Pussies galore : Strays can’t stay

BY GEORGIA CLARK

Sydney’s stray cats are in dire straits as foster care centres struggle to meet the demands of the breeding season. One of the foster centres, Inner City Strays, announced last month that it won’t be fostering any additional cats in the immediate future, after struggling to bounce back from a busy summer of intakes. Meli Souter, co-founder of Inner City Strays, says it’s not unusual for the organisation to struggle to cope with the volume of cats coming through.

“It’s simple maths. When we have no foster carers free we cannot foster. At this point however our foster carers and rescuers are also needing a small break – it’s been non-stop and is of course very exhausting work, both physically and emotionally. We all work full time with full time lives – cat rescue is an addition to that – we are a voluntary organisation,” she said.

While the organisation is at full capacity, it still follows a strictly ‘no kill’ policy and endeavours to assist people by briefing them on how to care for and home mainly kittens, but also cats. Some centres, such as the Cat Protection Society, take in cats from other pounds when they have the vacancies to do so.

Cats are euthanized at an alarming rate in Australia. According to the Office of Local Government, 65% of roughly 10,000 cats in pounds are being put to sleep in NSW each year. With such high euthanasia rates, many believe fostering and homing stray cats is the only truly humane solution.

Each year the Cat Protection Society homes around 1,000 cats. Kristina Vesk OAM, CEO of the Cat Protection Society, says resources are limited across Sydney, with demand for intake much greater than that for adoption services themselves.

“There is a stray cat problem here in Sydney, sadly we’re not alone. There are cats living on the streets and there is not enough capacity in shelters and rescue groups to care for them all. They have a tough life, and they are at risk of disease because they are not vaccinated and can suffer terribly from flea and worm burden,” she said.

But according to Ms Vesk, cat population management is something that we can all contribute to.

“Early-age desexing is the key to managing feline population … [and] as much as people might think they’re being kind, it is better not to feed stray cats (unless you are also going to desex and vaccinate them). Well-fed cats will breed more.”

According to the City of Sydney Council, there are nine known feral cat colonies in the City’s LGA, mostly within newly developed high density areas spanning from Woolloomooloo to Pyrmont. To solve this problem, the Office of Local Government injected $7,500 into a humane feral cat management program in Sydney with focus on no kill and just homing in April last year.

The move came after the State Government announcement in 2015 that it would kill two million feral cats by 2020, triggering a local uproar. But according to Vesk, feral cats are to be distinguished from other types of cats, such as strays.

“It is very important to distinguish between homeless cats, lost cats and feral cats. By definition, feral cats have no dependency on people: these are the cats living in the bush, not the cats in the city trying to find food in garbage bins – these are homeless cats. Lost cats are owned cats who are simply lost,” she said.

Some argue the Government’s treatment of strays is scourged by euthanasia, when really more funding should be directed at preventative measures, such as desexing. Ms Souter believes that educating people is key to minimising abandonment and euthanasia.

“We would like to see a nationwide educational campaign focusing on the importance of responsible pet ownership – especially desexing, vaccinating and microchipping all pets. Entire (or non desexed) pet cats contributes significantly to the overpopulation. Increasing public awareness and education is key,” she said.

The Companion Animals Act 1998 is the legislative framework governing stray cats. While the raison d’etre of the Act is to govern the humane treatment of animals, it ironically also permits the killing of these animals if no owner can be found within just a week, or if they are abandoned. The legislation has been widely criticised by animal activists for its arguably counterintuitive provisions. Dr Sophie Riley is an expert in animal law at the University of Technology, Sydney.

“The local council may sell or destroy an animal at any time if it is surrendered by an owner,” she said.

A spokesperson at the RSPCA highlighted the importance of humane euthanasia in ensuring the welfare of all Australian animals.

“As an animal welfare organisation, the RSPCA accepts that sometimes we need to control feral cat numbers for the welfare of other animals. But control methods need to be fully proven and understood, humane, target-specific and effective,” they said.

But with minimal resources to cope with the population boom of high season, Ms Souter says that it’s time for stronger vision and cooperation between councils.

“For the past two years the City has received funding from the Office of Local Governments Responsible Pet Ownership Grant. This funding has enabled us to act as a satellite shelter for kittens found within their LGA with the program covering our veterinary and fostering costs for those kittens. We would love to see this proactive approach picked up by more councils who could also work closely with local rescue groups. Life affirming and proactive solutions do exist,” she said.