Cat laws

[S.O.S]

We seem to not have any laws for cats - as we do for dogs. Dogs must be on leash when outside your property, and they are not allowed to roam around all over the place, even their feces must be cleaned by the owner.
However cats are allowed to roam freely in and out of your property on your vehicles roofs pretty much be allowed to do as they please. The only intervention comes in the way of the wise cat owner.


First of all i am a former cat owner, and i clearly understand cats can't be controlled like dogs, you can't keep a curious cat in one place, and you can't chain them down. However it should be law to house a cat at night, first and foremost to keep your cat safe. Cat's get into more trouble at night, they hunt, fight, and most of the complaints are caused by wandering cats at night.
However i am also a former dog owner who has seen many dogs chained and caged in city housing, or worse, fit active dogs turned into house pets to keep them out of trouble and quite. A dog owner needs to go further to control a dog.

Question, should the same law apply to both animals. If both are caught roaming the streets should they both be impounded. All animals should be confined to your property at night hours.

[GetToDaChopa]

That's what cats do, you don't argue with a cat! He'll scratch you up! They get what they want.



Plus cat's don't like to be on a leash so you don't really walk around with a cat all day long.

[S.O.S]

I'm starting to see it happen of late, and must say it looks cruel to see it.

[VN_chris]

I hit a cat at 80kmh 2 or 3 months ago and lets just say all its 9 lives got used up bouncing around my underbody. If its owners kept it home at night it wouldent have met its fate so soon.

[Tim Smtih]

Same laws should apply to cats and dogs. And why not, doesn't matter whether they're different species or not. They are still domesticated pets. I'll remember to knock a few feral cats off for you next time i'm out bush, the mongrels destroy enough native fauna so i'll even the score a little.

[Exidor]

There are plenty of council by-laws with regard to cats.

When was the last time a cat mauled a toddler to death?
Cats and dogs are chalk and cheese.

[greenfoam]

Most places require cat's to be locked up these days. They are too destructive to wildlife otherwise. Fair enough too. My advice, get a pet rabbit muuuuuuuch cheaper to feed, doesn't need other animals to die for it's food, they are more loving and pretty much just as intelligent as a cat (bit less than a dog maybe) but pretty close in their own way and incapable of causing harm to anything so long as you get a good breed. I had cat's and dogs all my life but I wont be having one again

[jellycalais]

I have a cat and yes i do let him out at night. He rarely comes back with native fauna although he has attacked cockatoos and other birds. He normally brings back mice or rats which he finds around the place (i live near bushland). As for laws against cats i agree with rodbol your comparing chalk and cheese.

[greenfoam]

But really even killing one bird is more than a cat had any right to do, chances are if you live near the bush that the "mice and rats" are native also

[jellycalais]

But really even killing one bird is more than a cat had any right to do, chances are if you live near the bush that the "mice and rats" are native also

I do agree with you, which makes me think, what rights do animals have? Does a dog no that if he/she attacks a child it is wrong or is it just there instinct? Like wise does a cat no attacking a bird is wrong? We call some animals "domestic" yet in reality we can never truly have an animal which obeys us fully

[GetToDaChopa]

My cat is too lazy to kill anyone. He just spends the whole day sleeping on the ironing board. We feed him enough to keep him out of trouble and he goes in and out of the house as he pleases, never has he brought back presents to me (only one maybe 4 years ago, he brought me a dead bird, we were away for a week).

Each cat is different in the way it behaves, so my cat already stays out of trouble.

[Darren_L]

if anything I think the laws should be stricter for cats.
the mongrel animals can't be kept out of your yard with a fence, they even climb into locked garages.
They kill native animals, crap in your garden, sit on your car and scratch it. My sisters pet bird died of shock when a cat got into the garage and sat on the cage trying to catch it. A cat got into my garage and scratched the entire length of my bonnet when the dumb animal slid down the open bonnet.

At least you can keep a stray dog off your property with a fence or a locked garage door, the same can't be said for cats.
As far as I'm concerned cats should either be kept indoors, a caged enclosure, or on a leash

[DavidPartay]

So what your saying, Darren, is that people shouldn't own cats .

Cats don't like to be locked up, they need the freedom to run around. They hunt because that's how they instinctively feed themselves, my cats have never killed anything that they haven't eaten at least part of.

While I don't like it if they kill native birds, which rarely happens, they're more than welcome to kill the mice that live under our house.

Also, neither of my cars has been scratched by the cats and they climb on them all the time. At least they bury their poo. I have much more issue with dog owners who let their dogs crap everywhere and don't clean it up, and believe me when I say that's a bigger issue than buried cat poo in someone's backyard which you'll probably never see anyway.

That being said, I think it's a good idea to keep cats indoors at night. The Australian suburbs aren't their natural habitat and it decreases the chance of them being hit by a car and killed.

[Holdfast]

In NSW we have the Companion Animals Act.

http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/dlg/dlghom...x=CA&index=301

Cats, can and should be controlled by keeping them in your home or in a well designed cattery.

The law says that if you catch a cat on your property you should return it to the owner (alive) if you know who the owner is. If you trap a cat (need to check legislation) and don't know who owns it then ring the council to have the cat taken away.

Cats live longer if they are kept inside because they don't get into fights or run over.

People who love their cats should be responsible for them. If you don't have the will power or the money to keep an animal then don't have it.

I like cats but I don't like doing the gardening and ending up with a handful of shit.

I've had pet rabbits killed by cats that slack neighbours have allowed to enter my property. Its not only heart breaking for the kids to have baby rabbits killed but also heart breaking for owners when they get fined.



Penalty notices issued under the Act
Animal not permanently identified (microchipped) . . . $165
Animal not registered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $165
Failure to notify change of address/owner . . . . . . . . . $165
Failure to take seized animal to pound/shelter . . . . . $550
Failure to comply with nuisance cat order . . . . . . . . . $165
Cat in prohibited place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $110
Cat not wear identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $110
Obstruct authorised officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $165

[GetToDaChopa]

^^^^^^



That sounds fair to me.

[maginoodle]

Also, neither of my cars has been scratched by the cats and they climb on them all the time.

You must be very lucky or have kept thier nails clipped. I have had each car i have owned in the last 10 years scratched by cats. I know who owns them and each time i have found a scratch i have told them. They keep them inside for a while after then but they get slack and leave them out.
Out of the cars only 1 had a crap paint job, but not once has the owners said that they would pay for the damage to be repaired, some scratches would have probably buffed out but i dont own show cars so i havent worried about getting it done. My crewy bonnet was scratched but i had the bonnet replaced so it currently doesnt have any scratches on it.

[GetToDaChopa]

You must be very lucky or have kept thier nails clipped. I have had each car i have owned in the last 10 years scratched by cats. I know who owns them and each time i have found a scratch i have told them. They keep them inside for a while after then but they get slack and leave them out.
Out of the cars only 1 had a crap paint job, but not once has the owners said that they would pay for the damage to be repaired, some scratches would have probably buffed out but i dont own show cars so i havent worried about getting it done. My crewy bonnet was scratched but i had the bonnet replaced so it currently doesnt have any scratches on it.

That's unlucky, non of the cats in my neighbourhood sit on anyones cars and no scratches.

[greenfoam]

I've never heard of a cat scratching a car before they don't need claws to get on a car. Maybe you guys have really slippery cars I dunno :P. I find that hard to beleive since cats never use their claws unless they are slipping or climbing something hard to climb (not a car) I guess if you polished your car etc then it might be slipperly enough for a cat to open the claws. But owning a cat in the area I do (in the bush it's heavily frowned on by neighbours to have a cat and often ends with the cat being dead) So I wouldn't have a cat here even if I did want one. But really outside the citys is no place for a cat and they really should be in a cat run overnight if not all the time.

Holdfast, I hope you ended that cat that killed your rabbit. I've liked the cat's I've had alot as a kid but I'm older and smarter now and there no place in the world for domestic cats. Our rabbit lives 100% inside apart from guided tours of the garden :0, but even then you have to watch out incase a cat/eagle/dog is around. I don't rate dogs or cats much anymore, they are just not as nice.

Also cats do fairly often run under cars at night, it's happened to me a couple of times and it's not very fair to the driver of the car knowing you've killed some kids pet even if they were on the way to kill something themself, so inside/locked in a cat run is the go and then don't have one anymore after that

[VzVzVz]

after my dog died, the cat took his position. the resemblence is amazing, its almost like she learned from him. scary

(see my albums for a pic of them both)

[S.O.S]

I made a nice section for plants about 7foot by 10 foot. And every morning when i went to work it was disturbed with large holes and plants looked like someone was trying to pull them out. This went on for several weeks until i found long skinny poo.
So what i decided to do was set up a camera in the window to see what was going on. A cat that to this day i don't know where it come from was getting in shitting kicking up a mess. So i placed barriers around the section about 20cm high, still didn't work. I used some tarp and large stick which brought the height up to a good 4 foot. The cat went under. Clearly the new soil was to much to pass by. Short of necking it there wasn't much i could do. So i removed the plants and placed a large tree in it's place.

My dog past away so i buried it's remains in my back yard. Same as before a cat used the grave as it's litter. Now if my cat has passed at this home i'm sure they would have done the same thing.

That's why i believe there should be a law on some people owning pets.

There are plenty of council by-laws with regard to cats.

When was the last time a cat mauled a toddler to death?
Cats and dogs are chalk and cheese.

there's a good reason why you watch your cat around babys.

[Zuicider]

our cat is just crazy in a weird kinda way. likes to be thrown around, stalked rubbed really hard the works, and its a pain in the arse. well we keep it indoors.
lived out of home a few years ago and my housemates cat wa your typical stoners cat. he use to leave it out side and one time i almost squashed it. i told him , he didnt do anything and the next morning he woke to his cat that was screaming at the front door. some one ran it over

[Holdfast]

This went on for several weeks until i found long skinny poo.

So i removed the plants and placed a large tree in it's place.

My dog past away so i buried it's remains in my back yard. Same as before a cat used the grave as it's litter.

That's why i believe there should be a law on some people owning pets.

Time to ring the local council?

Explain you have problems with a nuisance cat damaging your property.

In most cases, a repeat occurrence such as your experiencing would give reason for trapping the cat by the council or you can borrow a cat trap from them. (No rabbit traps)

If the cat is micro-chipped you'll be able to get the name and address so you can have a yarn to the owners.
Hopefully, if the owners have half a brain they would slip you a few dollars for the loss of plants etc; if not take other measures to recoup your losses.

Don't you just love those long moist kitty shits?

[gopher]

we have a cat that once could probably have best been described as feral.
it would only come home to get fed, hated being indoors and was always getting busted up in fights.

we had him desexed a few years ago which really settled him down.
now he's home all the time and just sleeps in the yard he still only likes to come inside to get fed and then wants to get back outside straight away.

the cat climbs on our cars all the time and the worst he has ever done is dirty marks on the windscreen when sliding down and left cat fur on it.
i've never had any scratches on them.

[Jesterarts]

There are alot of council laws about cats. Around the Mornington Peninsula there is a law saying cats need to be confined inside or in an outside cat enclosure ALL THE TIME.

Mornington Peninsula Shire - Cats (I love the fact that "Cats found at large or not securely confined to their owner’s property are liable to on-the-spot penalties of more than $100 for a first offence and more than $300 for subsequent offences" what happens if the cat doesn't have it's wallet with it?)

But not many people seem to follow this. Which is annoying.

We used to own a Rotti and in his time I think he caught a total of 6 cats in our back yard. After he was done, I would check the ID take, find the address, put what was left in a bag and return the cat to their owner.

I had one couple say they where going to have me charged and have my dog put down and sue me and blah blah blah. So i reported to the council that i found their cat on my property can they copped a fine aswell. Made my week.

Really gets me angry when people let cats out at night. Cats are predators, they are extremely good hunters and the kill anything smaller than them that moves. Lizards, birds, insects, etc.

It's not their fault, that is their nature, they are hunters. So to confine a cat inside 24/7 would be wrong.

People should just not own cats in areas where its not legal to let them outside because its not fair on either the cat being inside or the wildlife which has no chance against a cat.

That's my opinion.

[Darren_L]

I've never heard of a cat scratching a car before they don't need claws to get on a car. Maybe you guys have really slippery cars I dunno :P. I find that hard to beleive since cats never use their claws unless they are slipping or climbing something hard to climb (not a car) I guess if you polished your car etc then it might be slipperly enough for a cat to open the claws. But owning a cat in the area I do (in the bush it's heavily frowned on by neighbours to have a cat and often ends with the cat being dead) So I wouldn't have a cat here even if I did want one. But really outside the citys is no place for a cat and they really should be in a cat run overnight if not all the time.

Also cats do fairly often run under cars at night, it's happened to me a couple of times and it's not very fair to the driver of the car knowing you've killed some kids pet even if they were on the way to kill something themself, so inside/locked in a cat run is the go and then don't have one anymore after that

can assure you they do scratch cars - particularly evident when they leave their fur on on the roof as well. If you are familiar with cats at all, you will know they love to scratch anything they can with their claws - hence the reason cat owners often put cat scratching posts around the house to save their furniture. The cat used to sit on the roof of my car nightly, obviously it would get comfortable and then start scratching at the roof. The tell tale sign of the cat was the cat hair left on the roof - which just happened to match the cat next door.

As for the big scratch down the bonnet. I was working on the car the night before and had left the bonnet up. Overnight the dumb animal must have jumped up on to the top edge of the bonnet, lost it's footing and slid all the way down the bonnet.

Funny thing is once I set the rat traps up, and finally caught a piece of the cats tail, the cat problem stopped - and the neighbour who owned the cat also stopped talking to me I did warn him that I was setting traps up in my garage for 'whatever was sitting on my car', he just denied it was his cat. But clearly it was