Is it a legal requirement for domestic cats to be contained at night?

[Bretrick]

Here in Australia it is estimated that cats kill 1.5 billion native mammals, birds and reptiles a year.
Yet there is no across the nation law that legislates cats be contained at night.
Local councils say they have no legal powers to restrict domestic cat movements.
While they dither, millions upon millions of our precious native critters are slain.

 

[hollydolly]

No not in this country..... I wish it was.. I wouldn't have neighbours cats chitting in my garden...

 

[astralcat]

How would you go about legislating feral cats? I can understand legislation for cat owners, but there are many feral cats roaming around.

 

[MrPants]

Domestic animal control laws are a municipal jurisdiction issue where I live.

Besides, mother nature tends to have a pecking order in the animal world anywhere I know of. Here, the cats may get the birds and mice or other small critters but the coyotes and/or owls, that we have in abundance, will get the cats at night if left out to roam free. Surely there must be some nocturnal animals in Australia that would go after cats at night?

 

[Bretrick]

How would you go about legislating feral cats? I can understand legislation for cat owners, but there are many feral cats roaming around.

There are shooters employed to track and destroy feral cats. Too many to be rid of.
Feral cats are an introduced species brought over by European settlers from domestic stock.

 

[Bretrick]

Domestic animal control laws are a municipal jurisdiction issue where I live.

Besides, mother nature tends to have a pecking order in the animal world anywhere I know of. Here, the cats may get the birds and mice or other small critters but the coyotes and/or owls, that we have in abundance, will get the cats at night if left out to roam free. Surely there must be some nocturnal animals in Australia that would go after cats at night?

There are an estimated 5 million feral cats roaming Australia.
There are few predators which kill feral cats. Maybe eagles.
But cats are too cunning to be caught the majority of the time.

 

[Aunt Bea]

No restrictions in my area.

I don’t think that it’s fair to blame a cat for being a cat, it’s in their nature to hunt.

I don’t believe that cats pose any significant threat to small animals in the wild and am ok with them helping to keep the rodent population in check where I live.

 

[MrPants]

There are an estimated 5 million feral cats roaming Australia.
There are few predators which kill feral cats. Maybe eagles.
But cats are too cunning to be caught the majority of the time.

I thought you were talking about domesticated cats roaming their owner's yards at night.
If it's feral cats then they are the same as any other wild animal and will provide themselves with food any way they can, just like aall other animals living in the wild.

 

[January]

Surely there must be some nocturnal animals in Australia that would go after cats at night?

Unfortunately not.

Feral and domestic cats, and other introduced species like foxes do untold damage to native flora and fauna and there are no natural predators to combat this.

 

[January]

I don’t believe that cats pose any significant threat to small animals in the wild

Unfortunately in Australia they very much do pose such a threat.

In my local council, pet cats are suppossed to be confined to your property.

 

[JustDave]

Humans have a strange relationship with cats. I like cats, but I also like birds, so twisting the old adage around comes into play: "The enemy of my friend is the friend of ______________________." Mull that one over for awhile and resolove it rationally.