EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Canberrans may be banned from letting their pet cats go outside - ever - if recommendations from a 24-hour city-wide cat containment policy are adopted. If it goes ahead, Canberra would be the first Australian city to ban cats from roaming free. Canberra authorities are also ramping up education and enforcement in existing cat containment suburbs, where the rules aren't always being followed. From the national capital, Siobhan Heanue reports.

SIOBHAN HEANUE, REPORTER: The game could be over for Canberra's cats. The Government may soon put the kibosh on pussies prowling.

KATHY EYLES, ANU FENNER SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT: Most of our suburbs are within 500 metres of nature, which is a really wonderful thing to have, but it also means that cats will roam.

SIOBHAN HEANUE: A new report has recommended city-wide cat containment. That means either kitty gets to be an indoor cat or owners erect a kind of cat carnival cage course like this one.

If it happens, it won't be for a few years.

SHANE RATTENBURY, TERRITORY AND MUNICIPAL SERVICES MINISTER: I think if we were to go down that path, we'd need a long lead-in time. This'd be saying that we'd really need to work with the community to make sure there's plenty of time to get ready.

SIOBHAN HEANUE: Containment is already mandatory in new suburbs, but is it working?

TAMMY VEN DANGE, RSPCA ACT: We still have a lot of feral cats out there in places that are cat containment areas already, so if there's not a mechanism for actually enforcing it and for educating people that might not know that, then it doesn't really matter what the rules are.

SIOBHAN HEANUE: The Conservation Council's launching a letterbox blitz to make sure the message is getting through.

CLARE HENDERSON, CONSERVATION COUNCIL ACT: It's a friendly reminder, but it's also letting people know that they actually have a legal obligation to keep their cats contained.

SIOBHAN HEANUE: Advocates say a night-time cat curfew isn't enough, as many vulnerable species are most active in the day.

KATHY EYLES: So, if we were just to contain at night, we wouldn't actually be addressing the predation threats.

SIOBHAN HEANUE: It will be a transition period if a city-wide ban goes ahead, as much for the owners as for the cats.

KATHY EYLES: So people that own cats have time to comply and also can receive some more information about how they could work with cats that have been allowed to roam, how they might be able to entertain them and provide sort of enrichment for them during the day if they are contained.

SIOBHAN HEANUE: So all these well-fed, fancy-free moggies better make the most of it while it lasts.

Siobhan Heanue, Lateline.