Interesting Council Cat Management Strategy

[Little Gifts]

https://theconversation.com/how-to-cut-stray-cat-numbers-in-a-way-that-works-better-for-everyone-229291?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR22IsPbHxiL0O9mzfteKcfSxQHN7tmMvCmoIuqJGU5GoJ9K7lDLscS6nhM_aem_Afp5jjKMTkccLmKNGvPVjVM9il0l0B435xpaVVA43JE4owBhE3yMhDVl4bpFm5Ki8Cw5KtCfz-P1Qn4zMaFJt5Rg

[tdierikx]

Meanwhile the council referred to so glowingly in that article has only 4 legally designated off lead exercise areas for dogs, of which there are approximately 13,329 registered in the LGA... and all of them are located mainly on one side of the LGA area, meaning that a good half of the dog-owning population would have to travel a fair distance to get to one.

 

That council are also now looking to enact either curfews or 24/7 containment for owned cats, so possibly their free programs aren't working as well as they like.

 

T.

[persephone]

yes, it all sounded great - it at least got many cats desexed and would have put a big halt to cat population growth  for a while.

[Little Gifts]

Interesting info about that council, T. Could be wrong but I would like to think their cat containment by-laws are another strategy to reduce cat ownership issues in their LGA. They probably had no idea how many pet cats were even out there until they started the free program. Containment has been law for decades up where I live but still there  are deceased cats on roads and stray/lost ones ending up in the pound, so it never fully fixes a problem. Few people register their cats up here (unlike dogs) and the cost of desexing remains a factor in people ensuring that cute kitten they got off someone for cheap doesn't have kittens of its own.

 

I also feel the cost of living crisis is really impacting not only people keeping their pets, but the number of foster carers and adopters that are out there for all these animals. We have to humanely reduce the numbers needing assistance in the first place.