Animal rescuer Robyn Van Rooyen’s plea to fix Mackay’s feral cat problem

Plans are afoot to ensure Mackay’s feral cat crisis comes under control. Take our poll on using ratepayer money to address one element of the problem.

Mackay pet rescue groups and the Mackay Mayor will soon meet to scratch their heads for possible solutions to the community’s feral cat crisis.

Robyn Van Rooyen is one of Mackay’s quiet heroes who, while juggling a business and a family, will also dive into drains or gutters to save homeless cats and kittens.

She is pleading for possible solutions to what she describes as Mackay’s out of control feral cat population.

Mrs Van Rooyen is the president of Mackay Pet Rescue Incorporated, a volunteer lead organisation that she says relies solely on donations to look after hundreds of homeless dogs and cats that are surrendered or found on the streets.

Robyn Van Rooyen with foster kittens. Picture: Michaela Harlow

She says she is one of the few volunteers who fosters more than 20 cats at a time to cope with the surge of cats and kittens.

“It has been a very long, hard road and there have been times when I have questioned where the next dollar will come from,” Mrs Van Rooyen said.

“Our phones ring all the time, there is such a big problem in Mackay and we can’t keep up with it, we physically can’t, between the feral cats and the dumping.”

Mackay Animal Rescue Society president Peta Kelly said MARS was also overwhelmed with the numbers of cats surrendered or found on the streets, and how the organisation sometimes struggled to find enough volunteers to foster them all.

“We would probably have at least 80 cats and kittens in care and they aren’t old though to be adopted,” Ms Kelly said.

“And that is with us getting called everyday for more, unfortunately we are unable to help sometimes.”

Mackay Animal Rescue Society president Peta Kelly. Picture: Contributed

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson acknowledged the rescue organisation’s concerns and said the increase in feral cats stemmed from irresponsible pet ownership, with people neglecting to desex their pet.

He also said there was no doubt cat dumping had become a huge problem in Mackay and the current tight rental market has influenced the increase.

“One of the problems in terms of dumping, has certainly been a result of the fact you cannot get a house to rent in Mackay,” Councillor Williamson said.

“When people are coming into the region or upscaling or downscaling, most of the houses available to rent don’t allow pets.

“So what happens is they dump them or they take them to the Animal Management Centre, or they will take them to one of the pet rescue places.”

Mackay Animal Rescue Society has noticed a constant demand in abandoned animals needing homes.

Mr Williamson said the council had recently spent more than $3 million dollars on a new Animal Management Centre and talked about how it could be used in the future for rescue organisations too.

Mr Williamson said the council would consider in this year’s budget allocation if they could afford to reduce desexing costs for the community.

“The cost of desexing is something the council can look at and there are other councils who have cheap desexing programs running from time to time,” Mr Williamson said.

“We will look at what we can do in that realm in this coming budget.

“We have to determine if it is a good use of ratepayers’ money to subsidise desexing.”

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson. Picture: Duncan Evans

The Cairns Regional Council last year launched its ‘snip and chip’ collaboration with the National Desexing Network.

Cairns residents can desex and microchip their cat for $30.

Cat and kittens in foster care at Mackay Animal Rescue Society. Picture: Contributed

Ms Van Rooyen said there was no clear solution to reduce the feral cat numbers in the community and believed it was a 10 to 15 year problem.

“There is a scrap metal yard and they reckon there is about 60 cats up there,” Ms Van Rooyen said.

“They are pregnant for two months and could potentially and comfortably have four to five litters a year.”

“She could have babies today and be knocked up a few days later.”

Foster kittens in Mackay. Picture: Michaela Harlow

Ms Van Rooyen said unlike many other pet rescue organisations, Mackay Pet Rescue did not have an animal shelter and relied on volunteers to foster the cats and dogs in their homes until they were adopted.

She said she had elderly volunteers who climbed into drains and gutters to rescue cats and kittens, with the trapping missions sometimes taking days to complete.

“We had to trap some cats in a servo in Rural View the other day, it took a week to rescue a mumma and two babies,” she said.

“All my carers are volunteers and have other lives apart from rescue and it is a big job trying to trap and make sure you get all the babies and not hurt them.

“We do some crazy things, but we have to do what we have to do to get them off the street.”

Ms Van Rooyen said they were always looking for more foster carers or volunteers to help run fundraiser events or rescue missions.

Mr Williamson said he would soon meet with all of Mackay animal rescue organisations to brainstorm possible solutions to Mackay’s cat crisis.