By Shuting Tang
Soraya, a 46-year-old Iraqi refugee, is a ‘half-owner’ of three cats.
In other words, she does not officially own the cats but she has been doing her best to provide them with nutritious food and safe shelter.
With a big heart for animals, Soraya extends her care to any animals in need whether it is an injured bird or a stray dog on the roadside.
“I love animals, and I will help as many as I can. To provide a safe and comfortable environment for more animals in need of protection, I wish I could go to the countryside and rent a big house with a big yard,” says Soraya.
However, as a former refugee living with a disability and financial constraints, providing for these animals hasn’t been easy.
“I could not afford to neuter my three cats, which led me to seek help from community and animal organisations.”
With the support of the Westside Desexing Clinic and local animal activists, she was eventually able to have the kittens desexed. But this government-funded pet hospital closed last year due to a lack of government funding and council support.
Now, pet owners like Soraya are facing new challenges.
The Maribyrnong Council is planning to change its animal management regulations in response to population growth and an increase in the number of pets.
The new animal management plan proposes to reduce the number of dogs and cats allowed in unregistered private properties from the current three to two, and in high-density residential buildings from two to one.
The plan also proposes new licensing requirements for commercial dog walkers in an effort to regulate such commercial activities.
Maribyrnong Mayor Pradeep Tiwari says that the ten-year review of the General Purposes Local Law 2015 is a legislative requirement.
“These are areas where opportunity has been identified for potential improvement,” he says.
However, for Soraya, the tightening regulations, lack of affordable veterinary services, and rising cost of pets have forced her to give up caring for more animals.
Animal rights activist and Animal Justice Party candidate Shohre Mansouri believes it’s a good start for Maribyrnong Council to face up to the animal challenges in community, but focusing on restrictions and punishments won’t solve the real problem and will make it harder for kind people like Soraya to continue helping.
“Community members are the backbone of caring for stray animals in the community. They are enthusiastic and willing to do the right thing for animals, but there is a lack of affordable services,” according to Ms Mansouri.
She says the new proposals emphasize control and enforcement, rather than assistance and long-term solutions for managing stray animals.
“It will only treat the symptoms but not the root cause,” says animal management scientist Jenny Cotterell, who believes that resident concerns are reasonable.
Ms Cotterell says the core challenge facing the Maribyrnong community is “the high number of unowned, semi-owned, and roaming owned cats.”
These populations, she says, often result from “a lack of access to affordable desexing, barriers to keeping pets in rental housing, and limited public awareness.”
She says that number limits and confinement laws create false hope in communities that the problem will be solved, but the hope is not based on scientific research.
For example, a 2014 review of proposed cat curfews in Hobsons Bay municipality found that most stray cats are ownerless or feral, and that imposing a curfew on owned cats would have little effect.
Elsewhere in Victoria, cat-related complaints in the City of Yarra Ranges increased by 143 percent in the third year after 24/7 cat curfews were implemented. Furthermore, seizures increased by 68 percent and euthanasia rates by 18 percent, while the population grew by only 2 percent during the same period.
Ms Cotterell believes councils should partner with community and local cat welfare shelters, offering supportive, no-cost services which encourages local carers and feeders to take responsibility.
She says community-based cat management programs are not only more humane, but also more sustainable in the long term.
Other communities in Melbourne’s west have taken different measures based on their own circumstances.
Wyndham Council, for instance, requires all registered cats to be desexed, and Hobsons Bay Council provides humane trapping cages to facilitate residents to safely capture stray cats and hand them over to the council for processing. Moonee Valley City Council runs pet care clubs and training programs to help residents keep pets responsibly.
“Compared to the kinds of community-driven programs I’ve seen work elsewhere, there’s a lot of room for improvement [in Maribyrnong],” Shohre Mansouri says.
She remains hopeful that people in the community remain willing to step up and help animals, despite the lack of tools and support.
“The council could achieve so much by simply backing those efforts instead of making it harder.”
Under the Livestock Act 1994, all Victorian councils must prepare a Domestic Animal Management Plan (DAMP) every four years, outlining comprehensive strategies for animal services, programs, and policies.
Besides Maribyrnong Council, Wyndham Community is also planning to develop a DAMP for 2026 to 2030.
The first round of community engagement for Maribyrnong’s DAMP closed on April 6th.
Feedback collected will inform the next draft of local laws, which is expected to be released for further community input in mid-2025.
