Feral cats have taken a terrible toll on Australia's native wildlife but a curfew on domestic cats is not the answer, says the federal government.
Twelve months after a standing committee on environment and energy released its final report of the 2020 inquiry into feral and domestic cats, the government said it recognised feral cats had a devastating effect on native fauna.
But it said it could not deal with the issue on its own and called for a coordinated response involving local and state governments, landholders, communities, traditional owners, the private sector and non-government organisations.
However, invasive Species Council chief executive Andrew Cox said the federal government's response was not the "policy reset" the parliamentary inquiry was looking for.
"It really doesn't go far enough," he said.
He said there were almost three million feral cats in Australia "probably responsible for three-quarters of our mammal extinctions, plus big impacts on frogs, reptiles and birds".
The 21-page standing committee report supported more feral cat controls, including new bait and trap technology.
It also said it had a threatened-species strategy in place and had established the national feral cat taskforce to provide a forum for all governments and experts.
Cat curfew rejected
The parliamentary inquiry also focused on enforcing cat owner responsibilities.
However, the government rejected a suggestion of a night-time curfew, saying containment programs were more effective.
It's also knocked back a recommendation to develop a free or subsidised desexing program, indicating that would be a responsibility of local councils.
Mr Cox agreed that a curfew was not the answer, but said more comprehensive containment rules were required.
"Just keeping your cats indoors at night does not solve the problem because cats are good hunters any time of the day," Mr Cox said.
"At the moment some states don't allow local councils to enforce cat containment — requiring cats to stay within their properties — NSW is an example of that.
The government has agreed to the majority of the report's recommendations, including that more work be done to understand the impact of feral, stray and domestic cats, and that veterinary experts be included on the taskforce.
"The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is currently developing plans to record progress on delivering each of the agreed recommendations from the committee's report," Environment Minister Sussan Ley said.
Cats are 'natural hunters'
NSW Wildlife Council secretary Meredith Ryan runs FAWNA, a native wildlife rescue service in the NSW Mid-North Coast.
She said in the last financial year they saw 127 creatures brought in with injuries caused by cat attacks.
"It's a pretty grim story," Ms Ryan said.
She said the range of native animals impacted included everything from birds to lizards.
"Most cat owners find it hard to believe that their cats are natural hunters," she said.
"I think probably it's going to be inevitable that cats must be registered and spayed … to try and stop indiscriminate populations of cats."
