MPs will on Monday debate the proposed change in the law which could lead to drivers being fined if they failed to tell the authorities that they had hit a cat.
The plan has come to the Commons after it was backed by more than 100,000 members of the public in a petition to “make it a legal requirement for drivers to stop and report collisions with cats”.
The petition, which has more than 102,000 signatures, states: “The impact on a persons’ mental health when their cat is hit by a car can be profound and devastating, and cat owners should be entitled to the same due process afforded to dog owners.
“Motorists should be required to report collisions with cats in the same way as collisions with dogs, so that the cat’s owners can be informed. Many cat owners feel excluded by the law.”
The top 10 parliamentary constituencies that supported the petition were:
* Tunbridge Wells (MP Greg Clark) - 774 signatures
* Poole (Sir Robert Syms) 685
* Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) 644
* Streatham (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) 582
* Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) 528
* Wokingham (Sir John Redwood) 527
* Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) 519
* Edinburgh North and Leith (Deidre Brock) 510
* Bournemouth East (Tobias Ellwood) 503
* Bracknell (James Sunderland) 498
The 90-minute debate will be opened by Tonia Antoniazzi MP, a member of the Petitions Committee, with a transport minister replying.
Responding to the petition, the Government previously said: “The Government has no plans to make it an offence to drive off after hitting a cat. A focus for this Government is to make roads safer for all users, which will in turn reduce the risk to all animals.”
The Petitions Committee ran an online survey to ask petitioners for their views on the request of the petition, and received almost 5,000 responses.
Nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of respondents said that losing a cat had a negative impact on their mental health.
While 97 per cent of respondents said they would have felt ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’ better if the driver had to report the collision with their cat to the police.
