In NSW, there’s a review underway on the Companion Animals Act which could better support cats and native wildlife to safely co-exist. Can you help make our community safer for all? Meg Wright reports
The Northern Illawarra is the most beautiful place I have ever lived.
We are blessed with an abundance of natural beauty and native wildlife on our doorstep. Each morning I wake to the sound of the Kookaburras laughing in the gum trees outside, the Magpies sing me songs as I walk down to get my morning coffee, and I watch as the Satin Bowerbird makes his nest at the turn of the season, amassing a sea of blue in anticipation of enticing in a new mate.
These are sights and sounds I know well having grown up in our bushy suburbs. But it wasn’t until I returned home after nearly 18 years – seven of those spent living abroad – that I realised how truly lucky we are.
In an effort to do our bit for the “locals”, my partner installed a wildlife box in a tree in the front garden in early 2024. It wasn’t long before it was home to a resident Brushtail Possum.
For six months “Poss” (as we called her) lived in the box out the front, reliably coming home around dawn to make her nest for the day and sleeping until sunset. Occasionally we’d wake to the sight of a small leg stuck out of the box; the possum equivalent of tossing a foot out the side of the bed to self-regulate in the middle of the night.
At nights Poss would venture out, often setting off the front door cam, we’d watch as she explored the garden, never going too far from her warm, dry abode. The day we discovered she’d had a baby we were delighted. We arrived home to find her holed up in the box with her newborn joey snuggled in for comfort.
We were devastated when, just two weeks after giving birth, we found Poss crawling around the front garden in agony in the middle of the day after a run in with a local cat. In an effort to protect her joey, Poss had come home to leave him safely tucked up in the box before her pain got the best of her.
I will spare you the heartbreaking details of what came next except to say I will forever be grateful to WIRES and their team of local volunteers who are on call 24 hours a day to support, rescue and rehabilitate our wildlife. In short, the injuries that both Poss and her joey had sustained were simply too great.
Roaming harms native wildlife, cats and humans
According to the ABC, four out of five outdoor cats will hunt and kill an average of two to three animals each week. That amounts to somewhere between 6,000-11,000 animals killed per square kilometre in our suburbs, or 323 million native animals nationally each year.
And the impact of roaming on cats themselves is not great either. Outdoor cats are far more susceptible to the dangers of traffic, of being attacked by cats and dogs, and of catching (and spreading) infections and diseases.
Roaming cats have also been shown to spread illness among humans too, placing added strain on both our healthcare and our veterinary systems. Not to mention our wallets.
As a long-term indoor cat owner, the thought of letting my cat outside – of not knowing where they are and how they are – terrifies me. This is especially true after my sister lost her cat in 2021 when it was killed in a hit and run one night out the front of her house. Tragically, she didn’t find her beloved feline until it was too late.
It’s time to put an end to roaming
A 2024 report by the Biodiversity Council found that only 8% of people (around 1 in 12) are opposed to policy requiring cat owners to keep their cats contained to their own property.
In an effort to protect both native wildlife and cats themselves, more than a third of local councils now require cats to be contained either overnight or 24 hours a day. Unfortunately for us, most of these councils are in Victoria and the ACT.
In fact, current NSW law prevents our local councils from taking this action. This isn’t good enough.
The good news? There’s currently a review underway into the Companion Animals Act. If successful, the review could have a profound impact in making our streets, neighbourhoods and communities safer places for all animals and wildlife.
Have your say, make an impact
Here’s where you come in. I’d like to invite you to make a submission, to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Regardless of who you are, whether you are a pet owner or not, whether you admire our native wildlife or not, it is on all of us to do more to improve local safety.
Never again will I take our beautiful home – and all its inhabitants – for granted. Neither should you.
The Companion Animals Act 1998 is currently under review in NSW. You can have your say by submitting a response here between now and May 4.
If you’d like to do your bit to create safe environments for our local native wildlife and birds, check out Hollow Log Homes.
About the writer
Meg Wright is a journalist and podcaster whose work appears regularly in the Financial Times. She has also written for Forbes, The Drum and Mamamia. Meg grew up in the Illawarra and recently returned after living in London. She spends her time swimming, doing yoga and drinking (too much) coffee.
