Perth Voice Interactive

STIRLING council has been derided for inaction over the menace of roaming cats hunting wildlife, but council staff are resolute that they have no power to keep cats contained on owners’ properties.

In recent years many councils have tried to enact laws to keep cats at home, with varying levels of success. In most cases, council’s have seen their proposals rejected by WA Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation which decides whether local laws are compatible with state law.

But there’s fierce legal debate over whether the JSC is in the right, and some wildlife advocates are urging councils to challenge the JSC and make a fresh attempt at a local law to keep cats at home.

Stirling council was considering minor updates to its local cat policy this week, and many residents spoke at public question time disappointed their council wasn’t taking firmer steps. 

Resident Simon Wheeler said the report that staff had prepared for councillors, which recommended only small changes and did not advocate for cat containment, had downplayed the community’s desire for action.

Mr Wheeler told mayor Mark Irwin “in a strong field, Mr Irwin, this is one of the most blinkered and one-sided reports I’ve ever read”.

“This report, and internal advice, condemns consultation as irrelevant in the City of Stirling. Just another waste of ratepayer funds. ‘Have your say’, just don’t expect to be heard or acknowledged.”

Mr Wheeler asked “what internal advice was given to councillors as to why the results of community consultation on the local cat laws were considered irrelevant enough to be withheld from tonight’s agenda?”

Stirling’s director of community development Michael Quirk was adamant the council had no power to keep cats at home. 

“The key outcome of our review of the community consultation was that yes, there were a number of residents seeking cat containment,” Mr Quirk acknowledged. 

“Our position based on consultation with the Department of Local Government, with WALGA, with advice from the Joint Standing Committee, our own legal advice, is that cat containment is not possible under the current Cat Act. 

“I understand that you disagree with that point of view, but that is the City’s perspective.”

As to Mr Wheeler’s commentary about the report ignoring community consultation results, Mr Quirk said “it doesn’t matter how we slice and dice and present the community consultation through this report, cat containment is not possible under the Act.”

Mr Wheeler still contends that “cat containment, through responsible control of cats in public places, is absolutely possible, it already has occurred in several local governments”.

But for now, councillors went ahead with publicly advertising their proposed mild updates to the cat policy, and it’ll be out for comment shortly. 

Mr Wheeler had also satirically suggested that the staff report to councillors had included an answer to resident concerns that surely must have been inserted in error: In a summary of community concerns, the report noted that during consultation residents had asked “can we report cat nuisance outside of cat prohibited areas?”

The roundabout answer suggested first talking to the cat’s owner (“if known”), and then a long list of alleged cat deterrent substances.

Mr Wheeler said: “An answer to how one might report a nuisance cat has been replaced instead with remedies for male pattern baldness that one may have found in certain gentlemen’s magazines of the past, advertising application of a little citrus peel, coffee grounds, cinnamon, lemongrass, and of course garlic, though I honestly thought that garlic was for vampires.

“And whilst I have zero doubt that oil of lavender and vinegar sprayed in specific areas will keep pussy away, what on earth, mayor Irwin, does that have to do with the response to City-initiated public consultation that overwhelmingly asked, not for recipes – eye of newt and hair of bat – but for solutions.”

Mr Wheeler said that along with protecting wildlife, many are also concerned with cat welfare too, and he said cats are happier and safer at home where they’re away from traffic and other threats.

“Some 40 or so fur babies won’t come home each and every week in metro WA,” Mr Wheeler said. “They haven’t run off to join the Liberal party, or a cult, they have not won the lottery and retired to a fish market in Italy… they’re dead.”  

by DAVID BELL