By Ewen McRae
Moorabool council is considering introducing a cat curfew within the municipality, with a proposal now out for community consultation.
The council has undertaken a feasibility study into a sunset to sunrise curfew, with an early round of consultation in 2019 showing strong support for a curfew.
In the 2019 consultation, 78 per cent of responders were in favour of a cat curfew, largely to protect native wildlife, however 39 per cent of cat owners who responded said they would be unlikely to comply with a night time curfew.
Councillor Paul Tatchell opposed the motion to consult further on the proposal, saying a cat curfew was too hard to enforce in such a large and dispersed municipality.
“I’m not against the policy, it’s more the unintended consequences should this be implemented,” Cr Tatchell said.
“We’ve seen in the city, a cat curfew working in concentrated areas, they’re easier to manage, but to try and manage it in Mooorabool would be incredibly expensive … and trying to get compliance at the times that this would be operating would be a nightmare.
“We’re not handling all the compliance that we’ve got on the table now, so why would we run the risk of introducing a new one when we can’t manage what we’ve got now?
“These really are city policies.”
Under the proposal, a cat owner who is found to not be compliant would face a fine of $165 for a first offence, and $495 for subsequent offences.
Councillor Jarrod Bingham spoke in favour of proceeding with consultation.
“Cats are responsible for a lot of wildlife going extinct, so if we can contribute into wildlife conservation in some way I think this is a step forward,” he said.
Should council endorse the cat curfew l, it would likely come into effect on January 1, 2021.
