With over 1000 cat and dog attacks on wildlife in the Sydney region during 2010, Leichhardt Council encourages pet owners to keep their pets confined at night time. Leichhardt Municipal Council
A Balmain cat owner, Bec Jones, 22, was not sure she could get one of her two cats, Coco, to stay indoors.
''It's a cat personality thing, really. We've tried to keep her inside but she doesn't want to; she gets really agitated and is likely to have a bowel movement inside, which I guess we will have to sort out if we have to keep her in.'' Sydney Morning Herald
Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the predatory activities of the house cat (Felis catus) in Australia, focusing principally on the interactions of domestic and stray cats with native species of prey. Like their free-living, or feral, counterparts, domestic cats take a broad range of prey, with small mammals, birds, and human-derived foods forming the bulk of the diet. Domestic and stray cats have contributed to declines of suburban populations of eastern barred bandicoots (Perameles gunnii) and superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) in Victoria, Australia. The effects of cats on prey communities remain speculative. In Sydney, artificial nests placed in trees in forest remnants suffered less predation where cat activity was high rather than where it was low, indicating that cats beneficially reduced damage by introduced rats and other nest predators. However, high cat activity was associated with reduced bird diversity. Legislation to encourage responsible cat ownership has been passed in Australia; it should have positive outcomes for both wildlife conservation and cat welfare.posted by robcorr at 3:30 AM on June 10, 2011 [5 favorites]
"Each owner shall keep and maintain his animal under restraint; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to any dog being used for rescue or law enforcement work. It shall be unlawful for any owner to allow his or her animal to cross outside the property line of its owner to any extent, including reaching through, over or under a fence, or to keep or allow his or her animal to be outdoors on an unfenced portion of the owner’s property, unless the animal is leashed and under the control of its owner or another responsible person [...] The provisions of this section shall be a positive duty of the owner and the offenses described herein shall be strict liability offenses.(Actually, I was wrong -- I lived in Durham, NC, where there's no actual "leash law" for cats (just dogs), but a cat roaming on anyone else's property or a public right-of-way is considered a nuisance animal, which means you get 72 hours to fix it before they ticket you, but I guess it works out about the same.)
Any owner who violates any provision of this section shall be subject to a fine of $300.00, if the violation does not result in severe injury or death to any person or damage to another person’s property. If the violation results in severe injury or death to any person, the owner shall be subject to a fine of not less than $1,000.00 and not more than $10,000.00. In addition to a fine, the owner may be required to submit full restitution to the victim or may be incarcerated for a period not to exceed six months, or may be required to perform up to 100 hours of community service, or any combination thereof. If the violation results in damage to another person’s property, the owner shall be subject to a fine of not less than $300.00 and not more than $1,000.00. In addition to a fine, the owner may be required to submit full restitution to the victim.
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in Australia, or some kind of enforced pet sterilisation & registration program. At least until we can train them to love the taste of India Mynahs and cane toads exclusively .
posted by Wantok at 11:36 PM on June 9, 2011 [6 favorites]