Control of cast is a very tricky question, primarily because it is a State
responsibility not the Commonwealths (apart from on Commonwealth land).
No two States have the same classification of cats between domestic home
cats, feral cats in the Outback and those in between. The latter is bogged
down because in law those in between could be regards as 'property'. To
molest them in any way could be a tort and might, just might, result in a
law suit for damages to property.
Complicating matters even further is that control of cats, if at all, is
variously split between the States equivalent of the Department Parks and
Wildlife and the States' Department of Local Government. If it falls to the
latter then it is usually hand balled to individual Councils or their
equivalent.
Some Councils in Adelaide have cat by-laws regarding registering, micro
chipping, numbers permitted but for all practical purposes this is purely
voluntary. No animal health officer could or is capable of rounding up cats
to check whether they comply with the by-law.
In the longer term one has to consider what might happen if one removed a
predator in the food chain. Do feral cats keep foxes in control by
competing for the same food supply? Look what happened in India when the
vultures were almost exterminated. Feral dogs multiplied, human rabies
cases increased, and so did leopards because dogs is their favourite food,
and if there wasn't a dog handy then a human would do.
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