Cats Matter

I just received this pitch from catsmatter.org. To any cat lover, it is, to put it simply, hearbreaking. Read for yourself and make your own mind up...

Story pitch begins here

We wondered if you thought our story was worthy of being written about as this is an issue constantly being raised and it affects 11.1 million people throughout the UK directly and we are keen to raise awareness wherever possible...

Our mission started when both of our cats were hit on the road and left for dead. The drivers didn't stop and no one helped them. They were then collected and disposed of at landfill by the local council who did not scan for a microchip and let us know. This meant we never got our beloved pets remains back, or closure. British law currently states this is perfectly ok for drivers and councils to do.

 

We knew we had to change that!

 

We started a campaign to make it a legal requirement drivers stop, help and report a cat they have hit whilst driving, and to get a mandatory requirement in place so councils must scan cats found and notify the owners.

 

We petitioned the UK Government as well as the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Every single one responded and already we've seen huge results!

Our Welsh petition saw the Welsh Government announce Wales as the first all-scanning nation in the world! Scottish ministers raised a motion and are currently looking in to the matter. As for England...we've submitted all our petitions already and Highways England along with the Local Government Department are currently looking in to the matter so hopefully they will implement mandatory scanning soon.

 

Also, after we produced freedom of information requests to all London borough councils asking how many cats had been collected and how many had been scanned and returned to the owners, the London Assembly unanimously passed a motion raised on our behalf for the London Mayor to implement mandatory scanning in the capitol as well as also lobby the government further on the issue.

 

This came about as FOI requests revealed that of 4194 cats collected by London councils, just 75 were scanned and returned home. The rest were ditched in landfill sites across the borough without being scanned and the owners notified. Those owners will probably still be out calling their cats names on the streets in vain as we speak, they will never get closure and that is why it's so important what we do and why we are determined to see change.

 

In terms of reportable road collisions involving cats, our petitions have already been submitted and both main political parties have pledged to look to introduce our proposals. We drafted how we believe such a law would be implemented and enforced and both DEFRA head of state Michael Gove, and shadow DEFRA sec Sue Hayman agreed with us they could work. To go in to further detail on this, on the Labour side we met with Sue Hayman at her Cumbria constituency office and had a fantastic meeting.

She said our proposals were ''extremely do'able'' and ''something the government has not seen before'' from previous petitions or campaigns. Her approval was sealed in the Labour Animal Welfare manifesto as she has written in reportable cat collisions.

On the Tory side, we are currently working with MP Rehman Chisti and we submitted our road accident proposals which is included in his current Cats Bill currently processing through Parliament. Rehman also spoke privately to Michael Gove about such who said proposals were ''very reasonable'' and he is currently reviewing the details Bill.

 

We wanted to contact you about all this as there is another part to our campaign...we know that, although we are a nation of animal lovers, there is still a mind-set amongst some that it is ''just a cat''. This is why our secondary aim is to raise awareness and educate people.

 

On our website we have details of what to do if you hit/find a cat, how to administer roadside first aid, what to do out of hours (which is a problem), who to contact , and so on. We would hope that any publicity from an article would enable more traffic to the site as that would mean many more lives potentially saved for us! With 11.1 million cat owners in the UK currently, and this issue only ever having failed previously, we also wanted people to have hope and show things are being done about the issue, and progress is moving extremely fast!

 

Why do we think we are different or will get any further than the rest? We already have really, plus we are approaching things in a completely different manor and have researched the issue extensively so we know exactly what we're asking for and to who. Both the Tory and Labour side have both expressed how they like our proposal of fines for drivers failing to stop, and each has said they see no reason why this could not be implement with further research. This all makes it extremely promising.

 

Hopefully you see a story in all of this, and if there is anything further you need such as specific contacts or the FOI results direct for example, anything, please do just let us know. We will pop in a photo of us, this was recently taken as we got the result from the Welsh Assembly that Wales is the first all-scanning nation in the world. Here we are stood with David J Rowlands AM, handing our petition in to the Welsh Government.

 

We have also popped one in of us with Rehamn Chishti MP who is spearheading the Cats Bill for us, here we are at the Blue Cross hospital stood over a cat who has been hit by a car and is having a microchip inserted. Veterinarians were explaining how quick, pain free and easy it is to chip and how quick it is to scan. Such a simple procedure which could be life saving and spares an owner a life times worth of never having closure.

 

Best wishes

 

Mandy & Tiya

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www.catsmatter.org