The state government of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, has just announced that municipalities are supposed/permitted to make spaying and neutering of all cats with outdoor access mandatory. It would cover pets and ferals. What it hasn't said is how they're expected to enforce such a law. Thus far there have been no cat licenses; dogs must be licensed, and the fees are quite high. I assume it would entail mandatory microchipping and registration, but how are they going to be able find the owners of outdoor cats that aren't?
As of 2010, two German cities had such a law: City decrees mandatory cat sterilisation to curb strays By "sterilisation" they mean spaying/neutering.
As of 2010, two German cities had such a law: City decrees mandatory cat sterilisation to curb strays By "sterilisation" they mean spaying/neutering.
Delmenhorst recently became the second German city to require the sterilisation of all outdoor cats in hopes of reducing its neglected feral feline population. The move could start a trend in a country where pets are infrequently spayed or neutered.
“We want this to be compulsory for cat owners,” said the Lower Saxon city’s animal health commissioner and veterinarian Nicolin Niebuhr, who led the campaign for the new rule. “The cat sterilisation requirement is mainly an appeal for responsibility awareness.”
The statute was modelled after a similar programme that started in the Rhineland city of Paderborn in 2008.
Veterinarian Angelika Hoffmann reports that her practice schedule has been full since the ordinance went into effect six weeks ago.
“It’s not about taking the cat’s sexuality away,” Hoffmann says. “A sterilisation does the opposite, improving the cat’s quality of life.”
Estimates say German households enjoy the company of some eight million house cats, with another two million stray cats lurking in the shadows. Delmenhorst has about 1,000 feral felines, the city estimates. Animal shelters are full and the number of abandoned cats is rising, Niebuhr and Hoffmann said.