Brewarrina Council partners with RSPCA and Walgett Council for research program addressing stray animals

Brewarrina Shire Council is set to team up with the RSPCA and nearby Walgett Shire Council to address a big problem for rural communities, thanks to a $200,000 funding grant from the NSW Government’s Environmental Research Round 2023/2024.

The three organisations will undertake an innovative research program to understand and target the issue of stray animals across the community, the impact they have on threatened species and ways in which they can be reduced.

Brewarrina Shire Council General Manager David Kirby said his team will be working with renowned experts to tackle the problem and look at trialling long-term strategies.

“Stray and abandoned companion animals, including cats and dogs, are not only a strain on local resources and a nuisance to the community, but they also impact native fauna and lead to threatened species,” said Mr Kirby.

“We have a stray dog problem in our Shire and the easy fix of doing a blitz only works for a short period of time before the dogs are back on the street. This new program will assist Council in understanding some of the issues contributing to the high number of stray animals in our community in far greater detail and find strategies to reduce the number on a more permanent basis. It will be an innovative approach and something we will benefit from in the long term.

“Council staff will be working closely with Vets and Zoologist, including Dr Gemma Ma and Dr Brooke Kennedy, the Local Lands Council and Elders Groups over the next three years to evaluate the impact of a number intervention programs, including targeted de-sexing and microchipping programs on an ongoing basis.

“We’ve seen good success in the past from our annual RSPCA outreach visits with free mircrochipping and de-sexing offered. This will look to extend on this program which we know is effective, while also working on community education program on things such as pathways for re-homing or surrendering animals and reducing food sources for stray cats.”

As part of the program, a bench-marking study will be undertaken pre and post intervention to measure free-roaming cats, dogs and wildlife abundance through the installation of heat and motion detection cameras and transect drives – where one driver and three spotters note the presence of free-roaming animals at times when animals are usually most prevalent. Council pound and nuisance complaint data will also feed into the program.

The specific details of intervention strategies will be finalised based on community consultation, but will include approaches such as accessible surgical or chemical sterilisation for owned cats and dogs, especially for dogs reported to council as free-roaming or stray; accessible pathways for surrender, rehoming or euthanasia of unwanted owned pets; community engagement through a local First Nations Liaison Officer; a behaviour change strategy to engage people who are feeding stray cats aiming to encourage them to report stray cats, desex stray cats they wish to continue to care for, and claim ownership of stray cats; and improving waste disposal practices to remove available food sources that encourage incursions of feral cats and improve the breeding success of ‘stray’ cats.