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Revealed: The Sydney suburbs where the most native animals are killed by pet cats

New analysis from the Invasive Species Council has found roaming pet cats are estimated to have killed over 62 million of Sydney’s native animals this year. 

Nationally, more than 300 million native animals are killed every year, often due to irresponsible pet ownership. 

While almost every state and territory in Australia gives councils the power to implement rules for cat containment, this is not the case in NSW.

As submissions to the NSW feral cat inquiry close this week, the Invasive Species Council is urgently calling on the Minns Government to urgently update the outdated 1998 Companion Animal Act and allow councils the power to implement 24-7 cat containment. 

Invasive Species Council Advocacy Director, Jack Gough said: ‘Hundreds of thousands of roaming pet cats are sending our suburbs silent but, unlike in almost every other state, NSW councils cannot implement basic cat curfew due to barriers in archaic state laws.

‘This is a stark contrast to the ACT which requires residents to contain their cats, or Victoria where over 50% of councils have introduced cat containment laws.

‘Councils across the state are crying out for this amendment so that they can protect their local bushland from the enormous impacts of roaming pet cats.

‘Unfortunately, 70% of cat owners in Sydney and around Australia let their cats roam and the nature of cats is they are really effective killers.

‘Owning a pet cat should come with clear responsibilities to ensure your pet is not roaming around killing our native birds, mammals, reptiles and frogs.

‘A cat kept safely at home will live a longer life, pick up less diseases and is less likely to get injured in car accidents, dog attacks or cat fights, and they have far fewer vet bills.

‘This inquiry brings with it a real opportunity to get serious about protecting our wildlife from one of the biggest drivers of extinction in this country. 

‘In addition to changes to the law for cat containment, we also need governments to boost funding for responsible pet ownership initiatives like subsidised desexing and community education.

‘What we need to see now is some leadership from the Minns Government, to change the outdated NSW Companion Animals Act 1998 to protect our native wildlife.’

Number of estimated wildlife deaths per Sydney/Greater Sydney suburb:

SuburbRegistered catsNative animals killed/year by registered roaming pet catsEstimate of total catsNative animals killed/year by total estimated roaming pet cats
Inner West36,4002,217,41596,0425,850,700
Central Coast29,0541,769,91276,6604,669,951
Sydney27,9201,700,83173,6684,487,680
Sutherland Shire24,0571,465,50463,4753,866,766
Hills Shire20,0791,223,17352,9793,227,368
Blacktown19,9001,212,26852,5073,198,597
Northern Beaches19,7911,205,62852,2193,181,077
Georges River15,300932,04540,3692,459,223
Canterbury-Bankstown14,087858,15237,1692,264,253
Ku-ring-gai13,123799,42734,6252,109,306
Campbelltown12,703773,84133,5172,041,798
Penrith12,542764,03433,0922,015,920
Hornsby12,479760,19632,9262,005,793
Parramatta11,223683,68329,6121,803,912
Wollondilly9,352569,70524,6751,503,180
Ryde9,204560,68924,2851,479,391
Fairfield9,031550,15023,8281,451,584
Blue Mountains8,789535,40823,1901,412,687
Randwick8,568521,94522,6071,377,165
Hawkesbury8,418512,80822,2111,353,055
Cumberland8,182498,43121,5881,315,122
Bayside7,649465,96220,1821,229,451
Woolhara7,154435,80718,8761,149,888
Liverpool6,831416,13118,0241,097,971
Camden6,053368,73715,971972,920
North Sydney5,956362,82815,715957,329
Canada Bay5,189316,10413,691834,046
Willoughby4,549277,11612,003731,177
Waverly3,944240,26110,406633,933
Strathfield3,792231,00110,005609,501
Lane Cove2,409146,7516,356387,207
Mosman2,115128,8425,580339,951
Burwood1,852112,8204,887297,678
Hunters Hill75846,1762,000121,836
TOTAL388,45323,663,7801,024,94262,437,414

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Photos and other multimedia to accompany this story are available here.

Background:

  • Over 50% (42) of Victoria’s 79 councils have introduced requirements to keep cats contained all or part of the time, while another 16 are considering introducing containment measures.
  • Research by the Biodiversity Council has found that two in three Australians would support policies that require cat owners to keep their cat contained to their property.
  • Collectively, roaming pet cats kill 546 million animals per year in Australia – 323 million of these are native
  • Around 70% of cat owners in Australia allow their cats to roam, and 78% of these roaming cats hunt
  • 85% of the animals killed by pet cats are not brought home
  • On average, each roaming, hunting pet cat kills more than three animals every week  – for a total of 186 animals per year. This number includes 110 native animals (40 reptiles, 38 birds and 32 mammals).
  • Hunting pet cats kill 30-50 times more native animals per square kilometre in suburbs than feral cats kill per square kilometre in the bush.  This is because pet ownership allows inflated density: While feral cats kill 4x more animals per year, there are between 54 and 100 roaming and hunting cats per square kilometre in suburbs compared to only one feral cat for every 3-4 square kilometres in the bush.  
  • Pet cats kill 6,000 to 11,000 native animals per square kilometre each year in urban areas  
  • When cats prowl and hunt in an area, wildlife have to spend more time hiding or escaping. This reduces the time spent feeding themselves or their young, or resting.
  • An analysis by the Biodiversity Council, Invasive Species Council and Birdlife Australia on the impact of roaming pet cats nationwide is available here.

The Invasive Species Council, along with Birdlife Australia, Nature Conservation Council NSW WIRES and the Australian Wildlife Society, have previously called on the NSW Government to:

  • Amend the NSW Companion Animals Act 1998 to enable local governments to enforce anti roaming laws for pet cats at a local level. 
  • Allocate a minimum of $9 million to fund compliance, education, desexing, identification and registration programs. 
  • Encourage local governments to develop companion animal management plans. 
  • Develop a state-wide web resource for pet owners. 
  • Streamline pet identification and registration processes. 
  • Make desexing mandatory state-wide.

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Invasives Species Council
The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

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Invasives Species Council
The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.

The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.

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Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]


Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]