Pawesome solution to cat control
A GOLD Coast businesswoman believes she has the purrfect solution to the contentious cat ban at two estates slated for the Tweed region.
Developer Leda, which is in the planning stages for the mega Kings Forest and Cobaki estates, has had its claws out since the ban was implemented by the NSW Government in 2009.
Leda’s regional manager Mr van Rij last month argued the ban was a “draconian policy” in mediation between Tweed Shire Council and the NSW Department of Planning.
He said it did not make sense when one-in-three households have cats.
Bec O’Callaghan’s Burleigh Heads-based company Oscillot produces a cat containment system that does without cages, netting or electric fence systems.
Oscillot is a product that attaches to the top of a fence line and via a series of spinners prevents cats from leaving the yard.
Ms O’Callaghan said it offered a middle way between no containment system and the more extreme forms of keeping cats in the yard.
“I understand the impact that free-roaming cats have on the environment and so I understand why that restric- tion (in Cobaki and Kings Forest) is in place,” she said.
“But I don’t think it’s fair to completely ban them because there is such a high rate of cat ownership in this country.
“A lot of families want cats, it is a typical part of a family environment.”
Ms O’Callaghan bought the Oscillot company from the product’s inventor, South Australian filmaker Paul Bok, in 2011.
“It is effective at keeping cats contained and some people are surprised by that because it is quite a simple process,” Ms O’Callaghan, who used the product before buying the company, said.
“Cats when they are trying to escape from a yard go through the same action, which is a jump, grab, and climb action. They need to grab hold of the top of the fence in order to leverage themselves over the fence. All Oscillot does is prevent that grab at the top of the fence.”
The company was idle for years while Ms O’Callaghan undertook work writing tenders for a large security company.
In 2016 after a video demonstrating the product blew up on social media, Oscillot was flooded with orders, and she quit her job to focus on the business full time.
“Within three to four weeks we had 20 million views,” she said. “Since then it has been more than full time for the past two-and-a-half years.”
She said production, which was run out of Adelaide, went from barely anything to full capacity in a short space of time.
At the end of 2016, Ms O’Callaghan moved to the Gold Coast from Adelaide for a change of lifestyle and set up Oscillot’s head office at Burleigh Heads.
The business sells around 2310 metres of product per month in Australia, based on average sales over the past 12 months.
It exports around 1050 metres per month to distributors in Europe, Canada and New Zealand and average monthly sales have grown by 33 per cent since early last year.
Ms O’Callaghan said she will look for an injection of capital to take the business to the next step, which included supplying larger retailers.
She will also look to move part of the manufacturing to the Gold Coast early next year.
IT IS EFFECTIVE AT KEEPING CATS CONTAINED AND SOME PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED BY THAT BECAUSE IT IS QUITE A SIMPLE PROCESS BEC O’CALLAGHAN