25 October, which is just 11 days after Election Day – so who knows what will happen.

The Committee noted in its report that the ACT Party does not believe that a national cat management framework is required.

» Read the Committee report

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“We want to hear from cat owners in Wellington about cat ownership, including how you keep your cats, and thoughts around microchipping and desexing,” says Senior Policy Adviser Alice Ash. “We encourage all cat owners in Wellington to participate in this survey, and to share it with other cat owners you know.”

The survey will be open until 28 April.

Wellingtonians who do not own a cat can also have their say, during the formal review process in July.

Council plans to adopt a new Animals Bylaw in September.

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Cat containment rules remain patchy but, since 2018, six local councils have introduced bylaws requiring that pet cats be microchipped and the chip registered with the New Zealand Companion Animal Register (NZCAR).

As reported by NZCAR, four of the councils also require desexing of pet cats.

NZCAR is operated by Companion Animals New Zealand (CANZ), a registered charity. The register was created to provide a national database of microchipped companion animals (pets), that can be accessed by approved organisations (such as vet clinics and SPCAs), so that the pet can quickly be returned home.

Microchip registration has a one-time fee of $15, and these funds are used to promote animal welfare.

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Attempts by some local authorities to require cat containment have been blocked by state governments, says Professor Sarah Legge, a wildlife ecologist at Australian National University.

“Local governments are taking this very seriously and doing their best but they found the whole issue really frustrating and one of the reasons they found it frustrating was that they weren’t supported by state government to get that job done,” she says.

“In fact, the state government legislation was often hampering what they were trying to do.”

James Trezise from the Invasive Species Council says state governments need to do more, but there also needs to be a “nationally harmonised” approach to cat containment.

“We’d like to see immediate changes to Western Australian law to enable local governments to implement cat containment,” he says.

“We’ve got 38 local governments in Victoria that either have 24/7 containment or some form of curfew and that’s to protect cats and and also protect native wildlife.”

Read more at abc.net.au.

Infographic: Foxes and cats kill more than 2.6 billion animals in Australia each year. Source: Stobo-Wilson et al/Diversity and Distributions

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Palmerston North City Council building. Photo: PNCC

Palmerston North City Council’s new Animals and Bees Bylaw 2018 comes into effect on 1 July. Here is an overview of the key changes affecting cats and their owners:

1. Council has made it mandatory for cat owners to microchip their cats, and have the microchip registered with the New Zealand Companion Animals Register.
2. All cats over six months of age must be desexed. These new requirements only apply to cats born after 1 July 2018. Cat owners are responsible for the cost of these procedures. Registered cat breeders are exempt from having to desex cats kept for breeding purposes.
3. There are no changes to the number of cats you can keep in the urban area (set at three cats) but if you want to keep more than three cats per dwelling in the urban area you will need to seek a permit from Council.

Read more on the Palmerston North City Council website.

29 June 2018

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All 21 local boards support the proposal.

Keep your cat safe with a microchip and an Oscillot cat fence system.

Read the story on stuff.co.nz

[16 Nov 2017]

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With an Oscillot system, your cat is free to roam – at home.

Great news! A proposal that could lead to compulsory microchipping and some form of registration for cats has become official policy for Local Government New Zealand. The proposal gained 51% approval yesterday at an annual meeting of LGNZ, which represents local governments.

Now that it is the official policy of LGNZ, the organisation will lobby the Government to develop legislation to allow them to control cats.

The proposal was put forward by the Dunedin City Council and has the support of SPCA in Otago, which says it could help increase the numbers of cats reunited with owners after turning up at its facilities.

Read more

[26 Jul 2017]

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We just spotted this news item from the Border News (serving the twin cities of Albury, NSW and Wodonga, Victoria which sit across the Murray River from each other).

The Albury council has granted approval for a new housing development, conditional on cats being kept on their owners’ properties at all times. And an even bigger development is expected to get the same treatment.

30 March 2017

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