Cats like Evie, that long to be outdoors, might soon have to make do inside as new laws in NSW could soon prevent domestic cats from being allowed off private property. Photo: Bethany Mills.
NSW could soon implement a law that would prevent domestic cats from being allowed outdoors.
Greens Legislative Council member Sue Higgins is set to table the bill, which would require cat owners to “create a clear duty for cat owners to keep their pets contained to their property and empower councils to make and enforce reasonable orders to prevent cats from escaping”.
According to statistics released by the Greens, cats were responsible for killing more than 323 million native animals in Australia in 2024.
The same report found cats were responsible for the extinction of 27 native animal species.
The call to restrict domestic cats from roaming outdoors has received the backing of many local cat owners in Wagga, including Bethany Mills, who believes there should be more onus on owners to monitor their pets.
“A lot of people don’t realise how big a commitment owning a cat is,” Ms Mills said.
“I think it’s a good thing to try and stop how many cats are running around town. I remember a few years ago, the Fox Street Maccas carpark used to be like a cat farm!
“The same thing that we’ve done with dogs needs to happen with cats. You don’t see dogs just running the streets and going into people’s backyards, because they’ve been contained.
“For me personally, I only let my cat Evie in the backyard, and even then she’s only a few steps away from me normally.
“If she is in the front, it’s normally with her wearing a lead.”
Similar laws are already enforced in Victoria, the ACT, Queensland and Tasmania and soon will be in Western Australia.
Ms Mills said she believed the laws would only be fair, as a majority of cat owners across the state did the right thing by having their cats desexed, wormed and vaccinated.
“If there is a restriction on which cats are allowed off people’s properties, it will make it easier for services to identify which cats are feral cats and to see which owners are doing the wrong thing,” she said.
“It’s so annoying having cats who are on heat bothering you outside or finding dead animals and rubbish from bins, all because cats aren’t being looked after properly.
“They need to be cared for and contained.”
