Poll: Should kitty be locked inside?

The chairman of Albury Conservation Company, David Sexton, said the ACT government this year legislatively expanded cat containment areas to new greenfield developments.

Mr Sexton said it was the government’s aim to have cat containment areas across the ACT within three to five years.

He said the NSW government should introduce similar legislation to curb domestic cats killing other wildlife.

“The possible cat predation figure in the Albury area could be between 132,000 to 500,000 mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs daily,” he said.

“These figures are based on an average of 1.47 cats per Australian household (2006 census figure) and between 11,000 to 44,000 cats in the Albury areas predating an average of 12 targetted species a day.

“Legislation in Victoria allows for cat containment and curfews which the Wodonga Council has adopted.”

Mr Sexton said the latest legislation in the ACT was based on scientific research and a report published a couple of years ago.

The report said in part: “The strong likelihood of cat predation in nature reserves close to new developments suggest that involving the precautionary principle is warranted”.

Mr Sexton said exactly the same situation applies in Thurgoona, Wirlinga, Table Top and the ranges surrounding central Albury where natural environment land is interspersed with new and existing developments.

“Two scientific threatened species studies for Thurgoona and Albury both conclude that cats are a predatory problem,” he said.

“Fauna threatened species at risk include squirrel gliders, swift and torquoise parrots, regent honeyeaters, hooded and scarlet robins, brown treecreepers, lizards and Sloane’s froglet.”

Mr Sexton said it has been estimated there are 22,000 feral cats in the Albury-Wodonga region.

With a predation rate of 12 fauna species daily, they are destroying 264,000 fauna each day.