Plans for legislation dealing with control of cats

2/8/93

Local Government Minister Paul Omodei today announced plans to draft special legislation to tackle problems associated with feral, stray and domestic cats.

Mr Omodei said councils across the State had indicated concern over their lack of power to deal with an increasing cat population causing havoc to wildlife and roaming some neighbourhoods unchecked.

He said a taskforce would be established to consider issues such as registration and sterilisation as ways to combat the problem.

For example, the City of Perth had recently undertaken a cat sterilisation subsidy program for a trial period as an incentive to cat owners, and its results would be studied.

A discussion paper would be released for public comment before any changes were introduced.

The Minister outlined his plans today to councils attending a conference in Perth as part of Local Government Week.

Mr Omodei said councils currently had recourse to a Dog Act to deal with canine problems, but had little ability to take action on cats, due to the lack of specific legal controls.

He said the problem varied from shire to shire, so any legislation would need to be flexible, allowing councils to make by-laws appropriate to the needs of their community.

The method of addressing the cat problem of a municipality would depend on what type of cats were causing it - feral, stray, or domestic.

He said cat management covered a range of issues including community nuisance, threats to wildlife, threats to public health, and the welfare of domestic cats.

An essential part of identifying appropriate management strategies would be data collection, which would be undertaken by the taskforce.

The taskforce would include representatives from the Department of local government, animal welfare groups, cat organisations, and the State Government's animal welfare advisory committee.

Mr Omodei said some States had already drafted specific cat legislation and their experiences would be studied.

For example, the South Australian Cat Act regulates the sale and supply of cats, encourages desexing, and imposes registration fees.  It is an offence for a person or pet shop to give away or sell a cat or kitten in South Australia without the fee for desexing or registration being paid at the time of ownership.

Mr Omodei said very little information was available on the number of feral and stray cats in WA, but the numbers were sufficient to be causing real concern to some sectors of the community.

He had received numerous complaints and calls for action over the past few months.

It was anticipated that the discussion paper and recommendations would be prepared and available for public comments within the next few months.

Media contact: Amanda O'Brien (09) 222 9595