Round-the-clock cat curfew approved for South Gippsland to slow native wildlife extinctions

The days of letting Snuffles roam free are over in South Gippsland, with the shire becoming the latest Victorian council to require cats be contained to properties at all times.

What happened: During a December 10 council meeting, South Gippsland unanimously voted to strengthen its Domestic Animal Management Plan to require cats to be confined to properties around the clock.

Councillor Sarah Gilligan moved to amend the draft Domestic Animal Management Plan 2026-29, changing the cat containment order from a sunset-to-sunrise restriction to a 24/7 cat containment order.

🗣️ "They are apex predators. They do so much damage," Gilligan said. "The time of having cats wandering around, killing aimlessly, or even just playing with wildlife for fun is over."

• “I believe it’s every cat owner's responsibility to make sure their cat is contained to their property 24 hours a day.”

🗣️Councillor Brad Snell backed the change saying: "I've lost count of the amount of times I've been wandering around parks and gardens and in the bush and I've seen that nice little cluster of feathers where a bird once was."

How big a problem are feral cats in Australia?

Feral cats are now present across 99.9 percent of Australia and kill an estimated 1.5 billion native mammals and 1.1 billion invertebrates per year, according to a 2024 report from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

That’s 2,853 mammals killed by feral cats in Australia every minute.

• The report found that feral cats have already directly contributed to the extinction of more than 20 native Australian mammals, including the Rusty Numbat, the Desert Bandicoot, the Broad-faced Potoroo and the Crescent Nail-tail Wallaby.

How will the council contain cats?

The containment plan will mean the 1,199 registered cats in South Gippsland shire will need to be kept on the owner's property but not necessarily indoors. This will allow for farm cats to roam their owners' entire property. 

• If a registered cat is caught off the owners property then a fine will be issued. The standard penalty for a first offence of a cat roaming-at-large is $192.

South Gippsland rangers do not set cat traps. Instead, the council rents cat traps to residents to use.

🗣️South Gippsland mayor Nathan Hersey said: “We have a very beautiful region with a lot of unique wildlife and a lot of that comes under threat because of the cats that get out and do damage and harm.”