Call for cat cut

By Casey Neill
KNOX cat owners will soon be forced to desex their pets in an effort to combat feral felines.
Knox councillors agreed to introduce mandatory moggy desexing in their three-year Domestic Animal Management Plan at their 19 May meeting.
New cat registrations must be desexed from 10 April 2011. The council will shake up its registration fee structure to provide a cash incentive to comply.
Owners will be able to register their cat whole from three months, but proof of desexing will be required the following year.
Cats will be exempt based on veterinary advice, if they belong to a registered breeder or if they are registered with an approved association.
The council will also conduct trials to analyse cat trends and behaviour to decide whether a cat curfew would be appropriate and will make more cat traps available.
The measures are to combat a rising cat euthanasia rate in the municipality, nuisance caused by feral and wild cats and injuries to cats and wildlife.
Baird Ward councillor Peter Cole voted against the move.
“I don’t agree with it. I don’t support it,” he said.
“It’s unenforceable.”
Cr Cole said the minimum $30,000 needed to enforce a curfew would be better spent on an education program.
“People don’t like being told what to do,” he said.
“They’d rather be shown what to do.”
Cr Cole said a cat curfew would not protect cats or animals, and people ignored the good cats did by killing introduced pest bird species.
“They actually do us a service,” he said.
Cr Cole said owners would hide their moggy rather than pay $180 to desex them, leading to a reduction in cat registrations.
But the councillor supported an increase in cages available to residents to trap wandering feral and wild cats. He has even used the cages himself.
“I believe in that system,” he said.
A majority of the 370-plus cats trapped each year are semi-owned or unowned. Only 14 per cent of those trapped in 2008 were released to an owner.
Cat Protection Society executive director and vet Carole Webb said the decision showed the council was addressing the source of the problem.
Dr Webb urged cat owners to desex their cats before the next breeding season began in August.
“It’s an excellent time to act,” she said.
Dr Webb supported a night curfew for welfare of the cats, to reduced nuisance complaints and protect wildlife.
She said it was preferable to 24-hour containment.
“But if it is done properly we are not against it,” she said.