Source : Perth Now news
Cats could be facing stricter curfews in Canning as the city debates amending its cat containment laws.
Councillors voted unanimously at last week’s meeting to hold public consultation on whether cats should be restricted to their owners’ premises and if the city should implement cat curfews and time restrictions.
The motion was submitted by councillor Ben Kunze, who said roaming cats had been an issue in the city for “many, many years.”
“Feral and domestic cats are estimated to cause the death of billions of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians every single year,” he said.
“But it’s long been fine for owners to allow domesticated cats to wander free despite the environmental consequences.”
Cr Kunze said this was not an attack on responsible cat owners, but the environmental impact could not be ignored.
Cr Joanne Page said changing the city’s cat containment laws would also benefit the welfare of the cats.
“These are some of the risks that are taken when cats are left to freely roam … being injured or killed by traffic, or other wildlife like snakes. It’s not just about the impact on wildlife, it’s also impacting the safety of the cats themselves,” she said.
The State Government is working to amend the existing cat Act to empower local governments to create their own containment laws.
The city is among local governments now reviewing its local law. It was previously unable to consider restrictions to cat movements other than prohibiting them from certain public areas due to the overriding State legislation.
Cr Kunze said it was important to get ahead of the game and test public reaction to reforms.
“We should have a simple specific community engagement process utilising all our opportunities including online platforms as well as surveys at appropriate Canning events to proactively seek the public’s opinion,” he said.
“We have the chance to be ready and take whatever action the community wants us to do. If that’s a cat curfew or cat containment, then we’ll be ready to advertise our local law with those provisions included.”
Deputy mayor Mark Bain supported the motion, but suggested an amendment to include a private strategic issues briefing with city staff following the public consultations.
Mayor Patrick Hall agreed, claiming the city needed to follow “due process”.
“It’s always been the case that when we’ve had consultation or surveying, it generally comes back to a strategic issues briefing,” he said.
“The purpose of that is often at those briefings we’ll invite people to come to us to provide ancillary information that might help us better understand the results.”
But Cr Kunze was concerned this would extend the process and said the motion should not be discussed “behind closed doors”.
Council voted to include Cr Bain’s amendment 9-1.
The community will be able to offer general feedback on the changes in the coming weeks. If the council agrees to formally amend its local cat law at a future council meeting, formal public consultation would be held.
