Embedded Files
June 2025
New face at CLAWS
A huge big welcome to Rosie Smith.
Rosie commenced as a Project Officer with CLAWS in April 2025 and will be implementing the Reducing Roaming Felis Catus project.
Rosie has relished settling into the role and is looking forward to delivering real improvements in cat management across the region over the next three years.
Originally from the UK and trained in marine sciences and ecology, she lived on a NSW farm whilst working in Landcare and threatened species conservation before moving to WA for a stint on Rottnest Island.
Since settling in Denmark in 2011, she has delivered projects for South Coast NRM, Green Skills, and Bush Heritage, including some time in local environmental consultancy and Outdoors Great Southern. Rosie is a qualified high school science teacher with an extensive background in formal and community education and is an experienced outdoor educator currently working in the sector.
Rosie is Mum to two boys and passionate about fostering positive stewardship of our biodiverse southern landscapes and is active outdoors on land or water at every opportunity.
Rosie will be working three days a week for CLAWS and will be located in the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group Offices two days a week. OHCG auspice this project and have kindly donated the office space.
The Reducing Roaming Felis Catus project follows previous grants with the aim of reducing the risk for wildlife in the region.
The objectives and goals:
• Education about the damage roaming cats inflict on wildlife.
• Lethal feral cat control, where we have delivered education over the last 5 years.
• Research toxoplasmosis in partnership with UWA on private property and Twin Creeks Conservation Reserve
• Subsidies for cat enclosures within the City of Albany
Outcome - A better-informed community working towards achieving sustainable conservation and biodiversity values, a better understanding of the prevalence of toxoplasmosis, and a reduction of roaming cats.
We look forward to seeing some great results from this project.
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January 2025
Job opportunity
Our project officer has retired with the recent completion of the three-year project about education for best-practice cat management to decrease impacts on biodiversity.
The Oyster Harbour Catchment Group is now looking to recruit a new CLAWS Project Officer for 0.6FTE.
This is an exciting opportunity to work with the Cat Laws and Wildlife Survival working group (CLAWS) on a new three-year project to protect native wildlife by reducing of the impacts of roaming cats.
The role includes delivering community workshops and education sessions, coordinating subsidies for cat enclosures, supporting UWA PhD toxoplasmosis research and raising awareness of the project through media platforms. Follow this link for more details.
Applications to be received by 5pm Sunday 16 February 2025.
Applications are to be submitted to info@ohcg.org.au.
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November 2024
Some fun over the last few months
CLAWS is preparing for the conclusion of its current grant and the launch of the new project, the "Reducing Roaming Felis Catus" project, which ensures three additional years of education, research, and cat control in the Albany region.
CLAWS has partnered with various organizations to enhance its programs, particularly over the last year, including the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group (OHCG) who visited primary schools recently to deliver the "Preventing CATastrophe" school incursion program, an initiative of CLAWS, which promotes responsible cat ownership which makes life safer for both cats and wildlife.
We are thrilled that the OHCG has employed a new part-time project officer, to increase responsible pet education, expanding the focus area. Cassie is working on two in-depth projects that include responsible pet ownership and improving collaborations with organisations on feral cat control. Welcome aboard Cassie
In a creative partnership Great Southern Bio Logic, and CLAWS presented "Matt the Feral Cat," a unique event that combined education with entertainment, featuring a giant cat puppet, a play, a catchy song, and sharing stories. A 5 min clip of Matt the Feral Cat “A PLAY ABOUT WHAT SHOULDN’T BE FOR DINNER" is a product of this event.
In mid-September, the National Feral Cat and Fox Management, Centre for Invasive Species Solutions held a “Train the Trainer" in Albany, with assistance and presentations from the WA Feral Cat Working Group, CLAWS, and the OHCG, which targeted key stakeholders involved in feral cat and fox management. With presentations from all around WA, the participants left with new knowledge to assist with feral cat and fox control programs.
Later in September, the Gnowangerup Aboriginal Corporation (GAC) Ranger Team attended a workshop to monitor the presence of native and feral animals in areas of interest using the installation of remote cameras in the field to maximise the chance of successful detections of target fauna. This will be followed by a second “The next Stage” workshop.
We teamed up again with Oyster Harbour Catchment Group to share ll at the Festival of Torbay in October where "Matt the GIANT Feral Cat" came out again to highlight the ecological impacts of roaming cats. It was a bit surreal to see Matt’s stomach full of the native animals he had eaten considering earlier in the day a Brush-tailed Phascogale was seen in the exact location of the festival.
We remain dedicated to advocating for changes to the Cat Act, pushing for legislative reforms to prevent domestic cats from roaming freely. We support the push for improved terminology on roaming cats given current definitions make it difficult to implement control of feral cats. We hope to see some improvements on these matters in time and we will keep the community informed about these ongoing efforts and developments as they arise.
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October 2024
THREE MORE YEARS FUNDING
We have some exciting news to announce.
CLAWS Working Group were successful in our State Natural Resource Management grant application!!!
This grant, "Reducing Roaming Felis Catus” will ensure another 3 years of education, research and cat control for the Albany region.
Basic overview of the project.
This project will aim to improve the outcome for native wildlife in an increased regional scope.
Objectives
• Education about the damage roaming cats inflict on wildlife, livestock and humans.
• Research toxoplasmosis in partnership with UWA on private property and Twin Creeks Conservation Reserve
• Subsidies for cat enclosures within the City of Albany
• Lethal feral cat control where we have delivered education over the last 5 years.
Outcome- A community working towards achieving sustainable conservation and biodiversity values, a better understanding of the prevalence of toxoplasmosis, and a reduction of roaming cats.
We would like to thank the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group for their continued support, without them we would not exist.
Our main funding body, State NRM has supported CLAWS for the last 4 years without this financial assistance very little could be done to get this important work done.
As many of you are aware CLAWS was established in 2019 by the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group (OHCG) after a workshop focused on the issues surrounding roaming cats.
CLAWS is committed to preserving biodiversity and increasing public awareness regarding the detrimental impacts of roaming cats on local wildlife. As a not-for-profit organization, we operate primarily through government funding, primarily from the State Natural Resource Management, with significant support from various other organizations and dedicated volunteers, without these other supporting bodies we could not get half the work done that we do.
Click here to read the announcement.
Thank you Thank you Thank you.
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11th August 2024
What role do feral cats play in the spread of toxoplasmosis?
Guy Brown, a Veterinary Science PhD candidate from UWA on exchange from Bristol, UK has been investigating the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in feral cats in WA's Great Southern region. The project aims to establish the role feral cats are playing in spreading this disease, identify hotspot areas of this parasite and inform feral cat control actions. This is what we already know about toxoplasmosis:
The Toxoplasma gondii parasite needs cats as its primary host and to complete its life cycle.
The parasite infects animals throughout the world including marsupials, birds and marine mammals. It also infects humans.
Not all who are infected will display symptoms. Infants and people with weakened immune systems are usually most seriously affected. Toxoplasmosis during pregnancy may cause miscarriage and birth defects.
Babies who become infected during pregnancy have “congenital toxoplasmosis”. For more information click here .
The parasites can alter the behaviour of the host. Infected rats and mice tend to lack the typical fear-response to cats, one of their key predators. This can be extrapolated to include our native marsupials and birds putting them at even greater risk of falling prey to cats.
Toxoplasma gondii infections cause 16% of abortions in sheep in Australia.
The impact of toxoplasmosis on human health and livestock production costs an estimated $6 billion per year in Australia.
10th August 2024
CLAWS held a very informative event last week at the lovely little Kalgan Hall. Dr Rochelle Steven, PhD Murdoch lecturer shared some interesting results from the recent "The Role of Private Landholders in Cat Management in the Albany and Surrounds Region" survey.
Thanks to everyone who participated. We now have a greater understanding of people's views about cat management and hope to utilise this when it comes to creating future educational resources and projects. It also verified the need and desire for containment laws for cats. The results of the survey about feral cats are now available online. Residents of Albany and surrounding areas overwhelmingly expressed concerns about roaming cats.
27th April 2024
We are very pleased to officially announce that we are a recipient of the Feral Cat Management grant. This small, one-year grant "Perils of Ferals - Feral Cat Control Education" is supported by funding from the Western Australian Government, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the State Natural Resource Management Program WA and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Thanks to the funding we will be able to visit schools, Landcare organisations and local governments, and other interested groups in the Great Southern and provide educational talks about feral cat control. We will also be partnering with other local groups as part of the project. We will involve local arts and crafts groups to create a sign that will inform people of the “Perils of Ferals”. These signs will be erected in a number of places in our region providing the community with information about feral cats and how to reduce their numbers.
Our thanks go to the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group Inc. for acting as our sponsors for this grant.
We also thank the City of Albany, the Friends of the Porongurups, the Friends of the Western Ground Parrot, Gillamii, the Southern Aboriginal Corporation, South Coast Natural Resource Management and the WA Feral Cat Working Group.
22nd January 2024
Welcome to the new page for CLAWS Working Group (Cat Laws and Wildlife Survival) You may know us as the Albany and Surrounds Feral Cat Working Group (ASFCWG), and while this served its purpose it was time for a fresh start and a fresh, new name. With many an idea we finally decided upon the catchy and much more appropriate CLAWS.
We are very excited about the new name and webpage; we hope that you like it, too. We are also excited to take steps forward from where we started in 2019 when a gap was noticed in the roaming cat realm. Working with, residents, numerous organisations, and government bodies, much of these being volunteers, we have pursued our vision of keeping both wildlife and cats safe by encouraging cat containment. Encouraging owners to meet the needs of the cats themselves by offering suitable stimulation, hiding places, and access to water, food, and toileting areas to suit the individual cats' needs.
If wildlife could talk, I am sure they would be thanking all those responsible cat owners who are keeping their pets contained and sterilising their fluffy family members. We know there is a long way to go, local laws review and reduction of other roaming cats for a start, but we look forward to helping other owners transition their cats into appropriate enclosed housing and reducing those unowned cats from roaming. While we currently have no role in actively reducing roaming feral cats, we do encourage control through the correct legal avenues and most of it is imperative that control is humane.
CLAWS tries to encourage learning in a fun and positive way, and we have numerous educational programs that we get very excited about showing off on a regular basis. Some of these include,
· Primary school incursions enthusing kids on local wildlife and cat containment
· Workshops for residents on keeping cats healthy and happy contained to a property
· Presentations to groups on the damage roaming cats pose to wildlife
· Stall displays at numerous events and shows
· Lobbying to improve cat containment and better feral control and more
We are continuing to interact with other organisations that have any involvement in roaming cats, including, The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Local Government, Landcare groups, residents, and veterinary and animal care establishments to name a few.
Follow the blog to see what is happening in the group and please have a little look around the website, there is useful information and links to be found.
We would love to hear your suggestions so feel free to contact us.
We look forward to sharing tips and interesting stories with you.
Jenni Loveland - Founder and Project Officer
6 January 2024
Cat Laws and Wildlife Survival Working GroupPO Box 118, Mount Barker, WA 6324
© 2024 C L A W S Working Group (formerly Albany and Surrounds Feral Cat Working Group)
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