Cat Containment during H5N1

Be careful about jumping onto the hysterical bandwagon of cat containment during the Bird Flu (H5N1) outbreak.

Adelaide Pets Alive! supports cat containment as it provides a multifactorial safety net for your pet cat. However, spouting cat containment as a H5N1 prevention tactic is a deceptive way for local government to maintain a war on cats. Violence towards animals, especially cats in the name of ‘nativism’ is harmful to animals, people and the tax dollar.

Supporting cat containment with the ideology that it will decrease the spread of H5N1 will lead to fines for cat owners, or at worst, death if the cat is impounded. It also does not address community cats who do not have an owner to contain them.

Charlotte the cat

This might sound outrageous, but breed specific legislation in the United States (laws banning pit bull type dogs) was introduced due to misinformation and unproven claims which were fostered by the media and politicians. These laws resulted in the death of many pet dogs. (Delise 2007)

Using cat containment as a preventative to H5N1 is nonsensical. Pet dogs go outside, even more so, they go on walks within the community. No one is asking for dogs to be contained. Beaches are not closed and many people let their dog off the lead.

People move around the community and visit friends with pets. People return home to their pets without applying PPE before they enter their home. People are also not instructed to remain indoors. People own birds as pets, some with cages outside, and they are not asked to bring their birds inside. People bring microbes into their homes everyday via their shoes, clothes, and objects.

Baby Smokie the cat

People who are at a higher risk of exposure include commercial poultry workers, animal disease outbreak workers, veterinarians, zoo keepers and wildlife carers. All of which are people that are in our community.

Officials in local government must engage medical health professionals and infection control specialists that have worked through and prepared for Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Covid and now Ebola, who understand the epidemiology, pathogens, and transmission before causing unnecessary public hysteria.

Using cat containment during H5N1 is a clear avoidance of what is really required by the Government – make TNR legal and financially support community cat desexing programs. Or those cats will keep on having kittens.

Delise, Karen (2007) The Pit Bull Placebo: the media, myths and politics of canine aggression, Anubis Publishing, p 102.