HAWKESBURY Council will not join a push by some New South Wales councils for the state government to change laws around house cat ownership says the Mayor.
Some councils intend to lobby the state government to place a limit on the number of cats people own, mandatory desexing of cats unless owned by a breeder, as well as changing the laws to allow council rangers to catch cats roaming the streets or bushland areas.
Wollondilly Shire Council, in Sydney’s southwest, is one of the councils pursuing the law changes. Eurobodalla, on the south coast, is another.
Hawkesbury Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett said council had no position on potential law changes.
“To my knowledge nobody has approached Council seeking any such changes. I am not aware of any suggestion to broach this subject of a local level,” she said.
Wollondilly councillor Simon Landow said changes to the laws would bring NSW in line with Victoria and the ACT and made sense for a number of reasons.
“In a nutshell we need the companion animals act to be amended or updated. At the moment there is no legal requirement for you to keep your cat locked up,” he said.
Cr Landow said cats on the loose in neighbourhoods, or environmental protection areas, often killed other animals.
“It is just about protecting what we have. We have a pretty significant koala colony [in Wollondily shire] and lyre birds and all these are susceptible to cats,” he said.
Cr Landow said at the moment, a stray dog could be collected by council rangers, but there was no law to allow that for cats.
He said owners of stray dogs would be fined if their animals were caught, but it was not so for cats, even though they could be quite destructive in some environments.
Cr Landow said the mandatory desexing laws would stop cats ended up in council animal shelters, while restrictions on the number of cats people could own would also help reduce that number.
Cr Landow added that he had no problem with cats as companions.
“The majority of cat owners are very responsible but there is the handful that give cat owners a bad name,” he said.
“To me it is about educating people too, you have to stop opening your front door and letting your cat out. Have your cat outside but contain it in your backyard.”