A Wagga city councillor is calling for NSW to fall into line with other states and legislate where cats can roam in Wagga.
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Councillor Jenny McKinnon has brought forward a motion on cat containment in NSW for next Monday's council meeting.
The deputy mayor wants Wagga council to lobby the NSW government to make changes to the NSW Companion Animals Act 1988 so council can introduce cat curfews, among other management measures.
Cr Mckinnon was inspired by recent moves by the ACT government who recently legislated that all new cats are be registered and wear a leash outdoors or their owners could face a fine of up to $300.
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"On my social media pages I said to people, 'what do you think of this?' The response was amazing. I got a huge amount of support for doing something about this in Wagga," she said.
Cr McKinnon said that without change at a state level, it is very difficult for local councils to implement laws for cat owners, so she wants Wagga council to take the matter to the NSW local government association.
"Hopefully what I'm aiming for is to get the support of the vast majority of councils around NSW to try and get this through," she said.
And many animal lovers agree with her.
Animal Welfare League NSW Wagga branch president Rebecca Kotzur said that every rescue shelter in town is "full to the brim" with unwanted cats. And curfews and desexing is a humane way to protect the animals.
"We would love that ... cat curfews, it's so much better for [the cat's life] because an outside cat has less life expectancy than an inside cat, it's like 3-5 years," she said.
The Cat Protection Society of NSW chief executive Kristina Vesk also agrees with Cr McKinnon's motion, but she said that there are things councils can implement without the help of the state.
"There are things they can do within existing legislation, like creating wildlife protection areas ... put money into parenting with us to give low income residents access to really affordable desexing and microchipping," she said.
"It really makes a difference, once a cat is desexed it's less likely to roam ... it makes it easier to keep them indoors."
Jess Weir from Riverina and District Animal Rescue said the measures are a simple way to save lives.
"If you love and value your pets and wildlife it's an easy thing to do," she said.
Cr McKinnon said her motion is about keeping our native wildlife safe.
"In what is a very difficult time for them with climate change, bushfires, floods and then cats on top of that to deal with. It's just one thing we can do to preserve our native wildlife," she said.
"Cats are a really important companion animal for people, I am not in any way trying to make it so that we don't have cats in this country."
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