Category: Animal Rights

We need a UK Cat Act

U.K cats need more legal protection.

Time and again whenever laws are introduced to control or protect animals in the U.K. cats always miss out with preference always given to the control and welfare of dogs. Even the basic requirement for cats to be microchipped is not legislated for and recently the Governments reluctance to give any status or protection to them was borne out by their response to the Gizmo legacy petition.

Following the death of her microchipped cat Gizmo in a road accident, whose body was subsequently disposed of by a veterinary surgeon without scanning, the owner began a petition to make it a legal requirement for dead cats to be scanned. The government’s response was that scanning legislation is unnecessary “as local authorities, veterinary practices and rehoming centres  are encouraged to do it anyway and they have scanners because the law requires dogs to be microchipped and scanned”.

They also reiterated that “whilst microchipping cats is good for their welfare, and it is important to publicise those benefits, lost and stray cats do not pose the same public safety risk as dogs, and therefore making cat microchipping compulsory is not considered necessary at this time“.

We do not take a cats’ welfare seriously.

The only protection UK cats have is under antiquated property laws. There is no mandatory need to neuter or vaccinate them, no restriction on how many you can have in your possession, no licensing or registration and no controls over breeding and this is where the problem lies. This lack of control has led to an ongoing “cat crisis” in the UK which has lasted for decades involving thousands of lost, abandoned and unwanted cats. Charities spend huge amounts each year trying to repatriate them and combat indiscriminate breeding and feckless ownership.

The lack of any status gives cats the unique status of the “right to roam“. They do not have to be securely confined and can roam without any fear of legal repercussions for their actions as they cannot trespass. The drawback of this is that many people view cats as pests and in some cases they will take the law into their own hands and commit retaliatory acts of cruelty on them or even shoot, poison or otherwise kill them.

Complaints to local authorities of cats using their gardens as a toilet, digging up flower beds or causing distress by catching birds are usually ignored by local authorities as they have no powers to intervene or take action unless the problem is extreme. Some have gone as far as suggesting local authorities should act under the Human Rights Act, 1998 to solve problems of nuisance cats as under Article 8 a person has the right to enjoy their property and home without interference, but this also ensures a cat owner’s right to enjoy their property i.e. their cat. A cat owner has a duty of care to take reasonable steps to stop their cat from causing damage or nuisance and in extreme cases an owner is issued a anti-social behaviour order (ASBO).

Cats, cat haters, cat nuisance,
Neighbours often do not like cats invading their gardens.

There are similar problems the world over particularly in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, but in some parts of Australia they have taken action and passed a “Cat Act”  some of which is draconian but we could learn from it.

We could take a lead from Australia.

The State Government of Western Australia introduced a Cat Act November 2013 for the control and management of cats and to promote and encourage responsible cat ownership. It was designed to cut the number of unwanted cats being bred, allow stray or lost cats found in a public place or on private property to be seized and help reunite lost cats with owners.

Cats must be already neutered and microchipped when registered before 6 months of age with the local authority. Vets must inform the micro-chipping company when they neuter a cat and give the owner a certificate. If you wish to sell or transfer ownership of a cat an owner is legally liable for updating the microchip details and can be fined for not doing so.

There is similar regulation in the State of Victoria but not as strict. It also requires legal micro-chipping at the earlier age of 3 months and the wearing of a registration tag provided by the local authority. If  the cat wanders off your property it can be seized as there is no “right to roam” and a fine must be paid when claimed. Local authorities within Victoria have the power to stipulate cats being confined during certain hours, prohibit ownership in certain areas, restrict the number per household and require neutering.

I am not suggesting for one minute to take away their “freedom to roam”, but an all-encompassing law to help solve cat ownership and welfare issues would benefit the health and welfare of UK cats in the long run.

The right to roam, cats cannot trespass
The reasons we are so intolerant towards cats.

My memorable meeting with C.J. the Orangutan.

C.J’s life and death was not a happy one.

There have been many animals that I have met during my career which have shaped my attitudes to animal welfare and rights issues and have made a profound impact on me and one of these was a Hollywood star orangutan named C.J.

Our meeting occurred while I was duty manager at the London Heathrow Animal Quarantine Station, (now the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre), and I had to supervise C.J’s overnight stay as a VIP guest. She was transiting back to the USA following a starring role in the movie Any Which Way You Can with Clint Eastwood.

It was my first ever close up and personal encounter with a real live Orang and at one point C.J took a fancy to my beard and sidled over, without prompting from the trainer, and stroked it. C.J stared mournfully into my eyes and gave me a kiss and from that moment I have always been convinced that you can tell an animals’ state of well-being by the look in its eyes.

Orang-utan, animal actor, movies, animal cruelty
There was something very saddening about seeing C.J doing tricks at the command of the trainer and being so submissive.

C.J sitting in the staff lounge with coffee and cigar in hand was neither an edifying or humorous experience.

Although captivated and overwhelmed at our face to face meeting I could tell from its demeanour that this was not a happy animal and I was saddened and disconcerted at the way C.J had obviously been humanised, particularly at one point when the trainer made a cup of coffee and lit up a cigar. Seeing C.J sitting in the staff lounge with coffee and cigar in hand was not an edifying or humorous experience nor was the submissive reactions to the trainers’ commands.

The encounter with C.J gave me the firm belief that it was not acceptable to train animals for our entertainment and there was something very wrong with forcibly humanising animals in this way, particularly apes, which after all are more like us than most other creatures and do not deserve to be belittled in this way.

Death of C.J.

Information about the life and death of C.J is confused and sketchy and is often muddled with his actor colleagues Manis and Buddha who all played “Clyde” at some stage. They all belonged to the animal training company called Gentle Jungle who perhaps did not live up to their name when it came to looking after the animals. C.J. is said to have been born in the Dallas Zoo and had two trainers, Paul Reynolds and Bill Gage one of which accompanied him when he travelled through Heathrow that day.

According to the Los Angeles Times C.J or Clyde was badly beaten by a trainer for misbehaving during the filming of “Any Which Way You Can” and died later of a cerebral haemorrhage, but there is much debate about this. Whatever the circumstances of his death, his life was obviously no picnic despite the admiration and media coverage he received and meeting him just for the those few hours was such a privilege and had an indelible affect on me. I just hope in these times of CGI we can consign the use of live animals in movies to history.

Updated February 2020

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