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Cat Registration – what you need to know

October 20th, 2013

From November 1st 2013 all cat owners must register their cats with their local authority and pay the appropriate fee.

Cats must be desexed and microchipped, and you will need to produce proof of desexing and microchipping to register. A sterilisation certificate from the veterinary practice that desexed your cat and the letter of confirmation from a microchip registry, showing your cat is registered with them and the number of the chip your cat carries, are ideal. You will need to complete a double-sided A4 application form available from the City of South Perth (or other appropriate local government jurisdiction).

The fees are $20 for 1 year, $42.50 for 3 years and $100 for life. You get a receipt and a numbered plastic tag to go on your cat’s collar.

Although the Cat Act was passed in 2011, any new legislation like this always seems to come upon us with a rush and at Millpoint we will do our best to help you meet the requirements of the act.

If you are a regular client of ours and your cat was desexed at Millpoint but you have mislaid your sterilisation certificate, we can print a duplicate free of charge.

If you are a regular client of ours now but your cat was desexed elsewhere, contact the vets who carried out the operation. If you don’t have this information, check to see if your cat has a sterilisation tattoo in his/her left ear. If they do and you present your cat at the clinic (appointment required) so I can sight the tattoo, I will draft a letter confirming they have been desexed. Again,there will be no charge for this.

If your cat is not microchipped we need to do this straightaway. As you are unlikely to receive paperwork from the microchip registry now before November 1st, we will give you a copy of the form we send to the registry. This should satisfy the council.

If your cat is microchipped but you have no record of the chip number, or if you are uncertain whether your cat is chipped or not: make an appointment for us to scan your cat and supply a supporting letter. There will be no charge for this if you are a regular client of this practice. Of course, if the cat has no chip we will need to insert one.

The form may look a bit daunting but I’ve just registered my own cat Waldo and the practice cat Hamish (more about him later elsewhere on the site) and it wasn’t too hard. I have always said that cats should be kept inside in Australia, and approve of all attempts to promote responsible cat ownership. Registered breeders have special conditions with which they must comply.

Where the money levied from cat registration will go, and how the new legislation will be enforced, remains to be seen. I would hope that the money raised would be quarantined for animal management, just like most of us would prefer speed camera fines to be used to improve road safety. If the money raised goes straight into general revenue then we may be replacing a Carbon Tax with a Cat Tax. I’m not sure how the legislation will be enforced as local council Rangers have a full workload and I can’t see the State Government that enacted this legislation putting more boots on the ground in the current climate of spending cutbacks. We will have to wait and see.

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