Local councils are tightening cat ownership laws to help protect wildlife and keep your pet safe

Last week, Rockingham Council in Perth took their local pet laws up a notch by banning cats from 44 parks and reserves across the city, but they aren't the first local government area in WA to do so.

Increasingly, the Australian community is recognising the value of responsible pet ownership laws. In fact, earlier this year, a national survey revealed that two-thirds of Australians would support policies that require cat owners to keep their cat contained to their property.

Biodiversity Council spokesperson Jaana Dielenberg caught up with Amber Cunningham on ABC Radio Perth to talk about responsible cat ownership and why state level legislation needs to be amended to help support local councils. They also talked about some of the economic and health benefits of keeping cats safely contained.

"If we managed to dramatically reduce the number of cats we had roaming our suburbs, we'd be able to push down rates of diseases like toxoplasmosis, and then that would have big benefits for the health system and for people's health, especially people who are immunocompromised, where these diseases can be life threatening," said Jaana Dielenberg.

"And there's also the benefits to cat owners from the reduction in vet bills, from things like abscesses and cat fights, and also car strikes and a bunch of other misadventures.

"What local governments can do [about roaming cats] is really strongly influenced by overarching state and territory laws and Western Australia and New South Wales, unfortunately, make it really hard for local governments to take proactive action on cats.

"We'd really encourage changes to the state level legislation that make it easier for local governments to work with their communities to not just bring in new laws, but then to also work to educate the community and to provide them support and to monitor and enforce these rules so that we have a smooth transition.

"And so we get to the point with cats like we are with dogs, where people just readily accept that they need to keep their dog inside. They see it just as part of what they do of being a responsible dog owner."