By Andrew Wood and Judy Christie from the Society’s Blue Wren Subcommittee, Bulletin, 10/2024, December

The NSW Parliament’s Animal Welfare Committee, chaired by Ms Emma Hurst, MLC, from the Animal Justice Party, is inquiring into the management of cat populations in NSW. The Inquiry commenced on 11 October 2024.

In its terms of reference, the Inquiry tasks the Animal Welfare Committee with identifying the impact of domestic and feral cats on threatened native animals and what can be done to reduce that impact. It is also looking at the effectiveness of existing cat containment policies and initiatives in reducing the impact of cats on native animals, as well as how such efforts affect cat welfare outcomes. 

In the domestic context, ‘cat containment’ involves owners keeping their cats inside and away from native animals. Reducing the number of cats may also be effective, and the Committee will consider the desirability of implementing large-scale cat desexing programs in NSW.

As cat containment measures involve local government, the Inquiry will identify the implications of implementing and enforcing cat containment policies for councils and the pound system.

The Glebe Society’s view

In its 23 November submission to the Inquiry, the Glebe Society laid out a grim set of numbers showing the devastating effect on native animals of uncontained cats:

  • Roaming domestic cats kill 390 million animals per year in Australia.
  • On average, each roaming pet cat kills 186 reptiles, birds and mammals per year, most of which are native to Australia. 
  • Many of us have pet cats – 27% of Australian households – and about half of cat-owning households have two or more cats. 
  • 2.7 million pet cats in Australia – 71% of all pet cats – are able to roam and hunt. 1.1 million pet cats are contained 24 hours a day, which prevents them from hunting our native creatures.
  • In Australian cities and towns, you’ll find 40 to 70 roaming cats per square kilometre.

Our submission also told the Inquiry about the Glebe’s Hill research project and showed the rather disturbing ghostly images of domestic cats out hunting, recorded on the wildlife cameras set up on the site:

Domestic cats hunting at night on Glebe’s Hill (Photos: Genevieve Heggarty, University of Sydney)

Much of the management of the cat population will take place at the local level yet, the City of Sydney does not have the legislative authority to ensure domestic cats are not allowed to roam freely. For this reason, the Society recommended changes to legislation, specifically to the NSW Companion Animal Act, to enable local councils to: 

  • enforce mandatory microchipping of cats
  • enforce mandatory desexing of cats
  • enforce 24-hour cat containment

We will let you know the outcomes of the Inquiry when they become available. 

Emma Hurst, Chair of the NSW Parliament Animal Welfare Committee which is conducting the Inquiry into the management of cat populations in NSW (Photo: Facebook)