City of Canning Local Law Review

Dear City of Canning,
1) Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed D20 25848 Draft City of Canning Cat Law 2020.
2) Whilst I think cats are amazing animals and bring both enjoyment and company to many people in our community, I also strongly believe that they need to be contained on the private property of their owner/custodian. I feel strongly about this for three reasons:
- the impact of domestic cats on neighbourhood nature {disturbing (eg causing them to fly away, stop feeding, expend energy fleeing), killing or maiming birds, reptiles, fish, crustaceans, bats, insects and other fauna eg Quenda, Rakali}
- the impact of domestic cats on neighbours and local community fighting, pooing including in our vegetable patch, male cats spraying urine & pheromones on door step to mark “their misguided territory”
- the impact of domestic cats on people with allergies (like myself), where just their presence for a short while can cause eye, nose and headache problems – and I am not as sensitive as others.
3) I acknowledge and congratulate all the cat owners and custodians who care for their feline company whilst containing them on their private property.
4) I strongly support the notion of ‘Cat Prohibited Areas’.
5) I am unsure why all parks {eg Nurdi Park (Willetton), Brolga Park (Willetton), Rob Bruce Park (Shelley), Fifth Avenue Park (Shelley), Civic Centre Park (Cannington), Wharf Street Basin (Cannington) etc, etc} are not included? These are important ecological linkages with birds, reptiles, fish, crustaceans, bats, insects and other fauna that need to be protected.
I believe this is supported by the City’s Local Biodiversity Strategy, Urban Forest Strategy and Street Tree Policy.
6) I support limiting cats to 2 per home.
7) I seek clarity that by “nuisance” meaning ‘an illegal activity or condition which is harmful or annoying and which gives rise to legal liability in the tort of public or private nuisance at law’ (Sections 1.5 and 4.1 of proposed Cat Law 2020) means that a cat is causing “nuisance” if it disturbs, harms or kills local native fauna??
If not, this aspect of cat impact MUST BE detailed in the cat law.
Warm regards,
Colma

I support the introduction of a law that will see all cats contained on their owners‘ property.
Cats use my property as a hunting ground, killing wildlife including many small reptiles (lizards in particular), birds, and invertebrates.
These cats not only inflict a toll on wildlife they also enjoy using my yard as a toilet, defecating in my garden and spraying on the front and back doors. Disgusting!
For the past 29 years I have worked along the Shelley, Rossmoyne foreshore in a voluntary capacity to enhance the natural area along the foreshore to provide increased habitat for native fauna.
This 6 kilometre strip of foreshore is an important section of an extensive ecological link that forms part of the Urban Forest, Local Biodiversity and Street Tree Strategies established by the City of Canning. Unfortunately, this link in turn becomes a vast hunting ground for cats. Many native birds are ground nesting and feeding and are easy prey for cats as are reptiles and invertebrates. (Note: an entire colony of fairy tern chicks killed by a single cat in Mandurah.)
Grecian

1. Cats should not be allowed to roam, just the same as dogs
2. Real Estate agents should pay for signage on public land - why do they get free advertising? They also leave out the home open signs intentionally for further free advertising - I say remove and destroy or charge them.
3. No trees should be knocked down and new trees should be suitable to the location
4. Offer subsidised cat sterilisation - utilise trainee vets from Murdoch?
5. Reduce Junk collection to 1 per year - actually monitor the size and content of so called junk as so many people put out cardboard boxes only (not junk should be recycled) and some people put a massive pile out (isn't there a limit?)
6. Change the law to have 3 dogs on application by owner (account for foster of homeless dogs as only temporary)

I refer to the Cat Local Law 2020 City of Canning. I fully support the submission made by the Friends od Wueens Park Bushland.

Please make it compulsory to keep cats inside or cat run, especially near parks to many native animals killed by cats roaming at night.

Regards Home open signs. The extended hours are more practical and there is no reason why those of us in the industry cannot comply. This is very fair.
However the regulating it to no more than 2 signs per property is problematic for sellers and buyers and I strongly would suggest this be increased to three per home, with no more than one sign for any agent on any intersection.
In most cases this would allow one sign directing in from a main road, one on the cross street or feeder road and the third at the end of the street for the home for sale. This will satisfy the needs for most homes. An example of this would be Vahland and Collins, then Collins and Portcullis, then the third on Tippet and Portcullis.
In light of ever increasing traffic this will allow buyer to keep their eye on the rd and be directed more easily. This is an important thing for safety on the roads.
Secondly I think putting times on the signs can also be problematic. Although easy for us in the industry to do, I have seen instances of drivers slowing to read the times on a sign causing congestion and near misses from behind them.
I think having a sign on the main road and then to minor roads it will direct traffic off the busy main rd to the sign on the front lawn of the property where most agents display the time, or allow the buyer to get a contact phone number for the agent without risking tail end collisions.
Thirdly sign clutter on intersections should be penalised any agent should be limited to only one sign on any intersection. If they have two homes in the same direction and there is no requirement to have times on the sign there will be no need for more than one sign per intersection.
The industry is keen to work with council but do want clear, practical rules that we can comply with and do not penalise ratepayers buying and selling in Canning. We would also like to see all agencies treated the same way with the few recidivist offenders actually penalised.

I refer to the City of Canning Cat Local Law2020.
I fully support the submission made by the Friends of Queens Park Bushland

The animal control needs to be tighter and enforced. Cat numbers should be restricted to one per property, confined to owners properties at all times. All dogs should be leashed in all public spaces, failure to pickup after your dog should incur hefty fines. Chickens are not suited to suburbia ban them.
Leenal

It breaks my heart when I see bird remains on my lawn, I feel cats should be kept inside and controlled. 💔 thank you

We don’t need to be further regulated than we already are. Unimpressed. Re: cat law. I have 3 indoor cats, my neighbour has 3 indoor cats and 1 cat which goes outside. How is the council intending on policing the cat population if residents have indoor only cats?? Is this really a wildlife protection regulation or revenue raising??

Cat Local Law 2020
This doesn't seem to change anything (?) if you do have 2 cats or less which are licensed and kept in at night. Is that correct?

I agree with Ken re the keeping of poultry and pigeons. An increased limit from 10, to 20 pigeons?? 6 chickens?

At a time when the City should be strengthening it animal control problem in light of the avian and zoonotic virus plaguing the world, well It appears they are watering them down. This is a disaster!
Wesfeeds and Nufeeds in Welshpool already fuel huge flocks of pigeons, and rabbits in the Arm/Thor train reserve.
Currently, flocks of 10-20 feral doves descend on our property every day, defecating and spreading weed seed. People deliberately spreading rice & bread on verges to feed these feral doves, IBIS and other water birds (ducks) creating guano covered roofs. Escaped pet budgie flopping into my backyard. Dogs walkers with no poo bags.

Cats from neighbouring streets defecating and urinating on my native plants and soil on a weekly basis.

I have seen chickens dumped around draining basins, escapee chickens on footpaths, chickens kept in carports and on sub-divided property, roaming front yards and driveways. I can hear early morning clucking, from my bed.
Will the council check if they have vermin proof feeders??
We find bones in our gutters, meat patties and bread dropped on our property (people dumping food, and uncovered composts).
Palm trees on rental and vacant property here not being trimmed of fruit (rats love to eat them). Dropped fruit not being collected.
Our house is currently affected by a plague of rats. It’s out of control. We do the right thing, yet are punished by the irresponsibility of an increasing number of animal owners.
I strongly suggest the City search the ‘Lost and Found Birds Perth WA’ Facebook page and see the sheer scale of the lost bird problem, which its new laws will add to.
I’m sorry, but from my experience, I don’t believe we have the demographics that can support a relaxation of animal control laws in the hope that residents are doing the right thing.
Living will become very cramped in the City as housing infills, densifies, subdivides wall-to-wall and the population increases, so why is the council effectively lowering our standard of living by increasing the animal population? And what will it do in light of animal viral outbreak?

I believe that poultry & pigeons should not be kept in residential areas as a large health issue arises.They attract rats,mice and millions of blowflies. I also believe that the council should have better control over barking dogs. I have lived at my residence for forty years but the last five or so years have been made very uncomfortable by barking dogs that even after many complaints to the rangers,still continues.It seems to me that the victim of this offensive noise has to jump through hoops to get anything done while the dogs bark on.