Seems the PR machine for the new WA cat laws has given up on the notion this is about ‘saving lives’, as they prepare to roll out on November 1st. These laws are about cleaning up the streets of untame & community cats;
“While 93% of cat owners did the right thing, (then-local government minister John Castrilli) said local governments needed power to deal with irresponsible owners such as cat hoarders and with wild cats.”
Last week Mandurah was parading their new cat pound, boasting that up to 15,000 cats of their region could be in the firing line;
“A cat management facility is being prepared on Park Road, adjacent to the dog pound.”
This week the city of Rockingham is showcasing their ‘kitty jail’;
“Cat owners take note, kitty jail is ready for business when the State Government’s new Cat Act comes into effect on November 1.
The City of Rockingham has remodelled part of its existing dog pound to accommodate cats, which will be impounded if they are found wandering and if their owners cannot be identified.”
All of this to ‘save’ cats. Liberating them, it seems, from their pesky lives. I’m sure it’s going to turn out great!
However, RSPCA National head Lynne Bradshaw wants even. more. cats. dead. under the new laws;
“RSPCA president Lynne Bradshaw said the association supported the laws but they did not go far enough.
“She said the State Government needed to introduce a “dusk until dawn” curfew for cats…”
Will the RSPCA save the cats pulled off the streets, thanks to this curfew? Not so much…
“What we are actually doing around the country is euthanising cats for no other reason than we can’t find them a reasonable home.”
Explain again how bringing in more cats under a curfew law, brings down shelter intakes and reduces killing?
(Yes, a dead cat is A-ok at the RSPCA! At $200+ bucks a pop, to hold, transfer, assess and kill a cat, why wouldn’t charities want to keep councils coughing up for this service?)
What about measuring the success of these new laws? Obviously, metrics and goal setting is important when creating effective laws;
“Minister for Local Government Tony Simpson says the Cat Act aims to reduce (the number of stray cats), and encourage responsible ownership.”
How many free-roaming, stray & feral cats are there in WA?
“He says he does not know the exact number of stray cats there are in WA but it is a considerable number.”
So we’re not measuring that. At all. Even though the laws are supposed to be reducing the number of strays somehow. That’s an automatic fail.
How about increasing ‘responsible’ cat desexing amongst pet owners?
“Mr Simpson says 90 per cent of cat owners have already sterilised their cats.”
So this already very high number will need to go up, for the laws to be successful. (Did we not think rather than targeting *everyone* we could have investigated why that last 10% weren’t complying and look at ways to help them?)
What is the number of cats destroyed in WA?
“From our perspective there’s 5,000 cats each year that are put down through no fault of their own.”
5,000 gives WA the second lowest shelter cat-kill rate in the country. If this number goes up not down, after Nov 1st, that’s a fail.
What about reclaims?
“Cats must also wear a collar and registration tag so we can reunite lost cats with their owner.”
Currently, the reclaim rates sit under 2% – putting WA about on par with the rest of the country. This will need to improve – an amount more than any increase in impoundments (ie. more cats will need to be reclaimed, than extra unclaimed cats brought in) – for this metric to be deemed ‘successful’.
So what do you think – will WA be successful in reaching any of its ‘targets’?
After the rollout and repeal of their cat laws, Queensland councils have been left with some remarkable insight;
Wayne Kratzmann, South Burnett Mayor said;
“The majority of cat owners who register their cats really do look after, and love, their animals. It was often the non-registered cats – even when it was mandatory – that were causing the problems.
In the Western Downs, mayor Ray Brown said;
“There’s no sense having a licence if no one is actually going to check on it… we believe we’re better off putting the effort into educating people to look after pets better. A desexed animal, that’s somebody’s pet, is not an issue in our small communities.”
Indeed.
UK cat shelters don’t have the ‘overpopulation’ of US (and AUS) shelters – shelters have a lower population density – and as a result cat housing is at less of a premium making shelters healthier overall?
And yet there are four times as many pet cats in the UK as there are in Australia (8 million vs 2 million) – meaning many, many, many more opportunities for cat owners to ‘do the wrong thing’.
How can this be? Maddies Fund investigates;
“In the U.S., it seems in many places, animal control officers are responsible for collecting outdoor cats and bringing them into shelters,” said Dr. Litster.
“It seems that in the U.K., outdoor cats are seen as normal, and are generally left alone. No one feels they have to ‘do something’ about a cat they see outdoors, unless the cat appears to be injured or ill.”
Dr. Dean agreed. “We’re used to seeing cats outdoors in the U.K., so we don’t worry about doing something about it,” she said. “There are probably quite a lot of cats that have two or three homes. Ownership is difficult to determine – for us, that’s normal.”
Both Dr. Dean and Dr. Litster said that, although the U.K. does have shelters with what we in the U.S. call an “open admission” policy, most shelters will not continue to admit cats if they are at their capacity.
“In the U.K., the kill rate for cats is only around 13 percent. Some shelters may euthanize for space, but not on the scale you see in the U.S.”
– Encouraging people to leave free-roaming cats alone unless they’re sick or injured.
– Shelters looking at giving the community options, rather than maintaining an ‘open door’ policy when it actually means ‘intake everything and then kill to make space’.
These are the key two factors as to whether shelters take in many more, or many less cats.
No change in ‘responsibleness of ownership’ required.
See also: Britain’s success in cat management, highlights our own failings
Cats in indoor/outdoor homes. Don’t kill shelter cats & send owners to a BYB, when a few tips can keep outdoor savvy cats safe.
… lots of strays who were found in good health living outside, a low live release rate, a warm climate, and cats with litter box issues not placed on the adoption floor… gosh, there were a lot of potential cats for those who might want an indoor/outdoor or an outdoor cat! The argument of living longer sort of goes away if the alternative for that cat is not leaving your shelter alive (or very low chances of doing so).
