Stray cats the new suburbs' pet hate

["Alastair Smith" <>]

Good news from today’s Canberra times
By Ben Doherty Assembly Reporter
Friday, 1 July 2005

Cats who stray in two of Canberra's newest suburbs will be stretching their owners' friendship a whisker and their budgets.

Residents in the as-yet-unbuilt suburbs of Bonner and Forde will be required to keep cats indoors or in secure cat runs at all times, to protect native wildlife, under legislation introduced into the Legislative Assembly yesterday.

Cats will also have to be micro- chipped. Those who stray will be seized and returned to their owners, who can face fines of up to $1000.

Environment Minister Jon Stanhope tabled the proposed laws yesterday, saying cats in the new Gungahlin suburbs would need to be contained at all times to protect wildlife in the nearby Mulligans Flat and Goorooyaroo reserves.

Owners will not even be able to walk cats on a lead under the new regime.

Similar laws have been either enacted or proposed for limited areas in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.

The legislation is supported by the RSPCA and environment groups, but cat groups - while agreeing cats should be kept inside - claim laws mandating their containment were unnecessary.

But secretary of the Canberra Cat Fanciers Association Nikki White described the legislation as "dictatorial" and said she feared the laws could be the "thin end of the wedge" of restrictions on cat owners.

"We do think it's a good idea that cats are kept inside, but we don't think people should be dictated to," she said.

"And where will this end? Is this the start of a move to ban cats altogether from some areas?"

A ban was actually where the legislation started. When these laws were first mooted last year, several environment groups such as the ACT Conservation Council advocated an outright ban on cats in the suburbs.

Ms White said cats were not the only, nor the worst, predators, and were being unfairly singled out.

"If these areas they are looking to protect is so sensitive ecologically, why are they building a suburb there? Humans are a far more damaging species than cats."

Tabling the legislation yesterday, Mr Stanhope said his Government was committed to promoting responsible cat ownership. "A containment policy not only protects native fauna but reduces the risk to cats themselves from cars and other animals."

He said a 1998 study of domestic cat behaviour in Canberra found that 75 per cent of domestic cats hunted wildlife, of an estimated 480,000 animals killed in urban areas each year.

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey lent her support to the legislation, saying cat predation had a significant impact on native wildlife.

The ACT Conservation Council oversaw a submission to Government from environment groups, Environment ACT and ACT Planning and Land Management Authority, outlining several cat containment options. Council director Trish Harrup said while an outright ban was ultimately rejected, the proposed legislation could work.