What is #ClooneysLaw? #PetAbduction must include cats!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and sign the new Clooney's Law petition.

We all welcomed the new #PetAbduction legislation (as part of the forthcoming Kept Animals Bill)  but it comes with a huge disappointment that cats, horses, and other companion animals have been omitted despite the original promise that the pet abduction legislation would not be restricted exclusively to dogs.
  • Cat-theft victims are equally as devastated as dog-theft victims.
  • Horses and their owners form close bonds. 
  • Rabbit, parrot, alpaca, and reptile owners value their pets as much as dog owners value theirs. 
  • Cat owners consider their pet as part of the family and need this to be recognised.
  • ALL pet owners campaigned for #PetTheftReform, helping to make dog abduction a crime. We now need dog owners to sign this petition to help extend the legislation to include ALL pets.
Clooney's Law is the name given to the e-petition campaign calling for other companion animals to be included (alongside dogs) in a new pet abduction offence within the Kept Animals Bill.


If a cat is stolen then thieves should face the full weight of the law for the misery caused. Pet theft should not be a high-reward, low-risk crime.

Aims: To get 10,000 signatures forcing the government to explain why 'Pet Abduction' only includes dogs. If this can be achieved before the bill goes through our hope is that it is amended.
If the petition gets to 100,000 then there will be a parliamentary debate.

#ClooneysLaw

A Background to Clooney.

“It is impossible to describe the torture that is pet theft.” – Toni Clarke 

Toni Clarke with her stolen Siamese cat
Toni Clarke and stolen Clooney

Clooney is a large, neutered and microchipped Siamese cat owned by Toni Clarke in Norfolk.

Victim Toni Clarke was left devastated when her pet mysteriously disappeared after a courier driver left her property during the summer of 2013. As soon as she noticed her cat had gone, she immediately reported the theft of her Siamese cat 'Clooney'. The police did not take her claim that he had been stolen seriously and refused to give her the all-important Crime Reference Number for many years.

Toni has never given up searching for her much-loved cat, so you can imagine how her hopes of getting him back home were increased when she discovered his microchip details had been accessed on two separate occasions five years after he was taken. Someone must have scanned him!

FACT: Clooney is out there somewhere.

26/03/2018: 17:45 hours: Clooney's Chip number entered by someone on Identibase main database using Vet ID code and user-chosen password for Wigmore Veterinary Practice in Rainham, Kent.  

27/03/2018: 14:05 hours: Clooney's Chip number entered by someone on Identibase main database using Vet ID code and user-chosen password for The Crossings Veterinary Practice in Downham Market.

On both occasions, personal details were accessed including name, address, contact details as well as Clooney's information relating to DOB, neutered status etc - and a 'MISSING' flag. A digital footprint was left on his account identifying the veterinary practices concerned, but the searches were not disclosed by Identibase until March 2019 following a specific enquiry from Toni. There was no contact from either Identibase advising of the data access or from the person carrying out the search.

How can it be that a family pet can be abducted, his microchip number entered into a national database and personal information accessed, and yet nobody contacted his bereft owner with the good news that he had been found? And all this with a 'MISSING' flag against his name on the database! 

This is why it is vital that cats, and other companion animals, are included in pet abduction laws.


Since 2015 hundreds of stolen cats have been recorded by police as thefts.

The most common stolen cats types

So with some background information on #ClooneysLaw we hope you can help us support all pets and their families. Please post the link below and let's reach our target.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

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