Controls tighten for free-range felines

Life is no longer the cat's meow for Australia's moggies.

Budget pressures permitting, Tasmania will next month become the latest state to impose strict controls on cat ownership.

And across the nation local councils keep pulling the chain tighter, from microchipping to curfews designed to keep pussy at home.

"Keeping cats in at night will help reduce unwanted cat litters, barking dogs and cat poo in neighbours' gardens," Melbourne's Moonee Valley City Council says in defence of its overnight curfew bylaws.

"Contrary to popular belief, cats don't have to roam. Cats can be very happy and healthy if kept safely inside the home at night or alternatively in a cat enclosure."

The increasing legislative fence is being fiercely championed by animal welfare groups, environmentalists and governments.

Even your average suburban moggie can cause havoc among local wildlife, and if they become strays or feral, watch out. They can start breeding as young as four months, producing two litters of two to five kittens a year.

In Tasmania, where new laws will require microchipping and de-sexing among other steps, the estimated domestic tally is dwarfed by as many as 150,000 strays and ferals. Across Australia the wild population is estimated at 12 million.

They can carry and pass on parasitic diseases such as toxoplasmosis and sarcosporidiosis, both of which are a significant threat to other animals, including farm livestock and native wildlife.

In the wild, the federal Environment Department says cats hunt small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects, taking prey as big as a brush-tail possum. They are considered a threat to 35 species of birds, 36 mammals, seven reptiles and three amphibians.

They have also contributed to the extinction of many small to medium-sized mammals and ground-nesting birds in the arid zone, and seriously affected bilby, mala and numbat populations.

Under the new Tasmanian laws, which could yet be delayed by cutbacks in this month's state budget, cats over 6 months old must be de-sexed and microchipped.

Breeding will be restricted to members of approved cat associations or registered breeders, and kittens must be at least 8 weeks old, and microchipped and de-sexed, before being sold or given away. Farmers will be able to "trap, seize or humanely destroy" any cat on their land.

In Victoria all cats over 3 months must be registered and identified with a tag when outside their homes, and those sold by pet shops, breeders and pounds must be microchipped and de-sexed.

Microchips and de-sexing are also compulsory in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and all cats sold from South Australian pounds or refuges must be de-sexed and registered.

In Geelong, south of Melbourne, tough new control laws including a curfew are enforced by rangers, while in Moonee Valley all cats must be kept on their properties between sunset and sunrise.

It's enough to get a cat's back up.