In July 2020, the NSW government introduced a new “incentive” to encourage cats to be desexed before the cats reached 4 months of age.
It also acts as a disincentive for owners who owned mature cats as the extra charge $80 also incurred possible late payment fees, even though a current owner may not have owned the cat at such a young age.
In September 2021, the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation (APWF) provided a set of recommendations to improve cat ownership and management within NSW.
These documents are included at the end of this LRC post as Referenced Sources.
In August 2021, a petition was raised to highlight that the $80 fee for desexing a cat after it reached 4 months of age was “hitting” many people and rescues groups who did not own the cat at such a young age.
This was in fact penalising new owners who were doing the “right thing” and desexing, microchipping and registering their cats.
REFERENCED SOURCES
“To create a stronger incentive to desex cats, from 1 July 2020, annual permits will be required for owners of non-desexed cats.
This means that owners of cats not desexed by four months of age will be required to pay an $80 annual permit in addition to their one-off lifetime pet registration fee. Please refer to the Annual Permits section for more information on this requirement.” https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/public/dogs-cats/responsible-pet-ownership/faqs/
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