A cat owner has launched a petition to change the law after her beloved pet was savaged to death by an XL bully dog.
Becky Quane, from Birmingham, tragically lost her three-year-old cat Freya last month but had no legal recourse to prosecute the owners of the dog that killed Freya.
This is because only dog on dog attacks can be pursued by police, and in addition, motorists who hit a dog with their vehicle must report this, but the same does not apply for cats.
Re-living the day her cat was killed, Becky told GB News:“By the looks of it, she died instantly.
Freya was tragically mauled to death by an XL Bully
Change.org/Becky Quane
"He’d got the back of her leg and she hadn’t stood a chance because this dog was an XL Bully who had jumped the fence and killed her in my sister’s garden.
“I’ve gone into, like, a state of shock, I couldn’t be in the house because they had her body in a box and then I’ve called the police and been like ‘this is what’s happened, it’s an XL bully’.
“Even though it had happened on my sister’s garden, I couldn’t do anything.”
Britain is a nation of animal lovers with 31% of us owning a dog and 26% of Brits owning a cat, according to data from UK Pet Food – this equates to 11 million pet cats and 12 million pet dogs in the UK in 2023.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
XL Bullies have joined the list of banned dog breeds since the start of the year (stock pic)
Wiki Commons images/ DlexusBecky believes that cats should have the same rights in law that dogs do and after Freya’s tragic death, Becky started a petition to strengthen legal protections for cats and to allow for prosecution of dog owners whose dogs attack, injure or kill cats.
“I don’t want other people as much as possible to go through what happened to me or my sister or all these people that have signed my petition now, as it’s over 100,000 now, which I wasn’t expecting,” Becky told GB News.
“I love them [her cats] I view them as my children, I don’t have kids, but they are my kids, and for her [Freya] to be taken away like that and I can’t do anything legally, like we had to pay for her to be cremated at the vet, I didn’t even get an apology from the [dog] owners, nothing, it’s wrong.
“I just want to make the world a better place because animals can’t speak, they don’t have a voice of their own, so it’s down to people like us to speak for them.”
The calls to change the law are supported by The Sheffield Cats Shelter who have been working to help and rehome cats since 1897.
The charity’s objectives are to relieve and prevent the suffering and distress amongst cats in need of care and attention and to promote the welfare of cats, as well as finding new homes for cats and kittens in need.
Nick Holland is the Communications and Fundraising Coordinator at The Sheffield Cats Shelter.
He told GB News: “Cats should have the same rights, they’re family pets, and people who lose a cat to a dog attack or a road traffic accident feel the same trauma and the same loss that a dog owner does, so cats are just as valuable as dogs, but at the moment the law doesn’t see that.
“Some people who aren’t cat owners seem to think that dogs are more important than cats, or that cats aren’t as valuable or as friendly a pet as a dog would be, and that’s completely unfair really.
“It’s only fair that they [cats] have the same rights and the same protection, so if this petition goes to a government level and they decide to back the changes, we would love that, and it would give cats so much more protection.”
Becky believes that cats should have the same rights in law that dogs do (stock pic)
WikiCommonsCalls to strengthen the law to protect cats are also supported by the national charity, Cats Protection, and has also been campaigning for a specific offence within existing legislation on dangerous dogs to allow for prosecution of dog owners whose dogs attack, injure or kill cats.
The charity says this would reduce the number of cats killed and injured by dogs as well as allow cat owners closure for their injured or killed pets and that it would also ensure a constituent response from police and local authorities across England when dealing with dog attacks on cats, which is currently not the case.
In addition, Madison Rogers, Cats Protection’s Head of Advocacy and Government Relations, said: “Dog attacks on cats are a terrifying experience for the cat, their owner, and the wider community.
“The vast majority of dog owners are responsible and keep their dogs under control, however, when a dog does attack a cat, it is usually because the owner fails to control their dog.
“Such attacks often result in the death of a cat and witnesses can be left with long-lasting trauma. When vicious attacks take place in public, it can be deeply worrying and upsetting for the whole community.”
With more than 100,000 people signing Becky’s petition, there is certainly a strength of feeling from the public that more should be done to legally protect cats.
To sign the petition, click here - https://www.change.org/p/strengthen-legal-protections-for-cats-in-uk-law
