Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Knox cat curfew

This petition of residents in Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Assembly that Knox City Council has not adhered to the Local Government Act 2020 when making an Order to introduce a 24-hour cat curfew.

Knox City Councillors voted to introduce a 24-hour cat curfew without first consulting the community on the 24-hour Order. In 2020, the Council ran a trial dusk-to-dawn curfew for 12 months at the expense of ratepayers and have not published any results. The Councillors did not adhere to the Councillor Code of Conduct and the Order was introduced without evidence and statistics.

The Council imposes $545 fines if a cat is not ‘securely confined to the owner’s premises at all times’, failing to consider the financial and health impacts upon owners, including renters, the elderly, special needs children with therapy cats and those struggling with mental health and reduced incomes.

The Council did not follow its Community Engagement Policy and the Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan and have said that they will conceal the identity of complainants, placing the onus on cat owners to defend themselves from anonymous accusations. This Order has created community division, issues of inequality and animal abuse.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Assembly call on the Government to conduct an inquiry into the Knox City Council’s Order to introduce a 24-hour cat curfew, revoke the 24-hour cat curfew, conduct professional community consultations on the 24-hour curfew, introduce a retrial of the night curfew with results independently assessed and publicly reported, discontinue unverifiable online surveys and review the conduct of Knox City Council Councillors.