Roaming cats an issue for residents

A REVIEW of cat curfew hours will be carried out this year under the newly-adopted Moorabool Shire Council Domestic Animal Management Plan.

Increased community education on microchipping, registration, desexing and containment of pets are among priorities in the plan, which applies from this year until 2029.

The new plan was adopted at the Shire’s meeting in late December. It supercedes a plan adopted in 2021 and was prepared to conform to a State Government requirement that all councils must develop four-year plans to comply with the Domestic Animals Act.

Public consultation was conducted on the Shire’s Have Your Say platform in October, with respondents asked to complete a short survey.

In addition, 4031 text messages were sent to all registered pet owners in the municipality encouraging them to contribute feedback.

Seventy submissions were lodged, with strong support for stricter enforcement and regular trapping programs to deal with cat containment and roaming issues.

Some people requested increased enforcement officer visibility in parks and public spaces in relation to dog control, while others raised a need for clearer information about owner responsibilities and local laws.

According to an officer’s report tabled at the meeting, one response said: “More needs to be done to prevent cats roaming free at all hours.”

“We need a regular trapping program to reduce feral cat numbers,” another said, while a third said they had never seen an officer at parks around Bacchus Marsh.

“The outcomes demonstrate strong community support for council’s direction and approach to animal management,” the report said.

Before the plan was adopted, Councillor Rod Ward said he had noticed that the number of cats impounded and euthanised had risen while numbers in most other areas had dropped.

“So there’s a strong message there from the public that cat containment and roaming is a major concern,” Cr Ward said, asking officers how they planned to counter that.

Community planning and development executive manager Henry Bezuidenhout told Cr Ward officers would investigate how to improve management of the issue.

He said some of the roaming cats were feral, which made the problem harder to deal with.

But Mr Bezuidenhout added that officers worked with veterinary clinics and adjoining municipalities to combat roaming animals.

In a follow-up question, Cr Ward said he had also seen that dog and cat registrations had decreased despite population growth over the past five years, and asked how the Shire planned to tackle that issue.

Mr Bezuidenhout agreed that registration numbers had to be better and said officers would work on a campaign in the lead-up to the April registration period in an effort to improve them.