SAVE COMMUNITY CATS: don't stop hundreds of cat rescuers & carers across the state saving, desexing & rehoming thousands of community cats every year!

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STILL AT RISK!!! UPDATE 11/11/2025: The NSW government has backed the parliament Inquiry Management of Cat Populations enabling funded desexing programs (including community cats in hotspots) and a holistic human behaviour change programs to increase cat containment in a positive and proactive way, already proven across many councils. HOWEVER, Greens NSW party is challenging this with a Control Cats bill - being marketed for mandatory cat containment BUT it implies a mass cull for ALL roaming unchipped cats!!!  This bill implies stopping rescue, desexing, and rehoming community cats, to funnel all roaming cats into already overloaded council pound systems or worse as the Greens suggested alternatives to vet humane euthanasia. 

Read more here https://loverescuecollaborate.org/2025/10/23/flawed-nsw-greens-bill-for-cat-containment-laws/

We need more signatures until the Greens NSW bill fails to gain support in parliament.

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We seek successful One Welfare solutions for better outcomes for community cats, and their rescuers and carers being integrated with the initiatives by New South Wales (NSW) state and local government for humane and best practice cat management.

These initiatives include strategies, plans, delivery of desexing programs, research, and critical education programs with communities for these solutions to benefit cats and reduce impacts to wildlife.

A rally was held in Sydney in relation to this petition and initiatives - please refer to the new webpage to view videos and information on this event. https://savecommunitycats.org/sydney-rally-23-aug-2025/

Thousands of kind-hearted public members and cat rescuers / carers provide food, medical assistance, desexing, rehoming etc for abandoned cats in urban areas. There is a very strong and tender emotional bond between people and these cats. Every year, collectively across NSW, many thousands of cats are helped to find new caring families.

Community cats are best defined as "domestic semi owned" cats. Community cats across NSW are at risk if they continue to be labelled as "stray" cats, a term not well defined.

Stray cats are often confused with feral cats. Domestic cat impacts in urban areas to wildlife are generalised, heavily assumption driven, and often overstated. More evidence-based scientific research is required. This confusion and misinformation contribute to demonising and acts of cruelty towards all cats.

One Welfare solutions align concerns and benefits with people, and for urban domestic cats include:

• funding efficient high intensity desexing to rapidly contain numbers

• supporting effective rescuing and rehoming of community cats

• proactively promoting (not mandating) cat containment

• leniently arranging a moratorium on registration fees and charges

• compassionately ending demonising, and addressing cruelty

Benefits with integrating volunteer rescuers and carers under government cat management initiatives include gaining:

• active grass roots community contacts

• valuable lived experiences and knowledge

• vital assistance with desexing, education and research

We call on the NSW Premier, Minister for Local Government including Companion Animal obligations, and the Minister for Environment to proactively support community cats being rescued and rehomed, stop traditional inefficient stray culling, and integrate domestic cat experts proven approaches with cat rescuers and carers in local communities.