THE POTENTIAL TO ENCOURAGE A RISE IN CAT HATERS ATTACKING & KILLING CATS
WARNING: some comments we have shared in this post from Facebook (FB) pages may be of concern to read. These comments are copied from various FB pages and have been determined to pass social media standards by FB and the administrators of the pages.
We promote cat enclosures to keep cats and wildlife safe. Confining or containing cats (or other pets) have similar meanings but there are different ways to achieve these.
However, there are several issues with mandating cat confienment/ containment i.e. including requirements in legislation. Cat enclosures may involve significant costs for cat owners, difficult to erect due to other resident complaints, and difficult and costly for a council to enforce.
We also see the dark side, which may include to incite or encourage violence to cats.
Many councils are aware that a number of owned cats are “relocated” to different suburbs, (sometimes over 20km from their homes).
Or are surrendered to the council pound of their local government area or another local government area.
This is also commented on Face Book (FB) pages (not included in this post).
Do any councils track and report on these actions?
Very few (if any) councils track or report on deaths of cat unless the cat is surrendered to the pound.
We are not aware if the NSW government reports on owned cats who disappear. Some owners may (not mandatory) report their cats as lost on the NSW Pet Registry.
There has been “anecdotal” comments on social media in relation to these actions.
ROAMING CATS BEING ATTACKED OR KILLED
Applying mandatory cat confinement legislation is likely to encourage an increase in these actions by cat haters on the alleged grounds that all roaming cats are ‘illegal’.
In our images are several examples of cats being, or threatened to be, harmed or killed, as sourced from various Facebook pages.
In the past years many of the comments have been more “blunt”.
The comments that have been copied here, have been determined to pass social media standards.
If some cat haters already consider any roaming cat feral or warranting themselves taking action against all roaming cats…
then what will be the reactions/ actions if mandatory cat confinement is implemented?
High intensity, high volume or mass desexing – what does this mean?
All terms are generally used to describe a focused project to desex (spay/neuter) as many cats as possible, preferably in a rapid time frame in a targeted geographical area (e.g. suburb or suburbs) where high volumes of cats have been identified. Several related projects may be performed under a program of works, such as targeting one suburb or location at a time.
We adore cats, but we need to see far fewer cats & kittens from breeding, fewer abandoned, fewer ending in pounds or shelters being euthanased.
Many of us are aware of the benefits for desexing our own cats.
Where a neighbourhood has a large number of roaming undesexed cats, the numbers increase too rapidly. Noticeably, even more rapidly in recent years with warmer conditions related to climate change.
In some suburbs, rescues and residents describe a tsunami of cats and kittens. Then the cats may be viewed as:
being forsaken and ownership becomes unclear
losing social skills with people, they may incorrectly be labelled “feral”
becoming a nuisance and are open to attack by cat haters
Currently in NSW intensive desexing activities are carried out by a variety of groups, including:
Small rescues, who are volunteers providing a level of care to a community of cats
Several Australian councils, who may work independently or with the assistance of others
Large animal welfare organisations eg AWL NSW branches and/or support local rescuers with subsidised desexing; the Cat Protection Society supporting local rescuers or individuals with subsidised desexing or; RSPCA NSW supporting councils
Are you aware of the benefits of high intensity desexing of cats?
By focused efforts to desex as many cats as possible in an area, the breeding cycle is stopped or significantly reduced. The number of cats can be better managed and further reduced with rehoming practices and education on responsible ownership.
One of the leading organisations on desexing (also known as spay/neuter) is Alley Cats in the USA. We see examples from overseas of high volume desexing of cats in hotspots, and these processes have successfully been kicked off here in Australia. Let’s take a look at a few…
Banyule Council Victoria
The achievements at Banyule were raised in a separate blog item October 2020, which we have included in the Referenced Sources.
As an Animal Management Officer, Jenny saw firsthand the flood of kittens being born and quite often abandoned. As many rescue groups were full, it left no options with the council at the time other than to euthanase.
Since 2013 Banyule council has been subsiding free desexing for cats in “hotspots”. The program has been highly successful in reducing the number of abandoned cats and kittens; and reducing the number of complaints made to council in relation to roaming cats.
The yearly program has been provided a more valuable outcome, than the alternative of the council pound dealing with more surrenders, the costs of euthanasia and the emotion and mental stress for the Animal Management Officers, pound staff and vets. The Banyule council example is referenced in studies, and available to other Australian councils.
Onkaparinga Council in SA
In 2020, Onkaparinga announced a two year program to desex 2,000 cats. The council is currently half way through their targets, ie they have desexed aaround 1,000 cats.
The press release at the time included some very powerful views on the expected success. We have included the original press release in Referenced Sources below.
The Mayor, Erin Thompson expressed key views, including:
Increasing desexing rates deliver the biggest benefits for cat management outcomes
The number of unwanted litters of kittens were creating problems
It was estimated thousands of kittens and cats were surrendered to pounds and shelters each year
The council’s three focus areas are: “desex, microchip and ‘indoors at night’ “
They are seeking outcomes which are “good for cats, it’s good for wildlife, and it’s good for neighbours”
Community Cat Program under the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation
This is a unique program in Australia from an organisation we consider a leading authority on what has worked and what hasn’t worked with cat management issues.
Refer Referenced Sources for the webpage and the 2021 End-year progress report Community Cat Program document.
“Most of the animals currently euthanased in Australian shelters and pounds are stray cats from cities and towns. This is because how we currently manage them doesn’t reduce their numbers. It just leads to a constant cycle of breeding, impoundment, then euthanasia. More breeding, more impoundment, more euthanasia…”
[Photo of undesexed cats c/o LRC Sydney based rescue group]
The APWF approach became an innovative five year trial, to utilise desexing as the main method for managing stray cats in urban areas.
The are several projects in a number of states under this program, and more detail is included in the APWF status report and includes:
Queensland (QLD)
Pilot program completed
Pilot extended to another area
Over 1,000 cats desexed
South Australia (SA)
Onkaparinga has desexed near 1,000 cats
Victoria (Vic)
Banyule Council benefits from some of the lowest figures in the state for impounding and euthanasia following years of intensive desexing in the local government area.
City of Greater Shepparton is ramping up with facility improvements for a high-volume cat surgery to begin high intensity desexing in targeted areas.
Section 4 “Project research aims and interim results” of the status report provides the findings and outcomes
It also includes summaries of related programs by Banyule and Onkaparinga councils, the National Desexing Network (NDN), and RSPCA.
In a nutshell, this program provides measurements showing that with intense desexing, there will be fewer cats being impounded and euthanased at council pounds.
With fewer cats breeding, there are fewer roaming cats and fewer complaints to council.
This also has a roll on benefit to carers, be they paid staff in council pounds or rescuers (ie carers) of community cats.
This may be common sense to many.
The Community Cat Program is providing the evidence.
Investing in high intensity desexing is a wise choice!
While there has been research on compassion fatigue for professionals (paid workers with certified training etc.), there does not yet appear to be research relating to volunteers. However, it is to be expected that volunteers with cat rescue groups go through the same if not worse experiences, as cat rescuers have high empathy and are dedicating their spare time, labour, funds for the love of animals. Cat rescue individuals and groups experience both:
primary trauma in the form of mental, emotional and sometimes physical abuse from working in adverse, extreme and often dangerous environments (anecdotally cat rescue groups advise their female volunteers to only proceed into some metropolitan areas in groups of two or more as they have been physically threatened for helping and retrieving cats and kittens), and
secondary trauma due to frequently being involved with the trauma of unwanted cats (and sometimes their owners) in harsh conditions where many free roaming cats in ill health desperately need assistance, with the numbers ever increasing despite desexing as many as possible.
Generally, cat rescue groups do not have the resources, expertise or funds to proactively address compassion fatigue as do council pounds or large animal shelters. Cat rescue groups find it challenging to take sick leave, find backup staff/volunteers, or make time for training etc. Many operate under respectful conditions within their own groups. Yet engagement with the public may lead to verbal abuse in phone calls, emails or on social media, especially when needs to assist cats exceed the capacity for care.
Escalating Pressure on Cat Rescue Groups
Many rescue groups in NSW are finding it difficult to cope with the number of people requesting their support for stray unowned cats that are breeding.
Anecdotally, a small number of rescues in the Sydney Metropolitan area (who are not Rehoming Organisations) have provided the following feedback. From social media activity and feedback from several cat rescue groups, it appears that the number of people seeking help for cats from cat rescue groups is increasing.
There has been a noticeable increase in requests for help for semi-owned or unowned cats and kittens – estimates vary from 30% to much more – in forms of direct requests (phone, email, Facebook messages) and requests on social media on a number of Facebook group pages. Examples include:
“During kitten season 2020/2021 we peaked at 110 cats on board; an increase of over 30% on previous years.”
“We have seen a massive rise in street cat populations… we are seeing an increase of 40%.”
“Normally approx 30… the past 12 months 250” (re cats/kittens taken in per year).
“We definitely are being hit up more to help cats and we cannot keep up and have to constantly say no – it’s heartbreaking.”
“We also receive many calls for help and we are just not able to take any more cats on board. Whilst the huge increase in adoptions during Covid means many adoptions in that year, the fallout is that adoptions are now very slow and that means we are not taking on new cats as we usually would.”
“The pressure is extreme too” (pressure from requestors to rescuers for assistance with cats/kittens).
The “incoming” rate in colonies is increasing. In areas where unowned cats congregate (most often on private property and less often around schools, hospitals, aged care facilities, government housing and in parks or light industrial areas), referred to as colonies, new cats continue to be “found” at a more rapid rate than previously. This is beyond new kittens being born to cats in managed colonies because these cats have often been desexed. Examples include:
“Everyone we know caring for a colony is reporting new cats arriving in their colonies very regularly; possibly weekly to monthly. There is a high level of frustration that the desexing of these colonies never ends. The colony carers think they have their colony desexed and they find a few more undesexed cats have turned up.”
“So many new colonies springing up everywhere”
“…we are so pressured with activities for trap/desex and advise mostly locally.”
There has been a significant increase in the number of cats surrendered or abandoned (i.e. socialised cats found without an owner in a yard, street, school, park etc.) who are either pregnant females or females with a litter of kittens. Examples include:
“15 years ago mostly we rescued young kittens from unsocialised mums and desexed the mums… In rescue we say each kitten season is worse than the year before but 3 years ago I was utterly shocked at what appeared to be a huge increase in friendly stray numbers. In the last 3 years we have probably doubled the number of very pregnant or lactating mums we have taken on each spring/summer.”
“In the last few years we have received many more requests for subsidised desexing vouchers than previously; especially during Covid as people reported financial stress. Many more people are finding a stray cat or kitten and willing to keep them if they can have some financial help with the vet work. Sadly, because we have so many more cats on board and also the fact that our per cat costs have increased A LOT especially when you take into account the $80 late desexing fee, we have not been able to issue many vouchers this year.”
“We work closely with trappers/colony feeders and the number of community members not desexing then dumping their undesexed cats before or after they have babies is absolutely appalling. We are possibly talking thousands of these cats dumped each year and most of them are breeding.”
“I understand the intention of the ‘Annual permit’ is to encourage people to desex before their first litter, but people who don’t desex their pets don’t microchip anyway.”
“…once people find out the ramifications of chipping their cats they won’t do it.”
There has been a noticeable increase in illness amongst the cats abandoned (unowned or semi-owned cats), either in more cats being ill or more virulent forms of illnesses. Examples include:
“As the number of stray cats has increased over the years, so has the deterioration in their health. As a very experienced carer with a wonderful network of vets, I am getting increasingly frustrated at how much harder it is now to stabilise the health of the kittens/cats and transform them into healthy, robust felines. We are seeing more deformities in the last 3 to 5 years than ever before and other afflictions such as ringworm and the herpes virus are more bombastic and harder to treat. This means the cats are having to stay in care longer as we battle to get them healthy so they can have their vet work and be adopted and it also means they are costing us more money.”
“We are seeing a horrible number of starving and sick cats on the streets now. We are seeing more congenital deformities. In previous years, perhaps we would have 1 cat test FIV positive a year. This year we have had THREE of our mums test positive. This also impacts the number of cats we can rescue as FIV positive cats are very hard to adopt.”
“…in the past two years we have seen a severe increase in ringworm… Cat flu also seems to be more virulent and we do often find dead kittens and we have had more cats with congenital eye issues come onboard “
Small rescues are being asked more often to assist vets, businesses and council pounds in taking on the “harder” cases involving ill cats/kittens that need more resources than a business-run facility can take on (based on costs decisions). Examples include:
“…we have also extended our intakes to take strays surrendered to the pound and take strays surrendered to vet practices. We are taking more and more from various vets, even vets we don’t partner with who are just desperate.”
“…now finding more requests more often on social media from “friends of” groups for pounds looking for “rescues only” to assist with ill kittens and cats.”
“We find we are called out more and more to … businesses where the people have no tolerance for the cats.”
Our view on cat rescue groups provided here, sets out information and experiences with groups across the Sydney metropolitan area, regional areas, and cat rescues in other states and territories.
There are many misconceptions / misunderstandings of cat rescue groups, and others, involved with the care of urban cats.
This information has been provided to include insights into the value delivered by these individuals and teams. Cat rescue groups are key stakeholders involved with addressing the issues with unwanted and homeless cats. They contribute significantly to desexing cats, and limiting the birth of kittens.
Value of responsible cat rescue groups
There are hundreds of cat rescue groups operating across NSW, ranging from individuals through to complex teams of 30 or more who rehome once abandoned or homeless cats and kittens. These groups operate under a rescue identity (group name) and not under personal names, and house their cats on their own private properties, e.g. foster carer properties.
They are collectively rehoming, microchipping, desexing and registering thousands of cats across NSW each year. Doing “the right thing” as new cat owners, due to their compassion for animals.
Only some councils recognise the efforts of cat rescue groups operating in their Local Government Area (LGA) and help these teams where possible. Anecdotally, each year some of the cat rescue groups are each spending over $50,000 on desexing assistance offered to the public for collectively desexing thousands of cats.
Who& what are cat rescue groups
They are responsible people who are saving cats directly rather than surrendering to council pounds and animal shelters, which may incur a surrender cost, are generally always at capacity, and have to euthanase healthy and treatable animals, based on capacity etc.
These groups are generally funded by the members of the group and through donations. They save council and shelter facilities resources and funds, collectively equating to saving ratepayers/ taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Cat rescue groups are generally characterised by the following:
they operate under a rescue group identity and not personal names,
cats and kittens are housed in private properties,
they are responsible in terms of desexing, identifying with microchip, registering the cats and kittens in their care, and seeking appropriate vet care when needed,
with most if not all team members are volunteers,
each is generally small in terms of people power and geographical area they support eg from 3 to 30 foster carers, across one or many Local Government Areas (LGAs),
many of their volunteers have
professional careers usually in other fields of specialist expertise, while some are retired individuals,
had experience either working or volunteering with council pounds, the large animal shelters, vets,
completed formal studies with certificates/ accreditation, or have gained extensive practical cat care over decades,
where a small proportion are “newbies” being motivated by their love and care for abandoned cats,
with few people able to spend the time and effort in meeting intensive administration obligations,
often seen as more merciful with lower cat euthanasia rates than council pounds and large animal shelters.
Management structures
some rescues are registered charities
some rescues are not-for-profit businesses
mostly run independently from council pounds
have chosen not to be a Rehoming Organisation registered with the NSW Office of Local Government (OLG)
as they take in cats and kittens directly from the public or found abandoned on the streets or other urban areas, which in the past has not been condoned under the NSW government’s obligations
Their network relationships vary with vets, councils, pounds and other rescue groups, and are usually reliant on historical personal relationships, being in close geographical areas, working collaboratively on complex or demanding rescues, and/or providing similar services.
Anecdotally, there are a few people claiming to be rescuers who do not act responsibly or not in the best interests of the animals, generally, these individuals or groups are not respected by rescue groups and are not provided with assistance unless the animals are in mortal danger.
Rescues transitioning to enabling others
In recent years, as the need for helping abandoned cats has anecdotally increased with “explosions of breeding in hotspots”, small rescue groups are becoming overwhelmed year round, not just during the summer breeding season.
Some cat rescue groups are expanding their services to enable those inexperienced in the community to “DIY” rescue and rehoming, providing practical advice, references to other organisations who may help with resources, offering their own desexing vouchers, food, standard flea and worming treatments, assistance with vet bills, and even lending equipment.
Desexing vouchers or similar forms of such assistance are becoming more prevalent with cat rescue groups, who are not able to provide a shelter or enough foster homes for all the cats in need.
Management Structures & Funding
Only some councils recognise the individuals and groups who are seen performing responsible cat rescue and completing the government obligations including microchipping, desexing and registration. These cat rescue groups are not so easily seen by the NSW government.
Some rescue groups are charities and meet the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission obligations for reporting. This includes operating Annual General Meetings and reporting etc to members.
Some rescue groups are Not-for-profit and registered with ABNs, and meet the Australian Tax Office obligations for reporting. Their success rates are generally shared on their own webpages or social media communications.
The funding for these initiatives currently is being provided by cat lovers. Some groups are able to fund most of the costs involved with desexing, vaccination, microchipping, and registration from adoption fees (around $200 – $250 per kitten/cat).
However, the adoption fee usually does not cover weekly care (food, kitty litter, housing in the form of rent, electricity etc.), multiple standard flea and worming treatments which may be required for years for long term cats in care, or any additional medical treatments: vet consults or procedures, antibiotics, medications for common illness (e.g. cat flu or ringworm), or extensive illness or injuries, especially those requiring surgery.
The NSW Companion Animal (CA) Act and the CA Regulations should be reviewed by every pet owner. In addition, your local council webpage should be checked for refinements and additions, as these can be different from one Local Government Area (LGA) to another.
Unfortunately while some conditions in the CA Act and Regulations are straight forward, there are complexities “lurking” that may even challenge a legal advisor.
The NSW Government places obligations on cat owners, including to ensure they complete for their kitten/cat:
Identification including microchipping with the cat’s & owner’s details submitted before 12 weeks of age or being sold/transferred/given to a new owner,
Desexing before 4 months of age, related to the Annual Permit for owning a cat not desexed or not arranging for your cat to be desexed before 4 months of age.
Registration before 6 months of age with a one off lifetime pet registration $fee, and related to desexing and Annual Permit fee being triggered.
The CA Act includes that registration should occur before a cat reaches 6 months of age.
The CA Regulations include that registration should occur before a cat reaches 12 weeks of age.
In practice, the NSW government communicates that 6 months is the threshold.
Various exemptions and grace periods exist in the Companion Animals Act & Regulations including for:
cats from council pounds, RSPCA, AWL NSW, CPS, & Rehoming Organisations’ cats taken in from council pounds;
pensioners and others on social welfare as cat owners;
cats for whom vets have provided in writing confirmation of medical issues which will delay desexing, and
How would you feel having to hand in a small friendly 4 week old kitten to certain death?
“we knew it had no hope…we rang everyone…can you take this kitten? …it got put down”
Implementing FREE desexing made an impact
In 2013 at Banyule Council Victoria, Jenny an Animal Mangement Officer, initiated a major step in improvements for caring for abandoned and owned cats in their council area. They promoted and helped introduce a program to not just encourage but offer free desexing to residents, based on the AMOs’ etc experiences of the numbers of cats and kittens needing help. This program has made a real impact in reducing the tsunami of kittens being born each year, too many kittens evolve into abandoned or surrendered cats and kittens to the pound, where a significant number are euthanised especially when the council pound reaches capacity.
How it started & evolved
The initial first wave (project) of the program commenced with the RSPCA mobile clinic offering free desexing for a targeted area of residents. This included microchipping and running courtesy buses from residents’ locations for pickup and drop off the cats, with a follow up to remove stitches etc. . The first two waves of this program targeted hot spot suburbs, where many cats were known to not be desexed.
The next wave (project) involved 2 private vet clinics and dissolvable stiches, so AMOs didn’t have to stress cats 10 days later. This was then opened to all residents of Banyule.
Jenny and the team noticed that surrenders and stray cat complaints along with cat intakes started to rise again, even though these offers were being taken up, and desexing of the cats continued. Their focus returned to the target area again, by letterbox dropping flyers, speaking to residents and promoting on social media.
Jenny ran two ongoing programs:
a) free desexing available for residents
b) a community cat research program, focusing on converting semi owned cats into fully owned members of the family in conjunction with the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation
Results!
Since 2013, these programs have been significantly cost effective offering value for money to the council and the ratepayers 🙂 Around $63k has been spent over these years with nearly 800 cats desexed etc.
The cat pound increasing fee’s per cat gained a negotiation of 200 free cat desexing’s, also including chipping and registration. 75 of the 780 cats have been desexed for free and are not included in the $63,000.
This is a highly successful program just based on the financials. On average less than $100 per cat has been spent. This has been financially supported by Banyule council and has an ongoing budget for free cat desexing. However, this has been a hugely more valuable outcome than a council pound dealing with more surrenders, the costs of euthanasia and the emotion and metal stress for the Animal Management Officers, shelter staff and vets.
The other major outcome has been limiting kittens born each year. Just rounding the figures of the cat desexed, will equate to 400 less breeding pairs, possibly birthing 2 litters per year of say 5 kittens each time = 4,000 kittens NOT being born each year!
What a change!
The work at Banyule council continues, and there is a much more satisfaction from team roles by completing proactive actions, instead of just sending cats and kittens to their chance of rehoming versus death at a council pound.
Jenny indicates that they felt like “we were just depressed overpaid pet killing taxis” prior to this program.
The council fully supports these programs: these programs benefit the cats, their owners, the council teams, the council’s $ bottom line, and the community as a whole.
Jenny has found new opportunities and works collaboratively with other organisations, to share knowledge and experiences, and continue the promotion of the effectiveness of FREE and intensive desexing of cats.
Renting with pets is rarely easy, you have your pet to consider, your landlord, and the neighbours to appease, and also to conform to shared rules if you are in a strata complex.
However, many of these needs, which initially looks like from a diverse group are generally satisfied by the foundations of being a responsible pet owner. Keeping your pet healthy (fed, clean & safe), happy (active and not bored), and not being a nuisance to neighbours.
Firstly, understand what the legal requirements & obligations are for a tenant, a landlord, and if needed a strata management committee.
We recommend two sources of information: firstly the NSW Office of Fair Trading. Check their web site, and it also includes sections on tenants with pets in a strata.
See “By-laws in your strata scheme” and how they may be changed.
Also look at “Major changes to strata laws” (which were made in November 2016) and this section includes a subsection on “Strata reform myth busters”.
This contains the myth that “Strata buildings cannot ban pets” – something misunderstood by many.
The second source we strongly recommend is from the Law Society, rather than trying to interpret the laws yourself.
Only a few pages long, read the guide from the NSW Young Lawyers also on “Keeping Pets in Strata Schemes”.
They have included a few “above the norm” suggestions.
Understanding your obligations, we suggest that you start building a Pet Resume for your loved little ones, and have that ready for when you next move.
See our checklist.
Also consider Added-Value options to include in your pet’s resume.
Some suggestions to consider:
If you have a dog, how often do you exercise him/her?
does your dog go to a day-care or trainer?
do you have a reference from them?
if you have a cat, are you committed to keeping your cat inside or in an outdoor enclosure and definitively inside at night?
if you have a cat, do you provide plenty of cat scratching posts?
do you arrange for pet sitters? is this a professional organisation?
are you open to your landlord meeting your pet? or do you have any videos to share to show the personality & behaviour of your pet, especially when interacting with people?
Then, the rest is common sense, and making sure your pet has plenty to keep it active, not bored nor anxious.
Ensure you can effectively monitor and respond when there are any problems when you are out and your pet is home alone.
It is better to put your efforts into setting up and maintaining a good neighbour & a responsible owner approach then the effort into legal or tribunal disagreements.
The good experiences you have will also play-it-forward to other
future pet owners being accepted in more rented homes.
LRC 