City's war on cats

MORE than 270 cats found roaming within the City of Swan have been put down since new City bylaws were enacted.

Statistics obtained by the Community Newspaper Group confirm 273 cats have been euthanased since the City began impounding straying animals in January 2009.

Chief executive Mike Foley said under the City’s law residents are allowed to trap cats that enter their property uninvited.

They are kept for seven days at the City’s pound and those that are not claimed or re-homed are put down.

Mr Foley said the decision to either re-home or euthanase a cat depended on its demeanour and condition.

“All impounded animals are scanned for microchips and if found, contact with the owner is made,” he said.

“If the animal is wearing an identification tag, repeated attempts are made to contact the owner. If there is no tag on the animal, it is up to the animal’s owner to contact the City’s pound.”

Those who collect their cat must pay a $100 impoundment fee and a daily fee of $14.

Mr Foley said that from January to April this year, 82 cats had been taken in, with 46 being killed.

“Community acceptance of the City’s local law related to cats has been positive and the introduction of State legislation should add value to these existing local laws,” he said.

Cat Haven spokeswoman Jessica Reid said that while one of the first things many owners of missing cats did was to file a missing cat report with the organisation, the City of Swan had not been checking with them.

“We have not been contacted to see if any of the cats they have taken match the description of missing pets,” she said.

Ms Reid said the Cat Haven did not support the trapping of owned cats.

“They should only be trapped if numerous steps have been taken to make sure they are not owned, and humane trapping guidelines are followed,” she said.

She said proposed legislation – which would make sterilisation, micro chipping and registration compulsory – was a much better alternative than the local laws.

The legislation is open for public comment until Friday, July 30.

Visit www.dlg.wa.gov.au.

What everyone else is thinking

John

05/05/2011

I say kill all the cats. They are a pest (especially to our native environment).

Jane

18/07/2010

I always wondered why the human race think they own the world .we only share it ..maybe the cat doesn't like the way we have destroyed the fauna with our fires and bull dozers ..or sat down to a chicken dinner or maybe we are just jealous that they managed to catch a bird before we could cage it for life..We are such "Masterful" people ..we can be free and eat what ever we like.. We should be looking at impounding our destructive teenagers at night and paying for the damage they have caused before we can release them. Shouldn't we be looking at these bigger issues or are they too big for the council to deal with.?????

Olga and Katrina

28/06/2010

This law is terrible. It allows cats to be killed without control and why don't you scan all the impounded cats? how can they find their homes when you don't even properly check them for microchips. Over and over again innocent animals are left to suffer!

Cheryl May Wyllie

24/06/2010

I lost my cat at the beginning of the year; I noticed a ranger running up and down my street, I stopped him and asked if he had picked up my cat he said "No we dont pick up cats,only dogs, ask your neighbours if they have seen it." My cat is still missing!!!! I am in the shire of Bayswater....I think killing cats is abhorrent. There are many things running around the neighbourhood that are far more feral. What about those lousy hoons. More of a pest than a precious cat.

Local

We need to do everything we can to bring cat numbers down. If you want your pet cat to stay safe then have it microchipped.

Mike

A simple question of cat owners. Or maybe not!
Even if your cats are left in at night can you garantee that your cats then do there business in your own garden? I think not as it is not in the nature of a cat to do it's business in its own patch. Just deal with it. As mentioned before if a cat craps in my garden which is easy to spot the neigbours get a fair share returned once a week.

Janet

23/06/2010

I am really angry having just read this article in my local paper. Cats are harder to contain than other animals. The cost of building an enclosure for cats is out of reach for a lot of people, let alone pensioners, who's only company sometimes is the love of their cat. Most cat owners are responsible, have their pets sterilized, & keep them in at nights. So what if they walk across your property, they are some ones babies, no different than your pet dog or horse. Imagine having your baby disappear and feeling hopelessly sick with dispair not knowing where they have gone, if they were run over, or they are trapped somewhere. The pound is not the first place you think to look for your missing cat. Your loyal cat, that usually comes home at the end of the day to be safe with you at night. Take a good look at your nasty neighbours who are trapping your babies people. Take another look at the council you voted in at the last election. How dare you kill a loved one.

Rachel

This article sickened me. I do not believe the City of Swan should punish the animal for the way its owner looks after it. Yes i believe in responsible cat ownership - i myself have a de-sexed, indoors only car- but i do not believe in giving all and sundry the right to trap stray cats, by any means they see fit, to be a responsible solution. Why not make the registration and sterlisation complusory, and help reduce the cause of unwanted cats? The thing that gets to me the most is that you are not allowed to trap someone else's dog- it must be done by the shire who has been trained and will do so in a humane way. Why then can a cat be trapped by any old person, in any way they want? The humane treatment of cats is not being enforced by this law. And it gives vindictive cat haters the excuse to trap cats- they might know it belongs to their neighbour, but have no duty to diclose to them the fact that they have trapped it and shipped it off to the council. This law will not fix anything.

Derek

How are these laws a good outcome? All these are doing is dividing the community by giving people that hate cats an excuse to go out there looking forcats and capturing them, and taking loved animals from their owners. It is straining the relationships of communities by causing friction between cat owners and people that dont like cats. I thought councils were there to unite communities not divide them? Noone is doubting that there is a need for cat control because not all owners are responsible but these laws have gone too far. Instead of targeting the problem (lack of sterilisation resulting in uncontrollable breeding and lack of responsible pet ownership) they target the symptom (wandering cats). You can target the symptom but unless you stop the root of the problem there will always be these issues.

Steve

Homo Sapiens are the species that is at fault here, nothing else.

Hills Resident

Shelly, your ignorance is typical of many cat owners. If cat owners are made responsible, this barbarity - as you put it - would not be neccessary. This is a proactive move to stop the need for cats to be destroyed and it gives our long suffering native fauna a tiny glimmer of hope for some sort of reprieve from the constant pressure of being slaughtered by uncontained, uncontrolled and yes - NEGLECTED cats. Well done Swan Council and DLG.

kath from Doubleview

22/06/2010

I'm a big fan of cats (I've owned a couple at a time for almost 30yrs) BUT I do think that failure to desex, failure to tag, failure to curfew cats after dark makes trapping OK. If they are turned in to a local animal welfare org. it shouldn't be too hard to pick them up. Just pay the fine for heavens sake, you obviously didn't tick all the boxes or addressed the responsibility criteria. LEARN FROM IT. They're not cattle, you don't just turn them loose thinking that a bowl of food on the back step acquits you of any obligation.

Sharon Lappalinen

I cannot believe you City of Swan, it show the councillors have no feeling at all. Why should the cats suffer because of a few whinging people that have got nothing better to do with their time and have no concern for animals. You have unwittingly given a licence to people to legally torture the cats they catch. I know one person who brags about catching them and then puts them in the cage into the pool to watch them drown. Your law stinks and yes I keep my cats inside at night.

Charlene Plunkett

My neighbour has been upset, because her cat that is microchipped was not scanned when impounded. She was told that scanning was not compulsory -The Shire needs to make sure that those responsible for holding the cats are scanning all cats on arrival.
The cost of impounding and puttng down a cat is expensive. Could the Shire help by funding a desexing drive for cats in the community, as other shires are doing e.g. Mundaring and Stirling. - this would help those that are on low incomes and also create more awareness of the importance of desexing, which prevents unwanted kittens, spraying and calling etc.
I have successfully made adjustments to my fences, to prevent my cats from escaping my yard. If anyone needs help in this regard I am willing to show any concerned cat owner what I have done.

Ralph

It is a great shame that cats come to this end. It is however entirely in the hands of the owners of these cats. Keep them safe at home. I mean in your own home not roaming around in someone elses home. As for the City of Swan's treatment of cats I would point out that it is far better than the greyhound solution practiced in some small country towns. Greyhounds like to chase and especially catch small furry creatures and the cat has not been born who can outrun a greyhound.

David

"She said proposed legislation – which would make sterilisation, micro chipping and registration compulsory – was a much better alternative than the local laws." -- agreed.

Penrhyn

In response to Shelly's comment

'Barbarity at its best'

I would assume that's similar to allowing cats to roam freely and to kill native wildlife (often without eating said kill as the common housecat is over-fed anyway)

'out of touch with positive animal welfare'

Actually, it's encouraging owners to GET in touch with animal welfare, it's far better for cats to live indoors (if you feel cats benefit from outdoor time, build a run or leash train your cat!) and most live far longer and healthier lives.

Sally

If owners are respnsible and keep their cat indoors or microchipped and steralised at a minimum, they have nothing to worry about. I can't beleive that it is still legal to sell mongel kittens from backyard breeders in pet stores and people can sell their kittens in the paper without having sterilised their cat yet. These are the laws that should be changed.

So whiniging cat owners, I dont see you coming to my property with a plastic bag to pick up your cats mess?? Oh but it was not your cat I har all the time. Amazing that it is necer the cat owners cat.

I am still waiting for not only the laws to be the same in all areas but to go alot further in the ownership of cats.

Noel

boo hoo, cats are a pain, kill the native fauna and should either kept inside or given confined run areas within the yard.

Well Done City of Swan - If only others would follow your example

Fink

That is a lot of dead cat.

Another damn good reason why registration and de sexing of cats should be compulsory. Government should not have to force responsible pet ownership on people, but there really does seem to be the necessity for it.

Shelly what would you suggest council do with 273 cats that are beyond behaviour change or so poor it costs thousands to rehabilitate?

-F-

ken

good give the native population ago

WestMicko

I certainly feel sad for responsible cat owners being let down by so many owners who are not. I am not a fond of cats peeing in my garden, climbing over my car, screeching through the night or attacking the frogs and goldish in my garden. I am lees amused by owners who feign sympathy that someone else's cat must be annoying me. So if you own a cat, and have your name and contact on it, by all means you should have it returned. If you cant do that small thing, give your neighbours a break and stop whinging.

julius

Stray cats are taken over Highgate I love cats and mine stays in doors at all time, but the amount that are roaming this area has gone to far some thing has to be done I going to vist a friend in Dianela at night after 10pm there all over the roads its worse than Highgate.

Highgate

Shelly

this is abolutely disgraceful. Does the City of Swan think the massacre of cats will somehow solve the problem?

Barbarity at its best.

You are so out of touch with positive animal welfare Swan Council..you are quite simply a disgrace.

Unfortunately, cats are a huge problem in Perth. Their numbers are way out of hand and they're killing a lot of our native fauna. As adorable as some domestic cats might be, all efforts need to be made to try and bring cat numbers down. Wild cats are one of the bigger environmental problems we have here in WA.