A new draft Keeping of Animals Policy for the Georges River Local Government Area will limit the number of cats allowed to be kept on a residential property if there is a complaint received by the council.
The council adopted its Keeping of Animals Policy in 2020, harmonising thef two existing policies from the former Kogarah and Hurstville Councils.
The only proposed change to the draft Policy 2022 is the reintroduction of requirements to limit the numbers of cats following a verified complaint.
This follows an ongoing investigation by Council's Rangers relating to the negative impact on surrounding neighbours caused by the number of cats being kept by a resident.
Council's Rangers identified 21 unregistered cats at a premises in the Local Government Area.
"This required the assistance of the council's Environmental Health Officers due to the extremely pungent smell of faeces that could be clearly smelled from neighbouring properties as well as swarms of flies attracted to the faeces," a council report said.
"Rangers issued notices to identify and register the cats and were successful in having the occupant identify a total of 49 cats.
"Despite this, the owner failed to correctly register 18 of these cats or identify a further 14 which resulted in the issue of penalty notices for each of these offences."
As the council's Keeping of Animals Policy 2020 did not contain restrictions on the maximum number of cats that could be kept on a premises, the council sought legal advice in relation to what was deemed a reasonable number of cats that could be kept on a residential premises.
The advice received sighted the RSPCA document, Best Practice Domestic Cat Management in Australia recommends a limit of four cats, provided that all cats are desexed, microchipped, contained and receive appropriate care.
Council initiated action required by the Local Government Act to make the premises safe and healthy and to reduce the number of cats kept on the property to four.
The occupant is in the process of moving from the area to a property which is large enough to house the number of cats.
Based on this experience and legal advice received, the council is proposing to amend its draft Keeping of Animals Policy 2022 to include the following provisions in relation to the keeping of cats:
. The maximum number of cats permitted to be kept on any property is four.
. All cats kept on any property must be desexed, microchipped and receive appropriate care.
"The above requirements would prevent a recurrence of the situations that previously occurred and would significantly assist Council staff in rapidly resolving future cat amenity complaints," the council report said.
The draft Keeping of Animals Policy will be on public exhibition for 28 days via Council's website and customer service centres .
