The Biodiversity Council commends the Victorian Government for taking a pro-active and strategic approach to cat management by developing the first Draft Victorian cat management strategy. However, the content is skewed towards domestic cat management and is not suitable to achieve the effective management of all cats in Victoria or to achieve significant and enduring conservation gains.

We urge the Victorian government to redraft the strategy so that it comprehensively addresses the management of all categories of cats, including the detrimental impacts of feral cats.

In our submission we detail 25 recommendations with a focus on feral cat management to improve biodiversity outcomes. If the management of all cats is not the desired intention of the strategy, the strategy should contain explicit language to distinguish that the plan is a pet cat management strategy that incorporates some actions on feral cats as an important complementary focus.