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

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
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.
 

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?
 
MrPants said:
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?
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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.
 
Bretrick said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
Aunt Bea said:
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.
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The figures speak for themselves. 1.5 billion native critters are killed by cats every year. That is only in Australia.
 
MrPants said:
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.
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Feral cats were brought out to Australia by European settlers. They came from domesticated stock.
Domestic cats are killing untold numbers of native animals.
They should be controlled and neutered.
 
Bretrick said:
The figures speak for themselves. 1.5 billion native critters are killed by cats every year. That is only in Australia.
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That’s an interesting statistic, I would be curious to know how they arrived at that number with any degree of accuracy.

I have never seen a domestic or a feral cat in the wild and that may be the difference between where we both live.

In this area the cats all seem to remain in populated areas.

I absolutely agree that all pet owners should be responsible for their pets and should strongly consider having them spayed or neutered.
 
MrPants said:
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?
Click to expand...
No ferrel cats in my area, some domestic but with Coyotes, Fox and owls not May people let there cats out at night. Heck even during the day there is a chance a fox, hawk or coyote can get the cat.
 
Bretrick said:
Feral cats were brought out to Australia by European settlers. They came from domesticated stock.
Domestic cats are killing untold numbers of native animals.
They should be controlled and neutered.
Click to expand...
I see your point in that the cats don't have any natural preditors there. If they've been there that long though, I expect it would be impossible to eradicate them at this point even if a government body passed a law of some sort.
I do strongly agree that it is every pet owners responsibility to have all domesticated animals neutered when acquiring them, unless they're a certified breeder.
 
No cat laws here that I know of, although maybe there should be requirements for rabies vaccination, at a minimum. And possibly sterilization for outdoor cats since they can quickly produce destructive numbers of feral cats. Our outdoor cats are vaccinated, “fixed”, and well fed so they are not killing too much.

There are also predators of cats in our area, but if our cats are well fed, especially near nighttime, they stay safe. One is nearly 10 years old.
 
We had a bumper crop of squirrels this year and the feral cats have cut them down considerably in just 4 months.
I called about the growing number of feral cats to the shelter. They told me for them to round them up they have
to be human friendly and able to be adopted, otherwise WE have to trap them and take them to the kill center
in St Louis ourselves. But we are not allowed to harm them or we face court and fines for cruelty.
I wish these people who began this had to pay a fine for not fixing them or taming them.
 
Bretrick said:
There are shooters employed to track and destroy feral cats. Too many to be rid of.
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@Bretrick. That is a huge problem - way larger than I thought it was. I can see how it would be difficult to control - cats have litters several times a year. A huge part of me is sorry for the cats that need to be destroyed. Nature does have a way of balancing everything out - it may take awhile.
 
I looked at my City code under animal control. There are many restrictions on dogs and other animals, including livestock and roosters, but cats are not even mentioned once. There are some that roam freely through my neighborhood - mostly at night.
 

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