Cat Curfews: The Facts

Understanding the Real Issues Behind Curfews

Stray Cats vs Domestic Cats

Most of the evidence about cats and wildlife comes from studies of feral or unowned cats, not from pets living in homes.

Owned cats in urban councils like Merri-bek are mostly desexed and have limited ranges.¹
Strays and semi-owned cats are the real drivers of overpopulation and shelter intake.²
National kill estimates often misapply figures for feral and rural cats, making urban pets seem like a bigger problem than they really are.¹

In contrast, the main drivers of biodiversity decline in cities are habitat loss, land clearing, and fragmentation.³ ⁴

Welfare Impacts – More Harm Than Help

Mandatory confinement is not automatically “better” for cats.

The RSPCA warns that curfews increase stress behaviours, obesity, and surrenders.⁵
The Pet Welfare Foundation reports that euthanasia rates increased in councils upon introduction of curfews, not decreased.⁶
Cats adopted from shelters that have lived outdoors often struggle to adapt to sudden confinement, putting adoption programs at risk.⁷
Councils that introduced curfews, such as Yarra Ranges, Casey, and Mornington Peninsula, saw complaints, impoundments, and euthanasia go up – not down.⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹
Framing roaming cats as a “problem” risks encouraging hostility from cat haters, creating new dangers for pets.¹²
The Pet Welfare Foundation found that containment regimes often increase impoundments, euthanasia, and costs to councils - with every impoundment costing hundreds of dollars in holding, admin, and staff time. The cost to Merri-bek for impounding just one cat is around $500 in staff time and pound fees. With the introduction of a cat curfew, complaints and impounds will rise, because residents will expect they never see a cat outside after curfew. This will result in a massive cost blowout, with ratepayers footing the bill.¹⁵ This diverts money away from programs like desexing, which deliver better outcomes.⁶
In the Yarra Ranges Shire, a 24/7 cat curfew triggered a 143% rise in complaints and a 68% rise in impoundments. In the Mornington Peninsula Shire, impoundments surged 119% after a 24/7 curfew was introduced.¹⁵
Confinement can also contribute to stress-related health problems, in addition to obesity and behaviour issues, further undermining welfare.
Voluntary strategies like night-time or “bedtime” feeding already help cats settle inside overnight without punitive laws. Such cooperative, low-cost approaches support welfare without the risks of curfews.⁶
Enforcement challenges have been identified in other jurisdictions, with councils struggling to monitor and police compliance despite significant costs.¹⁴
There is also a human welfare cost: shelter staff and volunteers face higher stress and burnout when curfews lead to more abandoned or surrendered cats being euthanised unnecessarily.⁶

Expert View: Pet Welfare Foundation

The Pet Welfare Foundation is a national organisation advocating for evidence-based, humane approaches to animal management. On cat curfews, they are clear:

Containment is not automatically better for cats - it often leads to stress, obesity, abandonment, and higher euthanasia rates when households cannot comply.⁶
Enclosures are unaffordable for many - costing $700–$5,000, which unfairly penalises renters, pensioners, and low-income families.⁶
Curfews backfire - councils that introduced them reported more complaints, impoundments, and euthanasia, not less.⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹
The real solution is community desexing - targeting unowned and semi-owned cats has proven far more effective at reducing shelter intake and euthanasia.²

“Cat curfews risk punishing responsible pet owners while failing to address the true drivers of overpopulation. Humane, community-based desexing programs deliver better outcomes for cats, wildlife, and the community.” – Pet Welfare Foundation

Read their full position statement →

Equity and Fairness – A Policy That Punishes the Vulnerable

Cat curfews are not applied equally – they hit some households much harder than others.

Enclosures cost $700–$2,000, which many renters, pensioners, and low-income households cannot afford.⁶ Some larger houses have reported costs of up to $5,000.
Cat curfews risk making pet ownership unaffordable for many families, turning what should be a source of comfort and companionship into a privilege for the wealthy. Everyone deserves the ability to own and care for a pet, regardless of income.
Blanket laws punish responsible cat owners who cannot comply due to housing or cost barriers.
Humane, community-based programs like Banyule’s free desexing initiative worked far better, cutting cat intake by 66% and euthanasia by 82%.²

Evidence and Effectiveness - A Weak Case

The case for curfews in Merri-bek is not supported by solid local data.

There is no evidence that owned cats in Merri-bek cause population-level or significant wildlife decline.¹
The 2025 engagement recorded 131 online survey responses (186 total participants including pop-ups, interviews and emails), which is only 0.09% of Merri-bek’s 185,000 residents.¹³ The survey did not offer alternative policy options such as night curfews or targeted desexing.¹³
Councillors already resolved in 2022 to reject curfews in favour of desexing and education. Overturning that based on such a small survey is poor governance.
Councils that rolled out curfews, like Casey and Mornington Peninsula, still record high impoundments and euthanasia, with no measurable biodiversity benefit.⁹ ¹⁰
Council enforcement resources are scarce. Is it really a good use of staff time to track down a few wandering pets, when those same resources could deliver far greater results through stray and feral cat desexing programs? Targeting unowned cats is the most effective way to reduce intake and euthanasia.¹¹ Enforcement challenges have already been identified in other jurisdictions, with councils struggling to monitor and police compliance despite significant costs.¹⁴

Cat Education: Research Papers and Their Limits

Merri-bek Council has cited several high-profile studies to justify a cat curfew. It is important to read these papers carefully, because most of them focus on feral or rural cats, not desexed pets in dense inner-urban councils like ours. Below we break down the key research and its limitations.

McDonald et al. (2017) - Reconciling actual and perceived rates of predation by pet cats

What it says: Surveys of UK cat owners suggest under-reporting of prey returns, and cats are estimated to kill more wildlife than owners realise.

Flaws: This is based on self-reported UK owner surveys. It does not show population-level wildlife decline, and the UK context (different species, densities, and urban form) cannot be applied directly to Merri-bek.

Elliott et al. (2019) - Perceptions of Responsible Cat Ownership Behaviors among a Convenience Sample

What it says: Many cat owners underestimate the impacts of roaming cats and resist containment.

Flaws: This paper explores beliefs and attitudes, not ecological outcomes. It cannot be used as evidence that containment works or that cats cause population-level decline.

Woinarski, Murphy & Legge (2020) - Impacts of predation by pet cats on Australian wildlife

What it says: Pet cats in Australia kill an estimated 180 million animals annually; kill rates per km² in residential areas are many times higher than ferals in the bush.

Flaws: These are national extrapolations based on a small number of local studies, then scaled up. The authors themselves note uncertainty in whether predation translates into population decline, especially in dense cities.¹ The headline numbers conflate impacts across very different landscapes.

van Eeden et al. (2021) - Putting the cat before the wildlife

What it says: Looked at why cat owners choose (or don’t choose) to contain cats. Found concern about wildlife wasn’t the strongest factor in behaviour.

Flaws: Again, this is about human behaviour, not biodiversity impacts. It underlines the difficulty of enforcement but provides no support for curfews as effective ecological tools.

Legge et al. (2019, 2020) - Various CSIRO papers

What they say: Cats are a major threat to biodiversity at a national scale, especially feral cats in remote or peri-urban environments.

Flaws: They primarily review feral cat impacts and case studies in sensitive habitats (e.g., bandicoots, shorebirds). There is no data showing owned cats in Merri-bek cause comparable impacts. Applying these papers to dense inner-city councils is misleading.

What’s Missing?

Population-level data for Merri-bek: No study has shown that owned cats here cause measurable species decline.
Local baseline information: Council has not published which species are at risk, or how cats rank compared to habitat loss, roads, poisoning, or other pressures.
Evaluation of alternatives: Humane programs like Banyule’s free desexing show far greater, measurable outcomes for less cost.²

Independent Expert Critique

Even independent voices like Dr Kate Dutton-Regester (Australian Pet Welfare Foundation) have warned that these studies rely on inflated estimates, selective data use, and conflation of stray and pet cats. She argues that much of the evidence is shaped by anti-cat bias rather than balanced science.¹⁵

Watch: Expert Presentation

Emeritus Professor Jacquie Rand (Australian Pet Welfare Foundation) presented “Cats, Community & Cameras: A New Era in Free-Roaming Cat Management” at the 10th National Getting to Zero Summit (2025).

Her talk explains why community desexing and monitoring succeed where blanket curfews fail.

In short, cat curfews are a feel-good policy that ‘sounds right’ but is driven by ideology rather than evidence. They fail basic tests of peer-reviewed science, lack local data on wildlife impacts, and ignore proven alternatives like community desexing.

References

CSIRO Publishing – Impacts of predation by pet cats on Australian wildlife. https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR19174
Cotterell JL et al. “Impact of a Local Government Funded Free Cat Sterilization Program…” Animals, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14111615
State of the Environment 2021 – Biodiversity. https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-07/soe2021-biodiversity.pdf
DCCEEW SoE summary. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/environment-information-australia/soe
RSPCA Australia Position Paper PPA08 Cat Containment, 2024. https://kb.rspca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/PP-A8-Cat-Containment-2024.pdf
Pet Welfare Foundation – Cat Containment Position Statement. https://petwelfare.org.au/position-statements/cat-containment
PetRescue – Adoption challenges and impacts of containment on rehoming. https://www.petrescue.com.au/library/articles/cat-adoption
Law Society of NSW submission citing Yarra Ranges outcomes. https://www.lawsociety.com.au/sites/default/files/2024-12/202412~1.PDF
Yarra Ranges Council – Cat Curfew info. https://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Our-services/Animals/Owning-a-pet/Cat-Curfew
City of Casey cat data – Cranbourne Star News. https://cranbournenews.starcommunity.com.au/news/2025-09-02/cat-curfew-in-the-spotlight-for-casey/
Merri-bek Council 2025 - Merri-bek Agenda Item 7.3 – Draft DAMP, Pet Welfare submission
Pet Welfare Foundation – Cat containment risks including hostility and abandonment. https://petwelfare.org.au/position-statements/cat-containment
Merri-bek City Council – Draft DAMP survey methodology (2025). https://www.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/my-council/strategies-policies-and-collected-data/collected-data/research-and-data-reports/
NSW Parliament Animal Welfare Committee Report No. 2, 2025 – Enforcement challenges of cat containment
Pet Welfare Foundation – Merri-bek Council Submission 2025
Dr Kate Dutton-Regester, Ecology Research Officer at Australian Pet Welfare Foundation– We need to talk about Bella and Charlie – Brief critique of paper