Knox Council cat curfew comes under fire from environmentalist

An environmentalist has hit out at Knox Council’s “watered down” cat curfew trial. Starting next year pet owners who fail to lock up their feline friends overnight could face fines as the council trials the sunset to sunrise restriction.

Knox Council will trial a cat curfew next year.

An environmentalist has hit out at Knox Council’s “watered down” cat curfew trial.

Starting next year pet owners who fail to lock up their feline friends overnight could face fines as Knox Council trials the sunset to sunrise restriction in a bid to stop cats killing wildlife and spraying properties.

Knox Leader previously reported in January 2018 the curfew was supposed to begin in 2019 as a permanent part of the domestic animal management plan.

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But last month councillors decided to instead trail the curfew, which has been put off for another 12 months — to start in January 2020.

Knox greenie Darren Wallace said the decision was a “watered down” version of the curfew.

Mr Wallace hit out at comments made by Cr Tony Holland at last month’s public meeting, who said it was an old wives’ tale domestic cats killed wildlife at night.

Darren Wallace has hit out at the “watered down” Knox Council curfew.

He said a study published in the Biological Conservation journal estimated that pet cats kill more than 60 million native birds per year in Australia.

Mr Wallace said true cat lovers would support the curfew.

“Why would you want your cat to catch a disease, or get mauled by a tom cat or run over by a car?”

He said the decision was a watered-down version of the original proposal and the trial was designed to make sure the curfew was not made permanent.

Other councils with a cat curfew include Yarra Ranges, where felines must be confined to their property 24 hours a day.

While Maroondah, Whitehorse and Monash councils all have a night-time cat curfew, where felines must be confined to their owner’s property during that time.

Knox Leader readers supported a cat curfew on Facebook.

Denise Ray said her family was woken at 3am by a cat attacking a possum on the roof.

“The cat won. We went out to find an injured ringtail on the ground — that we had to take to an emergency vet ¬— and our neighbour’s cat watching on from the roof” Ms Ray said.

“It is not the first time this cat has been sprung killing in our yard and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

“The owners of the cat don’t care. So it is not feral cats at all that are the problem.”

She said Cr Holland should do more research before making a “blanket statement”.

Jennifer Chou said the curfew was long overdue.

“I hope we won’t ever need to get a cat trap to catch any ‘stray’ cats that poo in our backyard and hand it over to the city council or the RSPCA,” Ms Chou said.

Barry Oram said: “(The) cat curfew is the best for native wildlife … I’ve seen cats munch on natives my backyard far too many times.”

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