If you follow the Victorian news, you’ll know that there has been an ongoing push by animal welfare groups in the state for compulsory desexing. Ignoring evidence that the majority of owned cats are already desexed, they worship ‘mandatory desexing’ as the holy grail of cat management. One by one councils give it to the wishes of cat groups, either implementing curfews, confinement or desexing mandates, all of which drive unowned cats into an already failing pound system.
Usually there is much celebration by cat groups; mandatory desexing means more cats will be desexed, which means less cats will breed, which means less cats will die in shelters! a flawed line of thinking when every single cat impoundment study has shown the majority of cats entering shelters in the state have never had an owner. But people continue to fall for the emotional blackmail put out by Victorian cat groups, feel good when they get their legislation passed and then fail to monitor the ensuing surge in impoundments and killing.
But with cat groups in Victoria suddenly under fire for poor save rates and people starting to question whether they should listen to the strategic thoughts of those who kill thousands of cats each year, groups are not so enthusiastic about speaking out in support of these laws and facing even more heat. So Councils are going it alone. And suddenly, things are getting a lot more honest.
When Wyndham’s deputy mayor spent two days in hospital after being bitten breaking up a cat fight, cats were suddenly back on the Council agenda (interestingly, this councilor had a history of taking in semi-feral strays, so presumably has a lot of compassion for these Community Cats). But with council’s dawn to dusk curfew (that its had since 2006) not reducing the 1200 cats impounded (781 killed) each year, there had been the call for ‘more to be done’.
So Council is now looking at further restrictions, but without the usual song and dance about ‘dead kittens’ from cat welfare groups, it’s much more *ahem* real.
About three local cats are put down daily, council figures show.”
About 1,035 a year (an increase of 25% since mid 2009)
The council said mandatory cat desexing was not the answer, with 95 per cent of Wyndham’s 5,415 registered cats already desexed.
Reflecting the usual findings of Victorian Councils that owned cats aren’t the ‘problem’ in their communities.
Only 55 of the 1100 impounded in 2009-10 were registered.
Confirming that impounded cats overwhelmingly have never had owners, are the offspring of free-roaming cats and wouldn’t be affected by ‘mandatory desexing’ anyway.
And now where it gets really interesting (and this is the bit cat groups usually don’t include in their promotional drives for more cat laws)
Proposed plans to cut stray numbers include more cat-trapping in commercial and industrial areas, and in Werribee’s CBD.
The council said it had trapped more than 100 strays in two days in industrial areas of Laverton North and Hoppers Crossing, and in the CBD.
Residents who have strays on their property can hire a cat trap from the council and take the cat to the city’s pound. The council hires out about 150 traps a year.
So while this council is complaining of high impound and kill rates (what cat groups normally latch onto in support of mandatory desexing laws) they are giving out traps to anyone who wants to target cats for removal, are trapping free-roaming cat colonies and killing them and are removing cats from industrial areas.
Every single thing we know that drives up intakes, completely independent of an ‘irresponsible public’.
But its not all bad in Wyndham; while they trap over 1,000 cats a year and kill the majority of them, it ‘supports’ cats in the community by offering desexing; 300 in the last year. But this is only available to people willing to ‘take in their stray’ and doesn’t extend to those animals living without an owner.
We have been hoodwinked by cat groups for long enough. Bad council policy and bad laws are the reason so many cats end up dead in shelters… not the community misbehaving in some way.
There is a solution. But until even one major cat welfare group in Victoria stands up and starts lobbying to protect cats, we are doomed to stay on this merry go round of trapping, killing and unfairly blaming cat owners for the deaths.
