In 2010, Wyndham Council’s cat control laws expired after 10 years. Made as an addition to the City’s compulsory cat registration, the laws prohibited cats being off their owners’ property from 10pm and 6am and banned them from public areas. In the decade that the curfew laws were in place, not a single fine was issued to a cat owner.
At the time Council was criticised for not providing any ‘enforcement’ for the laws. Council quite reasonably felt spending tens of thousands of dollars having someone out trapping unowned cats at night so they could be brought in for slaughter, was not a good use of the City’s resources.
It said “most trapped cats had no identification and were never claimed, meaning there was no one to fine”. In other words rather than curb ‘irresponsible’ ownership, the laws simply drove unowned cats into the pound.
Meanwhile, Council records showed the City’s cat owners were already remarkably compliant, with 95 per cent of Wyndham’s 5415 registered cats, desexed. At the same time, Wyndham Council was forking out over $30,000 a year for the Lost Dogs Home Boutique Cat Killing Service.
Despite the underwhelming performance of ten years of cat laws, and the acknowledgement that the owned cat population really isn’t causing the City’s problems, Wyndham Council is not deterred from staying the course of using punitive legislation against cat owners;
Wyndham Council will reintroduce a cat curfew to reduce the city’s stray cat population.
Under the council’s Domestic Animal Management Plan 2013-2016, the council investigated whether the re-establishment of a cat curfew would help to manage nuisance cats.
The council received 33 complaints about stray and nuisance cats in 2013, up from 28 in 2012. About 93 per cent of the cats taken to the council’s pound each year are not registered.
Council chief executive Kerry Thompson said the council was finalising plans for a community education campaign before relaunching the existing cat curfew.
“Wyndham City has reviewed industry research, which confirms night-time curfews assist with managing nuisance issues around roaming cats,” Ms Thompson said.
“The curfew will be enforced by affected residents trapping cats if they are at large during the curfew times. After an education process with the cat owner, fines and/or court action may take place if further offences occur.”
The curfew is expected to be relaunched midyear.
Wyndham is designing its ‘new’ approach to cat management, on it’s old, decade long, failed approach to cat management. They will arm novice members of the public – many likely don’t really like or respect cats – with cat traps, and instruct them to trap healthy animals living in the community, and bring them to the pound so the pound can kill them.
For doing this, Council will be lauded by major animal welfare groups for their proactive approach to cat ‘care’.
There is obscenely something wrong with this picture.
More stories from Wyndham:
– Wyndham to expand cat impoundment, killing
– Finally, a bit of honesty from a Victorian local council
