Pet Abduction legislation MUST include cats.

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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW!

Cats are family members - can you help us by writing to your MP?

Cat theft soared by 40% last year and yet it is not included in the Pet Abduction offence currently going through parliament as part of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. It was a recommendation of the Pet Theft Taskforce that this offence should include cats and horses and it was intimated that it would come into law by Spring 2022. Cat owners love their cats every bit as much as dog owners love their dogs and they have an equal capacity to suffer; the government seems to be ignoring this.

Delay-after-delay later pet owners are wondering if this Bill will ever become law. A broken promise? We hope not. We need ministers, MPs and the Lords to understand that cat theft causes the same misery as dog theft and they need the same protections and deterrents.


Pet Theft Awareness has been campaigning hard to have the theft of cats included in the offence and, until the Government Ministers played musical chairs (some ministers barely getting their seats warm before being replaced), we were optimistic that the possibility of cats being included within this offence was being given serious governmental consideration. The Rt Hon Lord Goldsmith, until very recently Minster of State at DEFRA overseeing animal welfare issues, stated that the Government, '...had noted the contents of the Cat Theft Report 2022' and had made a 'commitment to review the wording of the Pet Abduction provisions...including extending the offence to cats'.

Crucially, with cats meeting the Government’s own criteria we find it incredulous that dogs should be singled out for special treatment whilst cats should be ignored, especially given that the population of dogs and cats across households are pretty much equal and both contribute in similar ways to the health and wellbeing of their owners.

There is a strong public movement to have the Kept Animals Bill passed into Law without delay, but it should be noted that any amendment to include cats at the Report Stage will NOT impede its progress through Parliament. 

Acting quickly by writing to your MP, you can influence him/her to support an amendment.
Please click the link to find your MPs parliamentary email address.
https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
Explain why you think cats should included into the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill which is still being scrutinised. For the sake of convenience, a template email can be found here: https://pettheftawareness.blogspot.com/2022/10/template-letter-for-mps-including-cats.html

Our Cat Theft Report 2022 makes a number of important points that call into question the Government’s decision to limit the protection afforded by the proposed legislation solely to dogs. A synopsis of the main points below might be helpful:
  • Cat theft as recorded by the police is rising sharply across the country as a whole, surging 40% in 2021 alone. 
  • The decision is in conflict with the recommendations of the Pet Theft Taskforce, which are inclusive of all pets. (The report simply states that dogs should be included).
  • Cats already fully satisfy the criteria laid out in section 44 of the Bill for extending the legislation in that they are commonly kept as pets; there is evidence that they are capable of forming bonds with the people who keep them; removing them from a person with whom they have formed a bond may adversely affect their well-being. 
  • The composition of pet theft crime is changing. The often-cited figure of seven out 10 pet thefts involve dogs—one of the main justifications for limiting the proposals—is misleading. It ignores the fact that the proportion involving dogs has declined in recent years (fewer than six out of 10 in 2021), whilst the proportion involving cats has risen from just 6% in 2012 to almost one third in 2021 (all data from Metropolitan Police Dashboard).
  • The relative proportion of recorded thefts across species is irrelevant; what matters is that they all suffer equally as do their owners.
  • Restricting the protections afforded by the proposals solely to dogs may have unintended consequences: namely, altering the risk/reward trade-off and so making the theft of family cats more attractive to thieves.
  • Cats are often the companion of choice of our elderly; their abduction can have devastating consequences for the mental well-being of this particularly vulnerable demographic.
  • The enabling powers are costly, cumbersome and would take up valuable government time. Why wait when the evidence is already there?
Can you do even more?
If you can spare a little more time then why not support our work and write to The Rt Hon Ranil Jayawardena MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Email: defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk

Together we can get justice for cats and their owners. We feel it is now or never!
Thank you for reading this. Please ask your friends for their help too.

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