Releasing stray cats into the wild is banned in most of Australia, but in the ACT a program called trap, neuter, return (TNR) is placing them back onto the streets.
Under the practice of TNR, wild cats are trapped, desexed and then released onto the streets to live in "cat colonies".
In the ACT, those colonies exist in the industrial suburbs of Fyshwick, Hume and Mitchell and are tended to by the Canberra Street Cat Alliance (CSCA), a volunteer organisation.
In every other state and territory, various laws, including biodiversity acts, make it illegal to release an invasive species — like a cat — back into the environment. But the ACT allows TNR.
Environmental experts say the practice is in stark contrast to the ACT's attempts to protect native species through its cat-containment laws, which will come into effect in July and require all new cats to be kept indoors or on a leash.
But the CSCA says TNR can "humanely" address Canberra's population of street cats and cat-containment laws alone will not reduce the number of cats living on the streets.
Cats hunt hundreds of animals each night in Australia: expert
Gillian Basnett is the national cat and fox management coordinator at the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions. She said the damage cats caused to native wildlife far outweighed the benefits of releasing them onto the streets.
"Cats, whether they're in urban areas or in bushland … they'll hunt hundreds of animals every night," she said.
Ms Basnett said re-releasing stray cats into cat colonies in industrial suburbs did not mitigate the potential damage to wildlife.
"We often forget just how much native wildlife is in our urban area, whether that's in gardens or in urban reserves and that can include threatened species," she said.
"There's actually a whole suite of threatened species that are either found in our towns and urban areas or only remain in our urban areas but can be impacted by cats."
Ms Basnett said cats were not deterred from hunting even when food was available.
"We need to stop feeding unwanted cats, whether that's deliberate feeding of cat colonies or a stray cat that might come around to your property every now and then ... we need to eliminate that."
But the CSCA said in a statement that it had evidence of cats in the ACT's colonies "sharing" their food with native wildlife.
"Footage has also shown the cats to be frightened of birds flying down to the cats' feeding area."
The CSCA also said that as the cat colonies in the ACT were in industrial areas, they did "not have the volume of wildlife seen in residential areas".
'Dangerous and short-sighted'
John Read, an ecologist who specialises in cat management, agreed with Ms Basnett, warning that while TNR sounded like a good long-term approach, it was unlikely to reduce the numbers of wild cats over time.
"Trap, neuter, return appears to be a nice way of managing cats without euthanising them, but most research that's been done around the world suggests that it's not very effective at all," Mr Read said.
He said he hoped that cats would soon start to be managed the same way as dogs.
"Just 50 years ago, dogs roamed the streets, they weren't registered and they caused a lot of problems. And now cats are doing that," Mr Read said.
"We understand as a community that we need to manage our dogs. Cats should be exactly the same.
Mr Read also said that aside from posing a threat to native wildlife, some cats also posed a threat to human wellbeing.
"There's some cat-borne diseases, such as toxoplasmosis, which costs the Australian health budget approximately $6 billion a year. That would be wiped out totally if all cats were contained and kept indoors," Mr Read said.
The CSCA said it decided to operate TNR in the ACT in 2014, based on studies conducted overseas, as there had been limited research into the program's effectiveness in Australia.
But the group said a current five-year study underway in Queensland looked promising and results from the study's first phase showed a decrease in the intake of cats to animal shelters in the region.
The CSCA said that, in Canberra's largest cat colony, it had been able to rehome 33 of the 51 cats and kittens, and returned 18 cats after being desexed. The group said that, in the year since, there had been no new cats within the colony.
Quality of life for street cats not worth re-releasing them
The RSPCA's ACT chief executive, Michelle Robertson, said there were legitimate concerns for the welfare of street cats, but it was "very difficult for RSPCA to endorse TNR as an effective strategy as part of cat management".
"The animal welfare component of TNR has a number of factors that we are very concerned about; high morbidity and mortality rates in kittens, a lot of cats in colonies are killed because of motor vehicle accidents, there are high incidents of infectious disease," she said.
Ms Robertson said there were more "efficient and viable strategies available" to manage stray cat populations, primarily by ensuring all pet cats were desexed and contained.
When injured or suffering wild cats in Canberra were brought to the RSPCA, Ms Robertson said euthanasia was considered as a "last resort".
"Euthanasia is a viable treatment option, where animals are suffering — and suffering could mean physical suffering or mental health suffering," she said.
The Canberra Street Cat Alliance said the volunteer group, which also runs an adoption program, prided itself on being a "no-kill" organisation and it did not believe in the euthanasia of "healthy cats".
Government to consult cat rescue organisations ahead of new laws
In a statement, the ACT government confirmed TNR programs were not banned in the territory and said the government would work with cat rescue organisations, such as the CSCA, to determine how those programs would work under new legislation coming into effect from July.
Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti said the groups running TNR programs had been doing "really important work" and the government would consult with them in the coming months.
"We will be working with organisations about how we transition from programs that currently are operating and how they might fit into that strategy," she said.
Ms Vassarotti said the government's aim was to "support responsible pet ownership" and "reduce the number of nuisance and roaming cats".
The Canberra Street Cat Alliance told the ABC that it would apply for an exemption to the new laws.
"CSCA will be applying for an exemption to the cat-containment laws within the industrial zones of the Canberra region, which will allow us to continue to conduct our TNR operations," the group said.
The alliance said cat containment alone would not reduce the number of cats living on Canberra's streets. It said a successful cat-management strategy needed four factors: TNR, adoption programs, desexing and containment for owned cats.
"In the perfect world, every cat would be living a blissful domestic life, safely contained to prevent accident and injury," the group said.
"CSCA believe TNR is a crucial aspect of any cat-management plan."
Editor's note (24/01/2022): A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the RSPCA considered "humane euthanasia" a feral cat management tool. The story has now been updated to reflect the RSPCA's view that euthanasia should only be used as a last resort for animals that are suffering.
Editor's note (28/03/2022): This story has been updated to clarify that the types of cats being referred to in the article in the context of the TNR program are not feral cats, but are stray or street cats.
