Fremantle Council supports tougher cat laws

Fremantle Council has voted to initiate an amendment to its cat management law which would see all property owned and managed by the City of Fremantle declared a cat prohibited area.

The City’s Cat Management Local Law 2020, which came into effect in June 2020, designated 12 areas within the City of Fremantle as cat prohibited areas, including parks, beaches, river reserves and golf courses.

The owner of a registered cat captured in one of the cat prohibited areas is subject to a $200 fine.

Last night the council’s Finance, Policy, Operations and Legislation Committee voted to start the process to strengthen the law by expanding the cat prohibited areas to cover all property owned and managed by the City, including roads, verges, footpaths and car parks.

Fremantle Councillor Adin Lang, who put forward the proposed amendment, said the tougher cat laws would help protect native wildlife.

“While all of our bushland areas are now prohibited, we know domestic cats are still entering these sites and preying on wildlife,” Cr Lang said.

“There's also the wildlife that call our verge gardens home that need protection too, hence we need to make all City owned and managed property cat prohibited to achieve a 'virtual containment', which is the extent of our powers in local government.

“We will look back in 10 or 20 years and wonder why we would let cats roam freely, devouring our wildlife.”

The proposed amendment to the Cat Management Local Law also includes provisions to deal with nuisance cats.

The definition of nuisance includes cats that create ‘an unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of a person of his or her ownership or occupation of land’ and ‘interference which causes material damage to land or other property’. 

The Local Government Act 1995 now requires the City to advertise the proposed changes and invite public submissions for a minimum of six weeks.

At the end of the public consultation period City officers will review the submissions and prepare a report to the council for further consideration.