The UK is supposedly a nation of pet lovers. Most of us have pets that include dogs or cats or both. As pet owners, we want to protect our furry friends at all costs and get justice when it’s needed. The laws surrounding dogs and their protection and rights is far greater, clearer and stronger than those of cats.

By law, if you hit a dog, horse, donkey, goat, cow, sheep or pig with your vehicle, you ‘must’ stop and inform the police. You have to stay at the scene of the accident until the police allow you to leave or have arrived to you at the scene. These animals get the urgent medical attention they require by a vet because the law is there to protect them so that the driver who hit them must stop. 

However, for cats, the same can not be said. Apparently cats aren’t in the same pet category as dogs. Any other animal including cats, badgers, rodents and foxes ‘should’ be reported but it ‘isn’t a legal requirement’. I believe this is wrong. Cats should not fall under a wildlife and rodent animal category. Meaning that they don’t have the same protection as their dog counterparts. This is insulting and cruel to all cat owners especially if their cats have ever been or, god forbid, ever get hit by a vehicle. Something must change, for good. 

My cat, Shelly, went missing on 31st July 2019. She was microchipped and after 26 months of her being missing and having no luck or news, I recently found out from a vet that she had been brought in by a passerby and that Shelly was sadly the victim of a RTA. The driver who hit her didn’t stop. And that right there is the difference between life and death. It fell down to someone else who ended up finding her. But if the driver responsible had stopped and taken her immediately to a vet, she could have been saved and spared. Time is crucial and of the essence in situations like this, you’re literally against the clock of saving an animals life. So to just drive off after her being hit rather than stopping and taking her to a vet straight away, her chances were always, therefore, going to be against her. I could very well have had her home alive after more than 2 years of her being missing. Instead, I will never ever have her home alive now. 

I really want, on behalf of myself and all cat owners and lovers all over the UK, the government to work on and update their animal legislation surrounding cats. It needs to become a legal requirement to stop your vehicle and report to the police and a vet when you are involved in a vehicle collision with a cat - just as it is a legal requirement for dogs. Think about how many cat’s lives would be saved and spared if people had to stop when they hit them. The difference it would make getting that critical, fast medical attention rather than them being left to die on the side of a road as if they have no rights.

It’s shameful, disgusting and a disgrace to say we are a nation of pet and animal lovers when nothing is being done to protect one of Britain’s most popular, common and well loved pets. 

My story of Shelly could have easily had a happy ending, after her being missing for a couple of years, if only the person/people who hit her had to stop and get her help, by law, and therefore had the decency and heart to get her the medical attention she so desperately needed. Instead I find myself now striving and pushing for change in the hope that cases and incidents like this will become far less common because the cats of Britain will actually get the help they need at a time they need it the most. 

Please sign, share and donate if you can. Let’s try and get the government to take this seriously and work with our amazing animal charities to bring some real change and justice. Thank you.

RIP Shelly Belly ❤️ #ShellysLaw