Local law amendment may ban cats on Magnetic Island

Cats could soon become a thing of the past on Magnetic Island as Townsville City Council prepares to vote on a new local law. See the latest.

Cats could be banned on Magnetic Island.

While the federal government is declaring war on feral cats as the latest “environmental disaster”, Townsville City Council is still planning to ban cats on Magnetic Island.

Environmental Minister Tanya Plibersek claimed on the Today Show earlier this month that cats kill six million animals every night and two billion reptiles, birds and mammals in Australia every year.

The UN also released a report this week warning of the enormous impact non-local species are having on earth’s ecosystems, “seriously compromising human wellbeing” by causing irreversible damage to native wildlife.

Magnetic Island is made up of 78 per cent national park and home to many rare and threatened species including the beach stone-curlew and eastern curlew, the koala and the northern quoll.

There were mixed reactions to ban new cats being brought onto the island with a proposed new local law that is two years in the making to be voted on in October.

A Townsville City Council spokesman said amendments to the animal management local law were expected to be voted on at a council meeting in October after a state government delay.

The new proposed local law will call for all current domestic cats on the island to be registered with no new cats allowed to be brought onto the island.

As of June 2021, there were 425 cats recorded on Magnetic Island that have been approved by the council.

The current animal management local law allows for up to six cats with no desexing required however it is unknown how many of the island’s approved cats have not been desexed.

Townsville City Council estimate that most domestic cats across Magnetic Island’s several bays are not contained to their homes and there have been approximately 900 feral cats trapped on the island over the past two decades.

After six weeks of public consultation in 2021 where more than 400 submissions were made to Townsville City Council, with the report stating there was a “significant level of interest” from residents, property owners, community groups, animal and wildlife groups.

It found 79 per cent of the broader community had no concerns with the proposed law changes.

However, others were not in favour of the ban, with one person saying: “You cannot exclude cats without also excluding dogs as they cause more problems in the LGA than cats do.”

According to the report, while there were “emotive submissions rejecting some or all of the changes” the overall sentiment in the community supportive of most of the proposed amendments to the law.

It comes off the back off the largely successful cat reforms on Christmas Island that began in 2014 which improved the life of local wildlife and the breeding success of the red-tailed tropicbird by 90 per cent.

Originally published as Local law amendment may ban cats on Magnetic Island