The ACT Cat Plan sets out how we can all better manage cats for the health, welfare and safety of both domestic cats and native animals.

The Plan is an action under the ACT Government’s Animal Welfare and Management Strategy 2017–22 to implement policies and management plans to promote responsible pet ownership and reduce the impact of domestic cats on the environment and the community.

There are too many unwanted cats and kittens in animal rescue centres. Cats that are not responsibly owned are at risk of harm to themselves and native wildlife. They may also pose a nuisance to neighbours.

We will continue to work with the community and stakeholders on implementation of the plan, including to improve our laws, services and programs for managing all cats—domestic and feral.

The notion of being responsible relates to people caring for the health and wellbeing of their cat, as well as taking responsibility for their cat’s impact on wildlife and the ways it may interact with other people. Responsible cat owners:

• obey cat laws
• meet all needs of their pet including basic needs (food, water, toileting areas, places to rest, hide and scratch), as well as play and companionship
• prevent their pet cat being a nuisance to other ACT residents.

You must desex your cat unless:

• the cat is less than three months old
• the keeper of the cat holds a sexually entire permit issued by the Registrar of Domestic Animal Services.

You must microchip your cat. A cat of any age can be microchipped.

You may not keep four or more cats unless you have a multiple cats' licence.

You must contain your cat if you live in a cat containment area.

Find out more about your responsibilities as a cat owner.

The ACT Government will now progress the required legislative changes to introduce cat registration from 1 July 2022. Owned cats will need to be registered on an annual basis and new cats will need to be contained within their owner’s property or on a leash.

To reduce the number of unwanted cats born each year that may become neglected and abandoned.

Microchipping is an effective way for animal shelters and vets to identify lost cats to return to their owners.

Microchipping is a safe procedure where a silicon chip, approximately the size of a grain of rice, is implanted under the skin of the animal.

Cat containment means taking measures to prevent your cat from roaming and keeping your cat on your premises 24 hours a day.

Legislation changes are being progresses to include walking a cat on harness and lead as containment.

Cat containment is compulsory in some ACT suburbs. There are also many people who choose to voluntarily contain their cat.

Find out more about current cat containment laws in the ACT.

Two key reasons to contain your cat are:

• Safe Cat – The idea that cats need to roam outdoors has changed. Keeping your cat contained avoids risks and improves their welfare and safety. Contained cats live longer and are less likely to suffer diseases or sustain injuries through fighting with other cats or dogs, being hit by cars or other misadventure.
• Safe Wildlife – Cats are natural predators and domestic cats have been shown to hunt and kill a wide variety of native and non-native wildlife in our region, as found in an ACT study.

Mandatory cat containment will be introduced across Canberra from 1 July 2022.

It is expected that cats that are registered by 1 July 2022 or a date to be determined will not be subject to containment laws. This is a response to community concerns around the potential negative impact of containing cats that have previously been allowed to roam.

There will be plenty of information available to the community in the lead up to this to help people prepare for the introduction of mandatory containment.

The ACT Government pursuant to Section 81 of the Domestic Animals Act 2000, has declared the following areas to be cat containment areas:

• Bonner
• Crace
• Coombs
• Denman Prospect
• Forde
• Gungahlin Town Centre east
• Jacka
• Lawson
• Macnamara
• Molonglo
• Moncrieff
• Strathnairn
• The Fair at Watson
• Throsby
• Wright
• Taylor
• Whitlam.

A map showing cat containment areas is also available.

Cats can happily live indoors especially when they have been trained to be an indoor cat from a young age. Suggestions to increase activity and stimulation of contained cats include toys, scratching posts, vertical and horizontal climbing spaces, walks outside on a harness and lead and access to an outdoor escape-proof cat enclosure or cat run.

The RSPCA has more information on how to ensure your home is a feline-friendly, stimulating environment.

Advice, tips, and tools to help you transition your cat to a safer and happier life at home is available through the Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife website.

Cat registration is an official database of microchipped and registered cats.

The registry would be managed by the ACT Government as part of the Government’s commitment to strengthen animal welfare standards and promote responsible pet ownership.

A cat registration system would support compliance and enforcement and improve systems for reuniting lost pets with their owners.

All cats are the same species (Felis catus). However, for management purposes, we define cat populations using different categories. RSPCA Australia defines cats as either domestic or feral and separates domestic cats into three subcategories based on their relationship with humans: These include:

• Owned
• Semi-owned
• Unowned

The flow of cat populations between these categories is interconnected. To effectively manage the welfare of cats and their impacts on the environment, the entire population must be managed in an integrated way.

The best way to reduce numbers of these cats is through increasing desexing of pet cats to reduce unwanted kittens and reducing cat abandonment.
The ACT Government will work to minimise the number of semi and unowned cats through a program of trapping, desexing and adoption of these cats. We will work with cat rescue organisations to carry out this work.

We will continue to look at strategies to remove feral cats as part of the Government’s integrated pest animal management in the ACT’s national parks and reserves. This may include listing feral cats as a key threatening process under the Nature Conservation Act, which would lead to an action plan for their control.

Reducing the number of stray cats in residential areas will also lead to a reduction in increase to feral cats.

A range of compliance and enforcement mechanisms is necessary to underpin effective laws.

Community education will be an important part of compliance, including raising awareness of how to meet the legal requirements, the benefits of the requirements and the potential consequences for non-compliance.

While the Government will initially take an educative approach, there are a range of penalties which can be used for repeat offenders. These include fines, cancellation of licences to breed female cats and, in serious cases, criminal prosecution.

Domestic cats have some dependence (direct or indirect) on people. Feral cats have no relationship with or dependence on humans, and reproduce in the wild.

A cat that is cared for by a specific identifiable person. Owned cats are directly dependent on people and usually sociable.

Semi-owned cats are fed and cared for by people who do not consider they own the cat. Semi-owned cats may be associated with one or more households and sociability/friendliness to humans varies.

Unowned cats are indirectly dependent on people with some having casual and temporary interactions with different people. They are of varying sociability, including some who are unsocialised to humans, and some may live in groups (e.g. around rubbish tips, drains, food outlets).

A stray cat is a general term for roaming cat that may or may not have an owner.