On October 6th 2021 our beloved pet cat Archie, a beautiful four year old ginger tom cat, was ran over and tragically killed by a van. He was a very much loved and special addition to our family. He was extremely friendly and known to many people in the area where I live. Everyone spoke fondly of him as he was such a character and many people are saddened by his tragic death.  This is the case with the majority of pet cats. They are part of a family, leaving the owners shattered and heartbroken should an accident occur.

Witnesses to this accident have stated that although the driver of the vehicle could not have avoided the collision due to the nature of cats he did not apply his breaks or take any action to try and avoid this tragic accident. The driver continued along his route at speed without stopping to move the animal out of the road when it was clearly safe to do so. This resulted in other thoughtless drivers to drive over our beloved animal which made the retrieval of his broken, lifeless body far more difficult than it needed to have been. This is something that we found extremely traumatic and could have been so very easily avoided.

I wish to bring this to the attention of the Government of the United Kingdom to bring about a change in the law to state that (a) drivers who hit cats in the road should at the very least be required to move the animal off the highway to a place of safety if possible to ensure that the animal encounters no further damage regardless if the animal has deceased or not and (b) to report the accident to the police/vet so that measures can be taken to trace the owner of the animal.

At present drivers are not required by law to stop should a cat be involved in a road traffic collision.

The law currently states that drivers who are involved in a collision with dogs, horses, cattle (cows), goats, mules, pigs and sheep must stop and report the accident to the police. We want this law to be extended to include cats.

Please sign this petition to help bring about a change in the Road Traffic Act.