nothing can keep diesel down
FOR THE FIRST TIME Melbourne City Councils are imposing cat curfews, forcing all suburban cats to be brought indoors by sun down and kept there until sunrise.
Bayside City Council covering the suburbs of Brighton down to Hampton was the first to introduce the legislation, with laws coming into effect on the first of January 2010.
Kitties caught out after dark are taken to local shelters, leaving owners with a hefty fine on the collection of their beloved pets.
Bendigo City Council enforced this legislation in 2004, which resulted in many cats left unclaimed in the local RSPCA shelter facing a death sentence, owners rather parting with their pets than cough up the fine.
The legislation aimed at preventing breeding; fighting and the protection of local wildlife is supported by many animal protection groups, despite the obvious pitfalls that occurred in Bendigo.
For one St Kilda cat owner, Nerissa Collie and her 6 year old Tokenise cat Diesel, the introduction of such legislation has left her very nervous.
Diesel has broken through windows, chewed through fly screen and even jumped four stories down to get out at night.
Collie said, “I had to leave him in the laundry at night as he wouldn’t stop waking me up, meowing in my ear, he managed to somehow open the window and chew right through the fly screen”.
Lovingly termed ‘Houdini’, Diesel will not stay inside at night, Collie goes on to describe her tactics for stopping Diesel’s escapes, “I put a wooden stick jamming the sliding window shut, but he managed to get it out with his paw or something, I don’t know how he does it”, Collie says.
Faced with the impending legislation being introduced within her local council, Collie said “I don’t what I’m going to do, probably be very broke”.
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