Council acts to protect Bruny Island wildlife with strict cat laws

BRUNY Island will become a test case for Tasmania when pet cats face strict new laws.

ENEMY AT LARGE: A cat is captured by night vision camera eyeing off a helpless shearwater. Picture: BRUNY ISLAND CAT MANAGEMENT PROJECT

STRICT new cat regulations on Bruny Island will ban feeding strays and see an end to roaming cats.

Bylaws are being rolled out limiting cat numbers to two per household and all pet cats to be contained around the clock.

A raft of new cat control measures are being phased in by Kingborough Council — to be enforced by next July — as part of a broader project aimed at protecting the island’s biodiversity.

A survey of community attitudes about the measures has found that 90 per cent of islanders support feral cat eradication and domestic cat management.

Although the State Government stopped short of introducing 24-hour pet containment laws statewide, Bruny will be a test case.

The new by-laws also include the compulsory desexing and microchipping of domestic cats.

Kingborough Mayor Steve Wass said Bruny residents understood the need to protect the island’s wildlife.

“We want to eliminate the desecration of threatened species, and almost everyone sees the merit in what we are doing,” Cr Wass said.

He said the changes would offer a case study for cat management.

A cat fitted with a GPS collar.

The measures are part of a wider cat project that started on Bruny Island last year, when it was selected by the Federal Government as one of five islands across Australia to push ahead with feral cat eradication.

Bruny is a sanctuary for nesting seabirds and shorebirds and has a wide diversity of other land-dwelling mammals and birds — including little penguins, hooded plovers and eastern quolls.

GPS collars on feral cats have found they range over large areas across North and South Bruny but regularly return to feed at the Neck.

Kingborough cat management officer Kaylene Allan said there was an estimated 2000 feral cats on the island.

“We are getting our baseline data so we can assess the options and the impacts of any controls we do,” she said.

Matt Pauza tracking cats fitted with collars.

So far more than 80 stray and feral cats have been managed, some of which have found new homes off the island.

The Ten Lives Cat Centre has been involved in the management by desexing and rehoming stray cats.

The centre’s Noel Hunt said cat containment and the other measures were in the best interests of cats and other animals.

“The project is an excellent example of how the way we manage and care for cats in the long term can benefit not only the welfare of cats but also benefit the community and the environment.”

The State Government had proposed mandatory containment of cats under a draft cat management plan in 2016, but did not go ahead with the proposal.

Caitlan Geale setting up a camera to capture the movements of Bruny Island wildlife.

Ms Allan said the Bruny community was being given support in adapting to the new measures, including free microchipping and desexing, and design assistance for any fences or other structures.

Ms Allan said the bylaws would require cats to be contained in the same manner as dogs, so that they cannot roam from a property’s yard.

She said the prohibition on feeding stray cats was an important measure.

“Across Tasmania the feeding of stray cats means they are able to breed — which brings more cats into a life of disease and neglect.”