20/05/2026
NSW SUFFERING FROM A "STRAY CAT CRISIS".
Animal rescuers across NSW say they are struggling to cope with the huge number of stray cats.
Under the "Companion Animals Act" in NSW, cats can only be seized if found in a dedicated food preparation site or a wildlife protection area - otherwise they are "free to roam"
However, Peta Smith from the Hunter Valley Animal Facility said the roaming provision in the Act blurred responsibility for cat management and encouraged breeding between pets, ferals and strays.
"Until cats are treated the same as dogs and have to be desexed and contained, this (problem) is just going to get worse and worse," she said.
Rochelle Wood from the Stray Cats Project in Newcastle said, "I think the council and the laws absolutely need changing. We're getting up to 20 calls a day about stray cats because they call the council and the council just says they're free to roam".
Wildlife rescue organisations are concerned that if the roaming and stray cat population is left unchecked, it will have devastating and permanent impacts on native wildlife.
The Invasive Species Council estimates that each roaming cat kills 186 animals a year.
In 2024, a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry was set up to examine how cat populations are being managed across the state. After receiving 500 submissions, the committee handed down ten recommendations, largely focused on expanding desexing programs and encouraging pet owners to keep their cats indoors.
However, most free-roaming (stray and feral) cats don't have an owner to contain them.
The Companion Animals Act is currently under review by the NSW Government. However, the Minister for Local Government warns that introducing changes to the roaming cat laws was "not an easy call to make".
To read the full story go to the ABC News website.
(Source: story by ABC journalists Ben Clifford and Courtney Yeandle at ABC Newcastle.)
Editor's note: there is a "plague" of stray cats in this town at the moment. But it's not just the wildlife they are killing, they are also causing damage to property and wailing and howling at night right under people's bedroom windows.
They are pests on so many levels, so I hope the "free to roam" law gets dropped and councils do the right things and step up to control them.
Remember, stray cats become feral cats and feral cats kill even more wildlife and small farm animals.
