New cat laws to force desexing

as posted here

WA's 184,000 cat owners will have to sterilise and microchip their pets by the time they are six months old under laws expected to be drafted by year's end.

Jandakot MLA Joe Francis, who is working on the Bill for the Government, said yesterday he hoped the move would ensure that in 10 years, every cat in WA would be on a national database and the epidemic of thousands of unwanted, healthy kittens being euthanased each year would end.

Mr Francis said he would report to Premier Colin Barnett on his consultations with vets and animal welfare groups.

"I hope it will be a fairly simple, short Bill that will basically address the issue of mandatory desexing of all kittens by a certain age and the compulsory microchipping of all cats by a certain age," he said.

Mr Francis said the most effective and safest age limit in both cases would be six months.

Animal welfare groups, which have long campaigned for tougher rules on cat ownership, welcomed the moves.

Mr Francis said his research showed 14,000 healthy cats were put down in WA last year.

No official data exists on WA cat ownership but national estimates show 23 per cent of households have a cat, making the figure about 184,000 WA homes.

The Local Government Act allows WA's 139 local councils to introduce cat control regulations, but Mr Francis said only 13 had done so.

RSPCA national president Lynne Bradshaw said State cat laws were long overdue but she also wanted a "dusk to dawn" curfew for all cats.

"We're keen for this to be taken up as quickly as possible," she said. "That leaves fewer cats to be bred and fewer cats to be euthanased for no good reason."

A parliamentary committee headed by Mr Francis has asked Joondalup City Council to scrap several key elements of its proposed local cat laws, including compulsory sterilisation.

Mr Francis said Joondalup council was not legally empowered to enforce the laws it had proposed.

"It's one of the reasons why we need a Statewide Act," he said.

Cat Haven operations manager Roz Robinson said until the State laws were drafted, the committee should back Joondalup.

She said compulsory sterilisation was essential. At peak breeding season over summer, the haven had to euthanase up to 100 kittens a day.

Joondalup mayor Troy Pickard said while the city was comfortable with most of the Government committee's suggestions, it would strive to convince MPs to allow the local laws


as posted here