'Lithgow has a stray cat issue.'
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This is something that Lithgow City Council would like to see rectified in the future, and to do so the council has partnered up with many organisations to get a handle on the situation.
The number of cats that have been impounded, whether surrendered or dropped off at the pound between July 2020 and January 2021 is 79, with the highest amount being impounded in November 2020.
The breakdown can be seen here:
- July- 5
- August- 9
- September- 11
- October- 10
- November- 26
- December- 14
- January- 4
Councillor Cass Coleman first brought the issue to council in January 2021 after being contacted by WIRES volunteer Lucy Hoy.
"We don't want anything bad to happen to these cats, we want to protect them and make sure they are in loving homes," she said.
Cr Coleman questioned if there was a particular reason for the spike in numbers of cats in the November period, but Lithgow City Council Director of Economic Development and Environment Andrew Muir said there was no real explanation.
"If a cat has a litter those numbers can go up very quickly but we don't have a solid answer," he said.
In a report to council by Team Leader Environment, Richard Holz said the benefits of partnerships with community organisations and local vets has been long recognised.
"To this end, Council has an existing partnership with the Cat Protection Society of NSW, in administering desexing programs for cats supported by local vets," he said.
"The program is known as Operation Cat and the most recent rollout is about to end."
The Cat Protection Society said that Lithgow Area Operation Cat programs have been increasing over the four years they have been running.
"Awareness in the community is increasing, and 2021 has by far the best response so far with 59 cats booked in," they said.
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"The first was held in June/July 2017 and a total of 27 cats were desexed, in the summer of 2018/2019, we received a total of 35 bookings and over the 2019/2020 summer we were able to desex 39 cats".
Mr Holz said this was a very encouraging outcome.
Operation Cat will be rolled out again later in 2021 with hopefully comparable results.
An Expression of Interest to an upcoming funding program run by the RSPCA called "Keeping Cats Safe at Home" was submitted by Council on February, 25.
If successful, the program will roll out in 2022 and covers activities like social marketing campaigns, local school visits and community engagement events.
The program will also give subsidies for desexing, erecting cat enclosures and cat behavioural advice.
Mr Muir said that Lithgow Council will be continuing the partnerships they've formed because they had been 'terrific', including the local vets.
"As for whether we can desex cats, if they have an owner we can't do that but can offer encouragement, and the cat register have put an additional fee for every year the cat isn't desexed," he said.
Councillor Steve Ring said that Lithgow had massive problems with stray cats so it was good to see that council would be taking initiative to educate people on the matter.
"We have a problem in our LGA with feral cats and other animals but this is the right direction to be headed," he said.
If one particular cat continues causing issues in the LGA, it will be called a nuisance cat and a fine can be issued.
Regarding information packages, The Cat Protection Society has in place "The Good Neighbour Project" the brochure is available online and also at Council's Customer Service Centre. It provides information on a range of cat issues including responsible ownership.
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