October 16, 2013
The South Burnett Regional Council today voted to put an end to compulsory cat registrations but owners will still have to pay the renewal notices recently distributed.
Registrations will come to an end at the conclusion of current registration period.
The State Government announced last month it would repeal Queensland’s mandatory cat registration law, and gave councils until October 20 to decide whether they wanted to continue their own cat registration schemes or not.
At today’s monthly meeting, Council officers recommended the Council continue its current registration system until at least May 2014 in order to give the council “more time to fully consider the matter of ongoing cat registration”.
But Cr Kathy Duff moved an amended motion “that the South Burnett Regional Council no longer charge a cat registration fee after the current registration period ends”, ie. bringing forward the decision-making process.
The amendment provoked lively discussion.
Cr Barry Green said he was in favour of continuing cat registrations; partly because the current system brought in almost $30,000 a year in fees, partly because feral cats were a major pest in the region, and partly because the registration system encouraged microchipping cats.
“If there’s no cat registration system, who’s going to care about getting their cat microchipped? Who’s going to check if a cat’s microchipped or not? And who’s going to comply?” Cr Green said.
He added that if the Council let cat owners “off the hook”, then dog owners might feel that they were being unfairly treated and demand the current dog registration system come to an end, too.
Cr Deb Palmer asked how much of the $30,000 the Council currently receives in registration fees was used up in enforcement costs.
SBRC Finance Manager Gary Wall said that because registrations were a regulatory charge, the Council could only charge on a cost-recovery basis. So while he would need to look up exact figures to answer Cr Palmer’s question precisely, he was fairly certain the entire system really cost more to run than the fees it received.
Cr Keith Campbell said while he liked certain features of the cat registration system – such as giving council some data about the number of cats in the area – he wasn’t convinced registration solved some of the problems Cr Green talked about.
“Cats aren’t dangerous,” he said, “but some dogs are. That’s why we register them.”
“Cat are very dangerous to birds and small Australian marsupial animals,” Cr Green replied.
Cr Damien Tessmann said he agreed with Cr Green on the feral cat issue and wanted to proceed with the Council officers’ recommendation.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said the rule he applied was to ask “would Council have introduced this system if it hadn’t been forced on us?” and he thought the answer was “no”.
He supported Cr Duff’s motion to bring cat registrations to an end at the end of the current registration period.
Cr Duff’s motion was carried 4 to 3.
there are now only 26 “entire” domestic cats in the South Burnett.
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Toowoomba Regional Council voted to end its own cat registration system yesterday.
The Council will cease operating its system on July 1, 2014.
Instead it will look at ways to encourage cat owners to have their pets desexed and microchipped.
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Unlike Toowoomba and the South Burnett, Gympie Regional Council decided to end its cat registration program immediately and to refund all registrations paid for the current year.
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