Shire of Waroona throws support behind push for stronger State-wide cat laws

The Shire of Waroona has thrown its support behind a fellow South West shire as they push for stronger State-wide cat laws. The Waroona council recently cemented its position on several upcoming matters set to be addressed at the WA Local Government Association’s annual general meeting in Perth, with the development of a model local cat law among them. The submissions for stronger cat laws came from the shires of Esperance and Dardanup, which both said the existing Cat Act 2011 prohibited local governments from making local laws to prohibit wandering cats. The Shire of Dardanup has been attempting to bring forward its own local laws since 2022, developing a new local cat law which was supported by the council in 2023. However, the Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation said the shire’s new laws went against the existing Act and asked it to amend its clause around effective control. The JSCDL’s request was shot down by the council in August, with the older laws remaining. At its September meeting, the Dardanup council voted to ask WALGA to develop a model local cat law to enable local governments to inroduce their own rules around cat ownership. The WALGA annual general meeting is scheduled for October 9. WA Feral Cat Working Group executive Bruce Webber welcomed the support from the Shire of Waroona. “It’s great to see local governments working together on this,” he said. “This is local governments listening to the community and trying to put in place what their communities are increasingly demanding these days.” Dr Webber has previously said out of 139 local government bodies across the State, 75 to 80 per cent would be in favour of implementing containment laws if there was a clear pathway to do so, based off surveys by the working group. Waroona shire president Mike Walmsley said the shire was prepared to support Dardanup’s motion as it would be a challenge for the shire to introduce its own containment laws given its resources. “It will be another job for our local government to administer, resource and enforce, but improvement in ownership and responsibility is the long-term goal and so it should be,” he said. “People need to be responsible for their cats. They are damaging the environment. They are hunting machines, so many birds and other little species have been wiped out by them. “If you have a cat, look after it and manage it.”