THE Tasmanian Government's latest move to put feral and stray cat management on a firmer footing has been welcomed by farmers and a leading proponent of tighter controls.
The government says it expects to have the state's first cat management plan in place by the end of the year.
"Managing feral and stray cats is a community-wide problem and a complex issue that requires a range of approaches to manage the impacts on native wildlife, livestock and human health," Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff said.
A leading proponent of effective cat management, Upper Meander Catchment Landcare Group president Kevin Knowles, said he was very pleased the government had finally moved on the issue.
"Hopefully we can get a workable cat management plan and be able to collaborate with the federal government," Mr Knowles said.
The group has been carrying out a trapping program in the Meander Valley, removing feral cats from the area.
"I would like to see more enforcement," Mr Knowles said.
"Local councils have nothing to compel them to do anything about cat management.
"But people are becoming more aware of the damage feral cats are doing, particularly over the past 18 months - again, the federal government has led this, not the state."
Councils throughout Tasmania are now showing interest cat management, six years after relevant legislation was first passed in 2009.
"It's been put in the 'too hard' basket," Mr Knowles said.
He said he hoped councils would receive funding for such things as cat management facilities as there were only two in the entire state.
"For any program to work, it should be bottom up, from the grass-roots - programs won't work from the top down - and education is the key."
Mr Rockliff said the management of cats required fostering of responsible ownership, building awareness of the impacts cats could have and tackling the problem of feral cats.
He said the new plan aimed to achieve that through a co-ordinated, collaborative and effective approach to cat management.
It was also planned to set up a cat management reference group to help develop the plan.
"This reference group will involve key organisations with a direct interest in cat management and ownership and will drive the development and implementation of the plan," he said.
Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association (TFGA) chief executive Peter Skillern said the general community had a growing appreciation of the problems cats caused.
"Cats are an enormous, understated problem here," Mr Skillern said.
"They have an enormous environmental impact, an enormous impact on agriculture, and they threaten human health."
