MAGNETIC ISLAND APPROACH TO CAT MANAGEMENT
Several years ago, the Townsville City Council (Qld) was keen
to institute a cat management plan for its beautiful offshore
island, Magnetic Island. But it was concerned that it did not have
sound research on which to base such a plan. In Queensland there
is no cat act as such. Any cat management strategy has to be based
on local law. The questions needing answers before the Magnetic
Island could be started were:
ï Was there a compelling case for a management strategy?
ï Was there a solid local community mandate?
ï Would the community support the kind of measures a cat
management strategy would involve?
ï Could the cost and effort be justified in the context of
other Council priorities?
ï What demographic and zoographic parameters were involved?
Hence Catscan Magnetic1,
a survey of resident
attitudes.
Overall the researchers concluded that the
Townsville City Council had a popular mandate to implement a cat
management plan for Magnetic Island. For
more details of the results of Catscan Magnetic, see section on
Catscan Magnetic results.
At this stage of the project, the organisers had
completed the first two steps of a basic strategic plan: first,
they had diagnosed the situation with Catscan Magnetic, and
second, they had agreed on treatment goals. These goals were:
ï to control cats in all residential areas of the island as
an adjunct to the cat minimisation program being carried out in
the National Park
ï to prevent the unlawful and indiscriminate killing of pet
cats.
The organisers also agreed that outcomes of the cat management
plan should be carefully measured (performance measures) after the
plan had been implemented. Although specific targets for each of
the measures were left open, the types of performance measures
that would be used in the evaluation were decided:
ï Did the community receive the cat management plan well?
ï How much did the plan cost to implement per person and
per pet?
ï Did National Park management benefit?
ï What changes occurred in cat populations?
The next steps were to consider the possible options for
achieving the goals and to decide on the best option. The Council
agreed, provided expenses were reasonable, that the chosen option
could be then implemented as a 12-month trial cat management
strategy. The trial would be evaluated using the performance
measures; recommendations would then be made for long-term
management. (See: Strategic plan for Magnetic Island cat
management)
Everyone realised that to succeed, the trial would need:
ï community and Council support
ï the right philosophy and rationale
ï the right framework of infrastructure and local laws
Care was taken to keep both the community and the Council
informed. Formal presentations were scheduled at critical points
throughout the overall plan. Arriving at an appropriate set of
measures was a more difficult task. Consideration was given to a
range of options:
A preferred management option was adoted for trial.
Trial implementation
The Townsville City Council has agreed to support a trial along
the lines outlined above. It will begin on July 1 1997. If the
trial is successful, Townsville City Council plans to expand the
management area to include its mainland suburbs.
1.
Reid A, Speare R. 1995. Catscan Magnetic Final Report: a survey of attitudes to cats and their management prepared for the Townsville City Council. Townsville: Anton Breinl Centre for Tropical Health and Medicine.
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