UK: London wants all dead roadside cats to be scanned for a microchip.

Warning: unpleasant photo illustrates the page.

There has been an omission in the laws of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for a long time. Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 motorists have to stop and report an accident with dogs (and horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and goats). But there is no obligation for a motorist to tell the authorities if he/she hits a cat on the roads. They can drive on and leave the cat for dead. The owner may never find out what happened to her cat.

Roadkill cats should be reported everytime
Very sad; roadkill cat
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

It is obviously unfair to cats and cat owners. It is a peculiar anomaly. The legislators must have seen cats as a different class of companion animal as dogs for some reason. The original legislation may have been centred around farm animals.

On 7th June the London Assembly1 unanimously agreed a motion requesting the London Mayor to ‘push for the mandatory scanning of all deceased cats collected from the roadside’.

The campaign ‘Cats Matter’ has lobbied the Mayor’s office it seems and done a great job in convincing the Assembly that it is the right thing to do.

A London Assembly member, Sian Berry, had personal experience of losing her cat for three days and had thought that her cat’s microchip would get him home if he was found by someone else. She was lucky as he came home but she says:

“…Luckily my cat came back soaking wet after three nights who knows where, but there are so many pet owners who never know. And that’s grim when so many of them have done the right thing and got a microchip. The problem is cats are not equal to dogs in the way the Government and local authorities treat them.”

Sian proposed the motion. Steve O’Connell seconded it.

“I am pleased to support this motion. It’s a heart-breaking experience to not know what happened to a pet. This motion will help pet owners across London find out exactly what happened to their loved ones.”

Vehicle Owners Should Report Roadkill Cats

Sian Berry explaining her actions on video

The full text of the motion is as follows:

“This Assembly notes that there is currently no obligation to report all cat deaths on roads. Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires people to report collisions involving animals including dogs but not cats.

This Assembly recognises the distress that can be caused to London’s cat owners if they are not informed of the death of their pets.

We therefore call on the Mayor to lobby government to enact legislation that would require local authorities to ensure the mandatory scanning of all deceased cats collected from the roadside.

We also call on the Mayor of London and the Chair of the London Assembly to write to councils in London to make sure their own street cleaning teams treat all cats with respect and ensure microchips are checked when cats are found dead in the street.”

1. The London Assembly holds the Mayor and Mayoral advisers to account by publicly examining policies and programs through committee meetings, plenary sessions, site visits and investigations.

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7 thoughts on “UK: London wants all dead roadside cats to be scanned for a microchip.”

  1. Stage-1 of finding all the owners of those cats so they can eventually be found guilty, fined, and incarcerated for all criminal-animal-neglect and criminal-animal-endangerment laws. If they can’t figure-out by themselves how to truly love and protect an animal in their care, then the government will have to teach them in even more harsh ways.

    Reply
    • Thanks for commenting but you are being too harsh in criticising cat owners who let their cats outside. They are not criminals, no where near it. You may hate people who let their cats outside but you’ll have to wait for the legislators to change the law making it obligatory to keep cats confined before you can brand people criminally negligent.

      Reply
    • Pretoria, did you lose a cat to the perils of ‘outside’? I am very sorry if you did, don’t be so harsh on yourself, everyone can make unfortunate mistakes

      Don’t forget, not everyone lives in an environment that is unsafe for cats. Perception of danger to cats is going to be different too according to who you ask nd where they come from

      The UK has changed for the worse for cats in the last 20 years, so gradually the concept of containing cats indoors, initially at night, is slowly gaining a hold. We used to believe that it is safe here for cats to roam free. We don’t deliberately cripple our cats by declawing them, we don’t have rabies here. There are no predators who would routinely kill cats for food.

      Pretoria, what do you think of those who care for feral colonies or maintain a neighbourhood stray, but maybe can’t take it inside due to other animals, family members?

      Would you have those compassionate carers locked up and punished harshly too? The cats of the world needs more carers, however naive, to be out there, caring and advocating for cats, not locked up, fulfilling someones angry fantasy, which would result in fewer cats being cared for.

      Reply
  2. Thank you Michael for covering this important and good news for UK cats.

    I hope this spreads to all local authorities very soon.

    This will allow cat owners if not full closure, then at least knowing their cat is no more, will free them to start the grieving process.

    Reply

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