Cat Protection Society of Victoria

An update

The Cat Crisis Coalition was formed late in 2004 and began campaigning with renewed and focused effort for compulsory desexing of all cats over the age of 12 weeks - the solution to the tragic cat overpopulation problem. The campaign has continued relentlessly since this time, with 2008 seeing significant gain towards our ultimate goal

In June 2005, under the banner of the Cat Crisis Coalition, the compulsory desexing campaign was officially launched with a great deal of media coverage. United, the animal welfare shelters highlighted the tragedy of the cat overpopulation problem and called for action to address it. In 2006 we were joined nationally by other Australian shelters as a result of the National Summit to end Pet Overpopulation and the campaign broadened to the whole of Australia. As a consequence of this united and committed lobby, and a relentless and determined campaign, the end of 2008 has seen significant advances towards our ultimate goal:

NATIONAL LEVEL

The second National Summit on Pet Overpopulation was held in Queensland in October 2007 and kept the Coalition united for nationwide lobbying throughout 2008. As a result several States now have compulsory desexing for cats well and truly on their radar – the ACT Government introduced compulsory desexing of all cats from 3 months of age despite considerable opposition from the AVA – a big THANK YOU to the ACT for this enlightened view and for leading the way nationally;

Queensland is trialing compulsory desexing in 4 of their local municipalities with significant funds for desexing schemes and Tasmania has a draft Bill in the consultative

process. For Victoria the lobbying continued at local level to achieve a majority of municipalities with compulsory desexing in their DAMP.

LOCAL LEVEL:

1. In 2006, as a result of our lobbying at State level, the Domestic Animals Act was amended and for the first time clauses were introduced that specifically acknowledged the cat problem:
   1. Section 10A, clarified that Councils may resolve to require all cats in their municipality (with specific exemptions eg registered for breeding, medical reasons etc) to be desexed. If we can change the MAY to MUST, we will have won!
   2. Councils have now been required to produce a Domestic Animal Management Plan (DAMP), which had to be sent to the State Government by the end of 2008. These will be reviewed regularly. One of the specific issues this plan must address is the overpopulation of cats and high euthanasia rates within the municipality - we of course have been recommending compulsory desexing, discounted desexing programs etc.
2. As the deadline for the submission of the DAMP to the State Government approached, the lobbying intensified significantly and throughout 2008 our focus has been to achieve the incorporation of compulsory desexing within these plans. This has involved a large number of submissions, participation in working groups, presentations to Councillors, and lobbying everyone involved in the decision making process. All 79 Councils, their nine elected Councillors and senior management have been written to about the tragedy of the cat overpopulation problem and the solution in compulsory desexing. As this edition goes to print, the tally is still to be finalized, but from our knowledge across the State, we believe that over half of the Councils have compulsory desexing incorporated into their plan in some form. This ranges from a straightforward resolution under 10A for compulsory desexing of all cats; to variations of this which include compulsory desexing of all new registrations to commitments to introduce such a resolution within the life of the DAMP (three years) with education programs to introduce it to residents; to commitments to further investigate the issue during the life of the DAMP. To the enlightened Councils who have chosen to invoke 10A we say a huge THANK YOU for leading the way into the 21st century. We have encountered a great deal of opposition from the Australian Veterinary Association and pet food industry and the road has often not been easy.
3. The MYCAT incentive, launched in 2007 to encourage Councils to include compulsory desexing in their plans has currently been taken up by two Councils. This is a subsidised desexing scheme offered by the shelters to help disadvantaged residents have their cats desexed.
4. As the deadline for the DAMP to be submitted approached, our own municipal Council Banyule surprised us with a plan that did not include compulsory desexing. As we have reported, we have been actively lobbying in our area collecting some 2500 signatures on the petition. We protested very strongly to the Councillors with the result that Banyule will introduce compulsory desexing for all new registrations and we thank them for their enlightened decision. We have been in discussion with the animal management team to investigate the possibility of a mobile desexing unit to increase accessibility of residents to the subsidised desexing schemes. Thank you to all our volunteers who have collected these signatures and made our community aware of the tragedy that is cat overpopulation – they certainly made a difference.

STATE LEVEL:

While focus was directed to Local Government in 2008, our focus in 2009 will be directed at state level, lobbying now for the change to Section 10A of the Act.

Please sign the petition on Page 10 if you haven’t already – we now have some 60,000 and these will be presented to the Minister at this time.

As reported last year, in examining the issue of the large numbers of cats euthanased in shelters every year, AWAC recommended, and agreement was reached with the major stakeholders, that a mass media campaign promoting responsible cat ownership be undertaken – this lead to the development of the Who’s for Cats campaign which was launched in December 2007 (see P4&5) once again raising community awareness to the plight of cats. This has been a long, bitter campaign with much opposition from the AVA and pet food companies and several personal attacks on CPS and myself. It has been a struggle at times to keep the momentum, drive and focus alive. However, the issue is too important for us not to succeed–our feline friends deserve the very best and an end to the tragedy that is cat overpopulation. So in the words of Churchill, “we will fight them in the Town Halls, we will fight them in the working groups, we shall fight them in the alleys we shall NEVER surrender”.!!!! We may lose some battles, but we WILL win the war and make a brighter future for our feline friends.