24 Hour cat curfews being proposed

[i-need-a-martini]

Yes Please!

Currently they are looking at the idea for areas close to conservation areas but, boy oh boy, would I like to see it extended to the suburbs! I am so over all the cats fighting, defecating, spraying in my backyard and terrorising my animals.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/push-for-24hour-cat-curfew-to-protect-native-a...

[bluecat*dancing]

Keeping your animals contained is a part of responsible ownership.I have 4 cats. I will be getting a permanent enclosure built soon but until then, I have bought some cat netting and created a temporary one. Otherwise thy are indoor only cats. There have been the occasional escapes, though, but these are far and few between. One of my cats is harness trained so she has greater access to the yard.

I hope that if a 24 hour cat curfew becomes nation wide that some assistance is given to those who cannot afford or are physically unable to build a cat enclosure.

[lionrose.7]

Dogs in NZ are a big problem at the moment, have killed  sheep and even savaged horses.

I keep my cat inside at night and did when I lived in QLD, mind you she was old and did not go further then the out side Patio chair.

In NZ we dont have as much native birds in my area, All imported Sparrows, Indian Minors, Finches and huge Seagulls that may be more danger to the cat then the cat is to them.

We dont have little Mammals like Australia, just Rats and Mice.

The Bush areas do have Native Birds.

[*kazumi*]

There is much misinformation about such things.  Feral cats obviously kill to feed themselves.  But as far as domestic pets go it is impossible to know how much they kill, and of-course some are better hunters than others.  I like cats and we always had several.  I also always locked them up at night and kept my eye on them in the daytime, so I have fair idea how much and what they kill.  Interestingly, only very rarely would they get a bird, some did not seem to hunt at all (maybe I feed them well enough), others killed mainly mice and rats, and one really good ratter would also bring in rabbits. 

There was an interesting scientific research done in the UK, made into BBC doco, where they gave each cat in a small village collar with tracking device, and some were given collars with cameras with night vision.  Then they tracked the cats for whole months.  They found that most cats actually stayed within very small area around their homes, only one ventured across the village.  However number of them also visited their neighbors (who had cat flaps) and ate their food.  On the whole they caught very insignificant number of wildlife.  And who is to say that what gets caught is not already old and sick? 

The only time in my whole life that my cats brought home large number of birds was when my neighbor sprayed blackberries when they were flowering, the following couple of weeks my cats brought home very large number of birds.   These cats never before brought home birds and by the end of week 3 we were back to normal.

[channys_mum]

My ferals have an enclosure attached to the back of the house, well actually it is not attached as such because I rent. It is made with pipes and arc mesh like around construction sites etc.

Current project is to teach old cats new tricks and teach them to walk on leads so that I can take them strolling in the garden with me.

I am all for restrictions and curfews.

If you feed them say at 5pm each night, they haven't really started the hunt (enclosure deprived cats lol), and just shut the door and keep them in and don't let them out again until after the early bird as caught the worm. How hard is it.

[zanadoo_56]

My cat lives indoors all the time.  She is not allowed out and is happy with that.

There's another animal that also causes a lot of destruction of native wildlife and farm animals, it can and does live in the centre of Melbourne, in suburbia, in nearby towns and in the country.....and frankly councils are not doing enough to get rid of it.

I'm not claiming cats don't kill, but sometimes those killers are not cats but FOXES.  I've seen them in all the places I've mentioned.  Foxes are a huge problem.

[shcroau2015]

I don't expect a cat or a dog to "understand a curfew". Their OWNERS Need to uderstand a curfew and keep their animals contained.

You make it sound like slavery. We own another life, another soul. Maybe dogs if they are treated well would go along and behave like servants, sit up, roll over, fetch. Cats in my experance seem to be their own boss, do what they want, go where they want. Sure there are execptions to this. But the term "owner" even applied to animals, or pets, is disturbing to me. I prefer "caretaker" or even mother, father rather thatn owner.

Suggesting that there should be a certain time where people bring their pets in is assuming that everyone's lives follow the same routine of night sleeping, there are those who sleep in daytime and go out at night, well, other than vampires. I burn easy in the hot sun, and would prefer to do my sleeping inside in the day and go live my life at night. The only drawback to this is many places are not open at that time so it rules alot of shopping out.

[i-need-a-martini]

Actually the study (and doco) you mention in Britain only studied 50 cats and mapped out only 10 of them over a 2 week period. The results showed that they travelled far and wide within their village. They didn't catch any wildlife because it is England, not Australia. From that study, this is the route taken over 24 hours of each cat - not exactly sitting around minding their own business huh?

Other studies have show the same thing with the bigger studies showing that domestic cats roam huge distances.

One done by the university of Illonois found that most domestic cats had an average (AVERAGE!) of 4.9acres circulation zone that they called home in which they hunted in. This study also measured speed and noted that cats could move really fast outside their property and whilst owners insisted that they were still just sitting in their favourite spot in the garden they were getting up to no good in someone elses garden.

You may think your cat just "hangs around the house" but if your cats are average, then they are roaming in your neighbours property making a nuisance of themselves. Your comment about one of them  who "brought in rabbits" is the reason why cats should be confined.

Instead it is MY rabbit that has to be confined on MY property because of irresponsible cat owners who think their cats are harmless when they leave them out all day. How fair is that??

[i-need-a-martini]

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@shcroau2015 wrote:

I don't expect a cat or a dog to "understand a curfew". Their OWNERS Need to uderstand a curfew and keep their animals contained.

You make it sound like slavery. We own another life, another soul. Maybe dogs if they are treated well would go along and behave like servants, sit up, roll over, fetch. Cats in my experance seem to be their own boss, do what they want, go where they want. Sure there are execptions to this. But the term "owner" even applied to animals, or pets, is disturbing to me. I prefer "caretaker" or even mother, father rather thatn owner.

Suggesting that there should be a certain time where people bring their pets in is assuming that everyone's lives follow the same routine of night sleeping, there are those who sleep in daytime and go out at night, well, other than vampires. I burn easy in the hot sun, and would prefer to do my sleeping inside in the day and go live my life at night. The only drawback to this is many places are not open at that time so it rules alot of shopping out.

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We have domesticated animals like cats and dogs. Therefore they are our responsibility. Whether you want to call yourself their caretaker or their mother it doesn't matter - you OWN them. You paid a price to get them into your house in the first place and the legal language makes it clear they belong to you and are 100% your responsibility.

I find it disturbing that you imply that dogs are dumb enough to be treated like servants but cats are some kind of superior animal that deserves to do what they want and go where they want. Besides the fact that I disagree,  I also regard that as a seriously irresponsible attitude to cat (or any pet) ownership.

I have no idea what the last paragraph means.

[bluecat*dancing]

Cats do adjust, they may not like it , but they do adjust.

[lionrose.7]

Another reason to keep your cat inside 🙂

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11489237