Hi
New here but I've been reading round and see that a lot of people are worried about taking their pets, cats in particular, to Victoria due to some scare stories.
I've extensively investigated this as we will be taking our two furbabies with us. Yes, there are some guidelines however the majority of these are to do with the welfare of cats or dogs and their humane treatment.
It can vary slightly within different city areas of Victoria, so you should always check these, but basically, register your pet with your local authority once it attains 3 months of age and they will provide you with a tag, which it must wear at all times (how I will get my male cat to not lose this I don't know, but fortunately you can get replacements - I may need one a week!). This process is designed to reduce the number of 'ownerless' cats that need to be euthanased every year because they can't all be rehomed, and it is working. Failure to register can lead to you being fined.
Get it desexed as soon as it's old enough. Get it microchipped and have an 'M' tatooed in their ear to show it's been chipped.
Keep it inside between dusk and dawn to prevent it becoming a nuisance, being injured or killing wildlife. If you really want it outside at night, build it an enclosure of some sort. You can also consider adding netting that leans in the way to the top of your boundary fence to keep it in the garden during the day if you are particularly worried.
Do not let the cat leave your property without wearing it's tag. If your cat has a tag and gets picked up, it can be returned to you easily. If no tag, then you can be fined and liable to pay any kennel fees. Plus there's of the course the small risk that you will not be identified and the cat will be rehomed or worse
People do have the right to humanely trap nuisance ownerless or feral cats and hand these over to the local authorities, but they themselves can be prosecuted if they do not follow the minimum standards (ie must use a trap that won't harm cat, can't keep it for more than 24 hours in the trap and must give it water etc).
For Melbourne in particular, the following link to the Responsible Pet Ownership pages will be of use:
City of Melbourne - Pets and animal management - Responsible pet ownership
From there you will see on the left hand side some more detailed links. By clicking on cats you can find out more info about registration and tagging etc, or even a booklet on how to build an enclosure if you decide to do that.
This is the code of practice for keeping cats in Victoria, something that I personally think would be worthwhile bringing in here in the UK also:
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfa...Cat%20code.pdf
If you love your cats and can't bring yourself to leave them behind, then I would really suggest that you take them. Think of how much joy you get from your cat and how much comfort they can provide you whilst you get used to your new surroundings. And... almost one quarter of Australian households have a cat so they don't hate them at all in Aus!
I would however ask any responsible cat owner to stick to the guidelines given. Yes, your cat has the right to roam freely in the UK, but why risk it being injured when just keeping it in at night could drastically reduce that risk? This is no different in Australia but you also have to consider how fragile the populations of certain animals, particularly small mammals, are there compared to here. Many of these will only venture out at night when your cat does most of it's hunting, so keeping your cat in can help preserve vulnerable populations and does your cat no harm whatsoever.
I would like to add here that cats hunting are just following their natural instincts and that it is us humans (particularly us stupid poms!) who are historically responsible for the devastation and extinctions of native Australian mammals etc. When we get something wrong, boy do we get it wrong!
We each have a responsibility to reduce the damage we have already done as much as possible and, by following the guidelines, as a responsible cat owner you will play your part.
RE: the comments regarding cats and toxoplasmosis. This is a parasite that infects most warm blooded mammals (including humans) and is in fact spread more often through the consumption of undercooked meat, rather than from contact with cat feaces. As a result, the incidence of human infection is higher in countries that eat a lot of undercooked or raw meat and is estimated at over 80% in some areas of Europe. For our kitties, they generally pick it up from eating infected rodents so another good reason to keep them in over night! The risk of you catching it from your cat or from another cat messing in your garden is low, particularly if you follow normal personal hygiene and wash your hands (scrub under your nails) after cleaning out litter trays etc or gardening.
I would hope everyone washed their hands after that!
Hope this has helped,
K
PS apologies for the overly long first post!
For those moving to Victoria with pets...
