Victorian cat management strategy

The Victorian Government has developed a state-wide cat management strategy (the strategy). It will guide cat management in Victoria over the next 10 years, helping to reduce problems for both cats and the environment.

The strategy aims to support the wellbeing of both cats and wildlife. It also sets out a coordinated approach to managing cats across all land types.

Developing the strategy involved extensive research, seeking expert advice and feedback. It involved a wide range of stakeholders, including:

  • councils
  • animal welfare organisations
  • land managers
  • conservation groups
  • veterinary professionals
  • cat owners

Objectives

The strategy's objectives are to:

  • Promote cat welfare and responsible ownership.
  • Protect native wildlife, the environment and community from the negative impacts of cats.
  • Improve processes, cooperation and knowledge sharing in cat management.

Themes and actions

The strategy addresses key cat management issues through the following themes:

  1. Promote cat welfare and responsible cat ownership.
  2. Increase cat desexing rates.
  3. Expand cat containment.
  4. Reduce the impacts of semi-owned and unowned cats.
  5. Manage feral cat populations and impacts.
  6. Improve collaboration and information sharing.
  7. Improve laws and processes.

Strategy actions and progress

Click on a theme to see the progress of the actions related to that theme. As the strategy is to take place over 10 years, some actions have not yet started.
+ Expand all- Collapse all

Action 1: Develop state-wide accessible, clear, and consistent information resources that all stakeholders can use. Resources should have simple messages on responsible cat ownership and cat containment that acknowledge the value cats bring as pets.

Status: Complete and ongoing

The Victorian Government has developed fact sheets, posters, video and social media content to help councils and other stakeholders support responsible cat ownership. This includes promoting behaviours such as microchipping, early-age desexing and cat containment.

Resources

Action 2: Develop specific information resources for multicultural communities and encourage stakeholders to use existing multicultural engagement channels to reach different communities.

Status: Complete and ongoing

The Victorian Government has translated key messages about responsible cat ownership into a range of community languages. This work will continue throughout the Cat Management Strategy. The translated materials will be shared through libraries, community centres and other places where people can easily access them.

Resources

Action 3: Support innovative desexing trials and training programs, such as high-volume clinics and pre-pubertal desexing initiatives.

Status: Not yet started

Action 4: Explore place-based desexing services in regional communities with limited veterinary access. This could include fostering partnerships between stakeholders, including veterinary practices.

Status: In progress

The Victorian Government supports programs in regional areas, including mobile and outreach services that bring desexing and veterinary care directly to communities with limited access. Together, these programs help make desexing more affordable and easier to access for people living outside Melbourne.

2025 funding included:

  • Regional Community Vet (Castlemaine) - $20,000
  • Mildura Community No-Cost Desexing Program, including transport support for people facing financial hardship in remote areas - $97,300
  • Establishment of new North-East Victoria Pets in the Park clinic – $131,234
  • No-cost Feline desexing and Microchipping (Grampians) - $13,000
  • Pawsing surrender through essential desexing (Statewide) - $20,000

2026 funding included:

  • Goulburn Valley Community Desexing Program - $20,000
  • Mobile vet servicing retired, vulnerable and disadvantaged Victorians (Statewide) - $130,000
  • Fix-A-Friend regional expansion program (Shepparton, Horsham, Portland, Warragul) - $60,000

Visit Animal Welfare Fund Grants Program to view all cat related grants.

Action 5: Invest in affordable desexing options, especially for low-income earners, including targeted grants to assist vulnerable Victorians in desexing their cats.

Status: In progress

The Victorian Government funds programs that make desexing more affordable and easier to access, especially for people on low incomes and those facing hardship. This includes free or low-cost desexing programs, microchipping and support to help people keep their pets during difficult times.

2025 grants include:

  • Pawsing surrender through essential desexing (Statewide) - $20,000
  • No-cost Feline desexing and Microchipping (Horsham) - $13,000
  • Mildura Community No Cost Desexing Program - $97,300

2026 grants include:

  • Last litter program expansion (Melbourne Metro)- $63,429
  • Project Meow: Preventing Litters & Protecting Lives – Cat Desexing Initiative (Geelong) - $32,400
  • Low-Cost Community Desexing and Feline Education Program (Yarra Ranges Shire) - $44,610
  • Mobile vet servicing retired, vulnerable and disadvantaged Victorians (Statewide) - $130,000

Visit Animal Welfare Fund Grants Program to view all cat related grants.

Action 6: Provide cat containment support to councils with curfews to aid in the transition to new requirements.

Status: Not yet started

Action 7: Enhance cat containment education and programs, including reviewing and simplifying enclosure guidelines and conducting research on the welfare of contained cats.

Status: In progress

The Victorian Government has worked with RSPCA Victoria to deliver the 'Rethink Roaming' program. The program encourages people to keep their cats at home and explains the risks of roaming, including injury, disease and death. It also highlights the impact roaming cats can have on wildlife and the community.

Visit the Rethink Roaming website.

Action 8: Foster partnerships with local organisations to assist residents in constructing safe and simple cat enclosures.

Status: Not yet started

Action 9: Provide ongoing education on the benefits of taking full responsibility for semi-owned cats.

Status: Not yet started

Action 10: Consider implementing shorter holding periods for unidentified cats in shelters and pounds to expedite adoption.

Status: In progress

The Victorian Government has been engaging with stakeholders to examine the potential impacts of introducing shorter holding periods for unowned cats, such as cats without tags, microchips or other signs of ownership. Reducing the holding period for cats that cannot be identified would allow earlier access to foster care and rehoming pathways, improving welfare outcomes, and reducing stress-related illness and behavioural decline.

It would also increase shelter capacity, reduce operational costs and align Victoria more closely with arrangements in other jurisdictions. The current 8 day holding period for identifiable cats (cats with any form of identification) would be retained. Holding periods do not affect euthanasia rates. Powers to euthanise unowned cats that are wild, uncontrollable or diseased exist under section 84O of the Domestic Animals Act 1994 and are not impacted by holding periods.

Consultation on this Action is currently underway. Any change to current holding periods would require amendment to the Domestic Animals Act 1994 and approval by the Victorian Parliament.

Action 11: Develop guidelines to support the cat behavioural assessment process for adoption suitability.

Status: In progress

Guidance and supporting resources to help assess whether cats are suitable for rehoming are currently being developed. These materials have been shaped through consultation with shelters, rescue groups, veterinarians and animal welfare organisations.

Action 12: Promote targeted Capture, Desex, Adopt programs in 'hot spots' with high unowned and semi-owned cat populations and need.

Status: In progress

The Victorian Government funded a $300,000 to a Targeted Cat Desexing Grants Program delivered through local councils to help reduce the number of unowned and semi-owned cats. The program provided free or low-cost desexing for people in disadvantaged communities and areas with high numbers of cats being impounded, euthanised or involved in nuisance complaints.

It also encouraged people who feed cats to take responsibility for their care including registration, vaccination and microchipping supported by targeted education.

Fourteen councils received grants of up to $25,000 to deliver these initiatives locally. An evaluation will be completed at the end of the program, expected in late 2026, to inform future initiatives.

Action 13: Explore and facilitate options for improved cat management on private land.

Status: Not yet started

Action 14: Implement and monitor humane and effective feral cat control programs informed by decision tools that target and protect key biodiversity values.

Status: Not yet started

Action 15: Collaborate with local, interstate, and national authorities to enhance feral cat management in Victoria through knowledge sharing and relevant programs.

Status: In progress

The Victorian Government is working with the Australian Government and other stakeholders to help remove feral cats from French Island. Parks Victoria is coordinating the project, while Animal Welfare Victoria oversees the tools and methods used.

Action 16: Engage with Traditional Owners to understand the impact of feral cats on biocultural and cultural values and collaborate to recognise ‘two ways of knowing’ in feral cat management decision-making.

Status: Not yet started

Action 17: Support development and implementation of innovative, humane, and effective methods for feral cat control and address knowledge gaps in feral cat management through research and development.

Status: Not yet started

Action 18: Establish a working group with key stakeholders to drive and monitor Strategy implementation.

Status: Completed

The Cat Management Strategy Working Group (CMSWG) was established in April 2026. It brings together key stakeholders to support Animal Welfare Victoria in delivering the Victorian Cat Management Strategy and tracking progress. The group provides advice on delivering the Strategy, identifies challenges and practical solutions, and helps ensure activities remain relevant, coordinated and effective.

View updates on the activities of the Cat Management Strategy Working Group

Action 19: Share cat management data on centralised platforms.

Status: In progress

Annual pet registration statistics and animal welfare data from pounds and shelters are available on DEECA’s website More data will be released over time to help people and organisations make decisions about cat management.

Resources

Action 20: Expand opportunities for councils, land managers and other stakeholders to share information and successful cat management practices.

Status: Not yet started

Action 21: Distribute key findings summary report of all council Domestic Animal Management Plans.

Status: Not yet started

Action 22: Review the cat management framework to identify further options for reform.

Status: Not yet started

Action 23: Investigate aligning cat registration with puberty (4 months) to encourage early desexing.

Status: Not yet started

Action 24: Provide more flexible registration options to encourage desexing, containment, adoption, and cat registration.

Status: Not yet started

Page last updated: 13 Jul 2026