3,000-plus residents speak up on cat management
Tea Tree Gully Council’s community engagement on cat management received a significant number of submissions, with more than 3,000 people having their say during the 4-week consultation.
A summary of the responses tabled at last night’s council meeting, showed the majority of respondents supported increased cat control measures, including a preference for cats to be kept at home overnight.
Council thanked the community for their feedback and decided to use their responses to inform the state government’s upcoming state-wide consultation on cat management regulations, which it’s undertaking to amend the Dog and Cat Management Act.
The CEO will now write to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water with a copy of the community engagement report.
“It’s great to know a larger proportion of our community are in favour of responsible cat ownership,” said Tea Tree Gully Mayor, Marijka Ryan.
“Adopting a state-wide approach would simplify matters for community members. It’s better for us to wait for the outcome of the state government’s consultation rather than rushing ahead and duplicating or contradicting any proposed laws or regulations.”
While Councillors voted unanimously in favour of awaiting possible state government cat control measures, if state legislation has not progressed by 30 June 2024, the matter will return to Council for further consideration.
Results from the Council-run community engagement process, held from 5 June to 3 July this year, indicated:
- 80% of respondents supported having rules or legislation to address cat management and control in the City of Tea Tree Gully
- 85% of respondents supported compulsory desexing of cats younger than six months
- 94% of respondents supported that all cats must be microchipped by 12 weeks of age
- 85% of respondents supported a possible provision of cats being contained at home at night.
These responses came from a broad range of community members, including cat and dog owners.
Tea Tree Gully Council conducted 14 community engagement activities last financial year. Responses have previously not exceeded 2,000.
How the community had a say on cat management and control in the City of Tea Tree Gully