The city of Nairobi, Kenya, is debating a new piece of legislation (a bill) called “The Nairobi City County Animal Control and Welfare Bill”. If it came into force, it would require cat owners in Nairobi to purchase an annual licence at a cost of 200 Kenyan shillings ($1.50 or £1.20 p). To obtain the licence the cat would have to be vaccinated against rabies; an important aspect of the legislation because about 2,000 Kenyans die every year from rabies caused by dog or cat bites according to the health ministry.
The draft legislation includes a very interesting clause which I will quote in full. It’s a clause which indicates to me that the legislators of Nairobi don’t really know what they’re doing and I say that with the greatest respect. Here it is:
- (1) A person shall not allow, permit or cause a cat to scream or
otherwise cry in a manner that disturbs the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment,
comfort or convenience of a person in the neighborhood or vicinity of
the place where the cat is kept.
(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of this clause shall be guilty of
an offence.
You can see what I mean can’t you? The law demands that cat owners prevent their cats from screaming or crying which disturbs the peace. I think it is an oblique reference to female cats caterwauling, calling to tomcats that they are in heat and ready to have sex.
But it doesn’t state the word “caterwauling”. And cats will sometimes scream and make loud noises even if they are spayed and neutered. How is a person going to stop that? When two male cats meet up and argue about their territorial rights?
But that isn’t the big problem with this legislation. I’ve searched it and it doesn’t include any obligation to spay and neuter your cat. They should have made the issuing of a licence conditional upon the cat being spayed if female or neutered if male.
And that’s an important aspect as well because there are too many stray cats wandering around Nairobi without owners, presumably released or abandoned by their owners who allow them to procreate. The biggest problem it seems to me is uncontrolled procreation and that can only be dealt with through controlled sterilisation. Through managed sterilisation mandated by a well written law if the authorities want to do it that way.
However, there has to be a big caveat to that because there are real issues regarding enforcement of this kind of law. Simply mandating that a cat needs to be licensed in a bona fide piece of legislation does not mean that people will seek a licence for their cat. And if they don’t what is Nairobi going to do about it? Almost nothing. This law will be unenforceable. And because of that it will become ineffective.
Some citizens are against the law because they see it as a tax on cats. That’s a little bit wrong in my opinion. It’s a genuine attempt to control the cat population in Nairobi. Australia leads the way on this. I would suggest that the Nairobi legislators send a delegation to ACT, Australia, and ask the administrators there some pertinent questions about how to manage cat ownership through legislation.
To reinforce what I said about unenforceability, the BBC state that there is already legislation on dog ownership in Nairobi that’s been ignored as most people do not bother to get licenses for dogs even those who can afford them.
Kenya’s SPCA director said: “The overpopulation of cats [is a big issue].” And of course, with great sadness in terms of cat welfare, some contract rabies and die but before they do so they scratch or bite a person and then that person dies as a consequence.
Better solution to too many cats
The better way to proceed would be to offer low-cost spaying and neutering of cats through existing veterinary services which could be subsidised by the local government. If that service was well advertised, it would be well used. In conjunction and in parallel with that educational programs on sterilising cats and cat caregiving perhaps starting at school level would help tackle a cat overpopulation problem. The aforesaid cat licensing system mandated in a new law could help to fund these processes.
This article is about the effects of cats and people. It is basically about people but we must understand that it is beholden on humans to consider animal welfare and in this instance cat welfare is being overlooked. Poor cat caregiving leads to poor animal welfare. Let’s think of the cats as well.
