Pet cat restrictions mulled by WA councils as they face 'frustrating' wait

Councils across Western Australia are trying to figure out how to stop pet cats roaming the streets ahead of the arrival of new laws that will give them the power to enforce tighter restrictions.

Currently, councils can ban cats from specific public places, address nuisance behaviour and enforce sterilisation, microchipping and registration.

But they don't have the ability to limit cat movements, unless they apply to a special parliamentary committee.

The new legislation, currently before parliament, will let them do exactly that and more.

If the reforms pass, they will be able to:

• restrict cats to their owners' premises
• ban them from public areas unless certain conditions are met
• introduce cat curfews between sunset and sunrise, and
• require cats to be under the effective control of their owners or contained if leaving their property

Curfew on cards

The City of Canning in Perth's south-east has begun consulting ratepayers via an online survey, but anticipates they will favour a curfew.

"It does seem to be a popular opinion that there is a desire for some sort of curfew … what shape that takes, we'll decide that upon the evidence through the submissions," Deputy Mayor Mark Bain said.

His council's boundaries include several areas home to native wildlife, including Canning River Regional Park.

"There's a lot of wildlife in there and there's also cats … so we're very much wanting to be on the front foot," he said.

Bayswater Mayor Filomena Piffaretti said the community had showed it wanted "further controls in place", while the City of Vincent has also flagged restrictions.

Shire of Pingelly CEO Andrew Dover said a draft local law was ready for consultation once the reforms pass.

"We would like full containment, we wouldn't want to put into place any curfews [as] we've seen from the examples in other jurisdictions they've not been as effective," he said.

Mr Dover said he was aware of several local governments in Victoria which had found night-time curfews hard to enforce.

He said if full containment was implemented, the shire would focus on education for owners in the first instance, before impounding and fining repeat offenders.

Fremantle Mayor Ben Lawver said the city would review its laws next year and "consider making some further amendments".

Frustrating pace of change

WA Feral Cat Working Group executive manager Bruce Webber said the legislative changes had been slow.

"It's really frustrating because if you look at this, this is a two-page bill … that we know has cross-party support from almost all parties," Dr Webber said.

"This is something, when implemented, that will save the lives of a million wildlife across greater Perth every single week, and 200 roaming pet cats who are also killed while out roaming," he claimed.

"There are a number of local governments who are chomping at the bit to do this as soon as possible."

A 2023 study by the Biodiversity Council found roaming pet cats killed 323 million native mammals, birds and reptiles in Australia each year.

Changes 'unfair'

A spokesperson for Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley said the government "remains committed" to progressing the reforms but said the bill's timing was "ultimately subject to the parliamentary process and broader legislative agenda".

The bill passed the lower house in September with opposition support and could pass the upper house before the end of the year, given it has bipartisan support.

Not everyone's in favour though.

Animal Justice Party MLC Amanda Dorn has labelled mandatory cat containment an "unfair" and "unworkable" measure that could increase the risk of cat abandonment.