| Cat ownership in WA is under siege by local cat | | | | Parts of these laws have validation with |
| laws newly introduced by the Shire of Swan and | | | | responsible cat ownership including limiting the |
| soon to be implemented by the City of Joondalup. | | | | number of cats per household, sterilizing cats, |
| Cat owners will be penalized by fines if their cat | | | | micro-chipping or identifying your cat with a collar |
| unwittingly trespasses onto a neighbours property | | | | & identification tag and keeping your cat |
| without their permission. The ultimate penalty is | | | | indoors from the hours of 9pm to 6 am is also |
| the trapping of your beloved moggy by a | | | | very doable. |
| neighbour in a trap supplied by the shire and the | | | | What these laws fail to take into consideration is |
| impoundment and possible euthanization of your | | | | the intrinsic nature of cats and the impossibility of |
| cat if you can't locate it within 7 days. | | | | cat owners to always control some of their inherit |
| The legal trapping of cats opened up by these | | | | behaviors which have allowed cats to survive well |
| new local cat laws will only encourage vigilantes | | | | prior to their domestication. |
| who hate cats to have an 'open season' on cats | | | | Cats are highly independent creatures who value |
| in their neighborhood. The Cat Haven, a well | | | | their freedom, they have instinctual drives to |
| known Perth based cat rescue group have | | | | patrol their territory and to chase off any |
| already reported incidences of cats caught in | | | | intruders entering their territory. Cats have very |
| traps being drowned in lakes. A horrible death for | | | | strong maternal instincts and are predatory in |
| any animal with no chance of escape - and | | | | nature and mark their territory with their scent to |
| astonishingly still a set of laws introduced in such | | | | keep any other animals out of their area. Cats |
| poor format by local councils that policing these | | | | rely on these instincts to get through life and |
| laws is almost impossible. | | | | expecting them to change these behaviors is |
| Very little forethought went into the ultimate | | | | literally asking them to stop being a cat. |
| outcomes that these laws would fester, if councils | | | | Cats cannot be trained like the dog species and |
| honestly thought that residents of their shire | | | | forcing cat owners to achieve the impossible by |
| would act responsibly under these new laws they | | | | preventing their cats from occasionally wandering |
| have already been witness to the folly of their | | | | into a neighbours yard is simply ludicrous! The |
| naivety. With cats being drowned in traps and my | | | | harsh penalty of trapping cats, impounding them |
| own experience of having my cat Simon being | | | | and having your cat euthanized as a result is a |
| trapped by a neighbour in my own street and | | | | sickening and heart breaking reality now for cat |
| taken to the pound with no consultation with the | | | | owners and their families. That this type of action |
| shire. I managed to rescue my cat Simon on Day | | | | is being implemented by your local shire and your |
| 6, it was clearly a lucky day for him will your cat | | | | neighbours is just disgusting. |
| be so lucky? | | | | |