The WA Cat Welfare Symposium

Image: The Catorialist Blog

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I spent last Saturday at the WA Cat Welfare Symposium. I consider myself a bit of a cat nerd and the previous year’s symposiums had been headed in a good direction. The first year had a big focus on TNR and the second year Kersti Seksel spoke on scientific cat management, which was excellent. So I was really excited about both being involved in this third year and getting to blog out this year’s conference.

But it turns out I haven’t been able to summon the energy to come back and tell you things have gone to crap in WA as it seems just so dire in the face of so much success elsewhere.

I was genuinely disappointed.

Not with the conference let me say; the organisers do a fantastic job putting it on… but at the lack of turn out from animal welfare groups (one attendee from the RSPCA; zero from the RSPCA’s cattery), a few local rescues and interstate guests; but overall, less than 70 people who care enough about cats in WA to become active on their behalf. And at the lack of leadership from cat welfare groups. Same old rhetoric; mandatory desexing, killing to be kind, no other way… the old same stuff that’s been pushed unsuccessfully for decades

The speaker from the government (MLA Joe Francis) pushing for the new cat laws, busted out such gems as;

Rather than defend cats, whether owned by rich people, poor people (or even unowned), this statement got a round of applause and a ‘here, here’ from the audience.

Ignoring that cats are often aquired passively and that these ‘poor people who shouldn’t have pets’ often are just kind people who’ve taken in a stray, the audience sat in judgement of anyone unfortunate enough to be disadvantaged AND a pet owner. Way to throw your community under the bus…

Again, ignoring the fact ‘getting a cat’ often isn’t a decision, but the cat simply joining a compassionate family, this idea that outreach desexing can’t be implemented in our community, in case people use it is both judgemental and ineffective.

In the place of offering this person desexing for their cat, this government proposes that we fine that person (all the while knowing someone who can’t afford desexing, probably also can’t afford the fine) and that if they don’t then comply, that we seize their pet. While shelters are chock to the brim with unowned cats who have no chance at adoption, we’re proposing to take a cat off a family who cares for it, and almost certainly kill it… rather than offer them a desexing surgery.

And major cat welfare groups in WA are ok with this! In fact, they support Mr Francis in his efforts to get this cat-killing law up and running so we can start punishing the irresponsible people by killing their cats asap.

Next, we had a couple of vets speak on their views of subsidised desexing;

Their theory was thus; cats are better off dead now, than with an owner who may or may not be able to afford vet costs at some point in the undetermined future. So too bad to anyone who is happy to scrimp and save or pay back vet costs over a agreed period, or anyone who has a pet and has hit hard times or even just someone who is glad to have the company of a pet because pets are a stable loving force in a life that may be difficult sometimes… because our slogan is ‘if you can’t afford desexing today – then you should have your pet removed from you and killed because you’re a negligent owner’.

How are we supposed to advocate for compassion for animals, when we have so little for them and their owners? How do we expect to raise a generation of compassionate animal lovers, when we are at war with our communities; rounding up their family’s pets and killing them?

Stray, feral, community cats; we want to call them all the same thing and they must be trapped and killed to reduce the ‘nuisance’ they cause in the community. From the largest animal welfare organisation in the state. This is horrible policy.

Even more horrifying, the suggestion of the planned introduction of the ‘Who’s for Cats’ program from Victoria, into WA. The same campaign which increased cat related complaint calls by 50%, impounds by 40% and undermined the image of cats so severely after painting them as shadowy, pests, that the founding organisation had to create a concurrent campaign to try and reverse the damage.

Following failure.

Increasing impoundments.

More dead cats.

Cat ‘welfare’ groups refuse to move beyond the idea that cats are better off dead;

It’s like telephones don’t exist. The internet was never invented. We stay entrenched in failure, while New Zealand surges ahead, the US develop No Kill communities at a record rate. We look at small problems and see them as insurmountable. We see others’ success and see it as unattainable. The defeat in the room was palpable. I am destroyed.

John Sibley tweets me a funny from the US and I remember that just last month I sat in a room full of people who’d all taken their community’s to No Kill and that they’d faced these same hurdles of ‘animal welfare’ people hell bent on killing and unwilling to stop.

These No Kill advocates succeeded. Those defending the killing were swept aside as the public realised to ‘kill to be kind’ was a misnomer and that the blame for a lack of progressive programs lay squarely at the feet of animal welfare groups who instead lobbied for archaic, community punishing laws.

Two young pro-life advocates spoke to me at lunch. They were just as disgusted with the lack of leadership, the lack of inspiration, the lack of compassion, being shown by our animal welfare leaders. They reminded me that this isn’t about trying to get the ‘old guard’ to change – that, sadly is impossible – but to give new rescuers tools and a voice to try new things. To show them the success of others. To help them throw off the unhelpful mantras of our industry; there’s no other way, animal overpopulation means we have to kill and people are largely irresponsible.That have all proven to be false.

Those who champion killing have no place in our future. They will be remembered for this time in history – when the blueprint to No Kill was presented to them and they instead continued to choose killing. When their peers all embraced success and gave the formula freely and willingly and they instead continued to advocate to have the power to put to death of thousands of animals without account or question. They will be remembered as those who could have fought for animals, but chose not to.

They will fail. The public of Australia are getting wise. They love their pets and want more for than a certain death sentence for homeless companion animals. And we will not give up until they are safe.