Sault Ste. Marie, in the province of Ontario, hoped to gain the 32 points needed for entry-level Bird Friendly certification by the non-profit group Nature Canada. The city council took several steps towards that goal, including adopting the black-capped chickadee as its official bird, but still fell 10 points short.

As reported by sootoday.com, there were several weaknesses in the application, including three related to cats:

• no official municipal strategy to reduce populations of unowned (feral) cats and mitigate their threat to birds (e.g. removing feral colonies from areas of high bird importance)
• no municipal promotion of the no-roam bylaw
• no cat counting or estimating protocol to establish baseline numbers

The city also failed to satisfactorily address issues such as birds hitting buildings, light pollution and protecting natural areas.

Photo: Black-capped chickadee by Jack Bulmer

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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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“Our roaming domestic cats are hunting tens of thousands of native wildlife every year. So, how can we manage the risk our cats pose? This guide provides 5 ways to keep your pet as safe, healthy, and happy as possible, all while protecting our wildlife…

“The SPCA and vets recommend ‘stay at home’ lifestyles for cats, and it’s becoming an increasingly common practice among pet owners. Australia’s capital, Canberra, introduced a law recently that any new cats will have to stay indoors, and other Aussie states are considering implementing ‘cat curfews’.”

Continue reading on the Predator Free NZ website

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Pekapeka-tou-roa, or the native long-tailed bat, is a threatened species and they seem to be a tasty treat for all Aotearoa’s introduced pests.

And a recent DOC (Department of Conservation) study identified cats as some of the worst offenders.

There is currently no national legislation for managing cats in Aotearoa, but many conservation and animal welfare groups are keen to see a move towards this.

SPCA science advisor Dr Christine Sumner says keeping your cat home is the solution to keeping native species safe.

“There’s a lot of people who de-sex their cats. More and more people are microchipping their cats – but what we would like to see more of is more people keeping their cats at home.”

Christine concedes that it’s not yet “normal” for New Zealanders to contain their cats but says it’s still a worthwhile goal.

“It’s in your pet’s best interest for them to stay at home. Cats stray and become lost. You have the risks of them becoming injured…and cats fight with each other. And anybody who’s had a cat roaming maybe has experienced the cat coming home with an abcess, and that’s not fun either. So these are different risks that cats face when they roam.”

Keeping your cat contained is possible, says Christine:

“Some people have fences with mechanisms on top – little devices like the cat could jump up and there’s a roller bar and they can’t get a grip, and it rolls them back. Or, they put up netting – you see this online.”

Christine adds that the SPCA wants owners to feel they are doing right by their cat.

“The cat having a choice is really important to cat owners – it’s core to the cat’s welfare.”

Listen to the entire programme and learn more about bats (32’22”)

The post Radio programme: Bats versus cats appeared first on CATFENCE.

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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The programme is The Panel, hosted by Wallace Chapman, with guest co-hosts Lana Searle and Ed Amon.

The interview was very brief, but lots of fun.
 

 

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Rob interviewed Neil, our managing director, about the Oscillot cat fence system, and it was clear that Rob had done his research. He was aware of the different approaches to cat containment as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

We talked about purpose-built catios, which may be great for people with lots of space, but which are less practical with the very small yards that we are seeing in many new housing developments. In these situations, every square metre of garden is precious, so being able to use the space for multiple purposes as well as cat containment is an appealing solution.

This has been our busiest year since starting catfence.nz six years ago, and we are sensing a general increase among cat owners of the advantages to keeping their beloved pet contained.

The post Cat containment featured on Stuff news site appeared first on CATFENCE.

Cat containment is a contentious topic in the media and Sarah says it is important to remember it’s not about demonising cats for the impact they can have on our environment – it’s also about keeping cats healthy and safe.

“Cats allowed to free-roam can lead to predation of wildlife, including native wildlife, disruption of wildlife behaviour, spreading disease like toxoplasmosis, which is a threat to our endangered marine mammals and can be transferred to humans as well, but cats are also at an increased risk of injury or harm to themselves,” says Sarah.

The study aimed to examine which factors best predict engagement in cat containment, and whether there are unique audiences of cat owners in New Zealand that differ significantly in the set of factors that predict their behaviour.

Sarah surveyed 395 New Zealand cat owners using a Lucid Marketplace online sample. Responses came from a broad audience.

“Our findings were that respondents rarely intended to perform or engage in cat containment, which is what we expected based on previous research. From all the factors assessed, people’s engagement in cat containment and intentions to engage in the future were influenced by a broad range of factors, not just one,” she says.

Factors included if someone had the physical and psychological capability to engage, the social and physical opportunity to participate and the motivation to engage. This includes if someone had positive interpersonal influences (a vet that supported cat containment for example), whether they had the time or resources available to modify their home or environment, were concerned about the negative consequences related to free-roaming cats and believed that cat containment is beneficial for cats.

The findings enabled Sarah to segment cat owners into four distinct audiences. The groups were labelled engaged: 6%, receptive: 17%, ambivalent: 48% and opposed: 30%.

“Each audience differed significantly in the set of factors predicting their behaviour and also performed cat containment to significantly different extents. The engaged segment participated in cat containment the most and believed it is beneficial to cats. In comparison the opposed segment participated the least and were the least concerned about the negative impacts of free-roaming.”

Cat containment could include keeping cats inside (or keeping cats inside at night), cat enclosures, escape-proof fenced yards, and supervising cats outside.

Sarah says it is important to look at cat management in New Zealand.

“Broadly speaking, in future I’d like to see a rethink on what it looks like to be a responsible cat owner. An important part of this is bringing people on the journey and changing attitudes. I don’t think it is just about putting rules and regulations in place at a council level, you have to change people’s beliefs and attitudes, educate them about the issue, and give them the tools and resources to make it easy to engage.”

“Key contributions from the research are that now we understand the main causes of people’s decisions to participate or not, interventions can be designed that actually address these things for different audiences of cat owners.”

Sarah has decided to keep her cats at home, building them a ‘catio’ which gives them access to the house and outside.

Sarah completed a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington and a Master of Science in Marketing at the University of Bath. She is now completing her Master of Science in Psychology at the University of Canterbury, supervised by Psychology Professor Don Hine, and intends to enroll to complete a doctorate.

She says her background in marketing has provided valuable skills in social marketing, audience segmentation and behaviour change.

“Some ideas to increase engagement in cat containment based on these findings is to educate people about the prevalence of roaming-related cat injury, use influencers on social media as role models to build positive associations with keeping cats at home and environmental restructuring – making tools easily available for cat containment.”

– University of Canterbury

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This letter to the editor, published in the Salt Lake Tribune, offers a great summary of reasons why cats should not be allowed to roam freely.

The author is a veterinarian.

Although the author suggests keeping cats indoors, or in a catio, we would also encourage cat owners to consider a containment system that allows their pet to explore a larger outdoor area.

And for trips farther afield, why not train your cat to walk on a leash? Many cats do this quite happily.

[5 Jan 2018]

The post Why cats should not roam freely appeared first on CATFENCE.

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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