Cat trapping will begin next month at Sandford, on Hobart’s South Arm Peninsula, timed to get under way before kitten season.
The program was set up by the Sandford Cat Management Group and is being run with Ten Lives, Landcare Tasmania and Clarence City Council.
Traps will be placed in areas identified through confirmed sightings and feedback from residents.
Ten Lives chief executive Noel Hunt said 175 people responded to a community consultation survey, with nearly half reporting daily or weekly visits from neighbourhood or stray cats.
He said 74% raised concerns about roaming cats, including “impacts on wildlife, uncontrolled breeding, disease risks and the need for greater support for responsible cat ownership”.
Residents are being asked to keep pet cats contained while trapping is under way and to make sure their microchip details are up to date.
Sandford Cat Management Group president Anna Beinssen said the survey showed strong local support for responsible cat management.
“We understand that people care deeply about their cats, which is why all cats caught through the program will be taken to Ten Lives,” Beinssen said.
“There, each cat will be scanned for a microchip, checked for ownership and, wherever possible, reunited with its family.”
She said owners should consider keeping cats indoors or in secure outdoor enclosures, something that had become more relevant since H5 bird flu arrived in Tasmania.
Landcare Tasmania chair Bill Harvey said the survey had provided local insights that would help groups prioritise their work.
Clarence mayor Brendan Blomeley said the same program had removed 26 feral cats from a hotspot at Richmond and he expected a similar result in Sandford.
Blomeley said the findings would help guide policy while the state government’s cat management plan remains unreleased.
Answering a question from Braddon MP Craig Garland this month, Primary Industries and Water Minister Gavin Pearce said the government’s cat management discussion paper attracted more than 500 submissions before consultation closed on May 15.
Pearce said those submissions were feeding into a new five-year plan, with a summary report to be published “in due course”.
