Bendigo: a case study in cat management

Bendigo was one of the first Victorian councils to introduce cat management laws.

In the 2002/03 period the council impounded 534 cats, killing 338 of them. In 2004, they introduced a cat curfew, using the cat haters in the community to ‘teach cat owners a lesson’:

06 July 2004 – Residents will be on the front line of the City of Greater Bendigo’s cat curfew, officially introduced last night.

Under the plan, the council will supply cat traps to locals who notice a breach of the sunset-to-sunrise curfew.

Mayor Greg Williams said enforcement was not the primary reason for the curfew.”This is really about education and about getting people to do the right thing,” he said.

And by all accounts the program was an enormous ‘success’, with a surge of impoundments and cat haters beating down the doors to get traps;

31 July 2004 – Record numbers of Bendigo cats were on death row yesterday, less than a month after the local council introduced a cat curfew.

Officials yesterday confirmed that the RSCPA animal shelter in East Bendigo had more than six times its usual number of cats waiting to be euthanised.

Shelter manager Fred Cameron said he had never seen so many cats abandoned in his 30 years in the job.

“This time of year, being cold and outside kitten season, we would probably have about 10 cats in cages.

“We have over 60. It has gone berserk.” Mr Cameron said fear of the fines was the main reason behind locals bringing in their cats.

“There are two reasons for this. A lot of the cats are being surrendered by their owners because of the cat curfew, and a lot are being brought in because neighbours are trapping cats,” he said. “Elderly people are probably getting a bit frightened that if their cats get out they will get into trouble.

“Hopefully, we can find owners for them.” Mr Cameron said he had heard council rangers were calling for reinforcements to deal with the increased work.

“The rangers are being run off their feet,” he said.

“I believe there is a waiting list for cat cages and they have ordered, and are expecting, another 12 cat traps.”

More info on the programs results from the Age;

Cat-hating residents are enthusiastically trapping their neighbours’ nocturnally roaming cats and sending them to the shelter. Meanwhile, some cat-owning residents – particularly the elderly – are so stressed at the prospect of the $51 fine they have voluntarily relinquished their kitties.

Since Bendigo’s curfew started, the pound has received 123 cats, up from 79 in June. Registered cats are returned to owners but the night-larking unclaimed moggies are put down after eight days if a suitable home is not found.

Fred Cameron, manager of the Bendigo RSPCA shelter, said most of the cats handed in were from neighbours’ traps. “The curfew sort of helped people who don’t get on with their neighbours to catch their cat and bring it in and get it impounded,” Mr Cameron said.

Supporters of these kinds of initiatives often say the surge dies down after the initial excitement of the trap happy masses. They claim shelter impound rates return to, not just normal levels, but lower as all the cats are removed from the streets.

So more than 6 years on, just how are the cats faring in Bendigo?

Unwanted felines face death
20 May, 2010

Kittens and cats are being put down at alarming rates at the Bendigo RSPCA shelter, as owners fail to take responsibility for their pets. According to statistics, supplied by the Victorian RSPCA, during 2008-09 the Bendigo shelter took in 1817 cats and 1243, or 68 per cent, were put down.

And what’s the reason?

An RSPCA spokesman said the high number in cats and kittens being put down was often due to very low microchip and registration rates.

Given that cats are still being impounded after years and years of trapping, and that the cats still entering Bendigo shelter at record levels have very ‘low microchip and registration rates’, is it such a stretch to believe that these cats, have never actually had an owner?

Study after study after study after study have shown that the shelter cat population is primarily driven by a self-sustaining, unowned population. Initiatives that target owners, rarely do more than put unowned cats in breach of some new ordinance and see them targeted for removal.

While it’s easy to blame an ‘irresponsible public’, it’s not proving to be a very effective technique for reducing shelter intakes, or saving the lives of cats.