- By Helen Catt & Chas Geiger
- BBC Politics
Image supply, Toni Clarke
Toni Clarke’s cat, Clooney (left), disappeared in 2013
The authorities has backed proposals to make stealing cats and dogs a particular prison offence in England and Northern Ireland.
A invoice which might create an offence of “pet abduction” handed its first Commons hurdle unopposed on Friday.
Under the laws, anybody convicted of the offence might face a positive or a most of 5 years in jail.
It will now face additional scrutiny from MPs and friends however authorities help means it’s extra prone to change into legislation.
Currently, pets are thought of in legislation to be property and stealing a pet is roofed by the 1968 Theft Act. The legislation is comparable in Scotland.
The authorities promised to make the kidnapping of dogs a prison offence in 2021, however no such laws has but been handed.
The authorities had promised measures within the invoice could be enacted by different means, together with utilizing personal members’ payments launched by backbench MPs.
The Southend West MP informed the BBC low prosecution charges made stealing a pet a “low-risk, high-reward crime”.
“I simply discover it unbelievable that we deal with the lack of a dwelling creature, a member of our household, as if it’s a energy instrument or a laptop computer.”
Rebecca Pow explains the function of her two cats since she misplaced her husband and her youngsters left home.
Toni Clarke, who lives in rural Norfolk, misplaced her Siamese cat, Clooney, in 2013. He was hardly ever set free and she or he feared he may need been shot. But tracker dogs discovered no hint of him.
Ms Clarke reported her lacking cat to the police, however discovered them uninterested. In 2018, she found his microchip particulars had been scanned by two completely different vets, neither of whom contacted her.
She informed the BBC she had by no means stopped trying to find Clooney, who would now be aged 14, everywhere in the nation, or campaigning for cat thefts to be taken extra significantly.
Has your pet been stolen? Get in contact.
‘Traumatising’
Her group, Pet Theft Awareness, has lobbied for a change within the legislation to get pets recognised as “valued dwelling possessions” quite than inanimate objects, and for jail sentences for pet theft.
It has additionally referred to as for obligatory scanning to extend the probabilities of stolen and lacking pets being reunited with their homeowners.
A report by the group discovered that, in 2021, police-recorded cat theft elevated by 40% on the earlier yr and had greater than quadrupled since 2015.
Ms Clarke says the true figures are prone to be a lot increased, as police forces’ willingness to document the crime varies dramatically throughout the nation.
She says the impression on her of dropping Clooney has been “profound and traumatising”, not least the “open-ended grief of not understanding what occurred”.
Annabel Berdy, senior advocacy officer at charity Cats Protection, agrees it is very important prolong any new prison offence to cowl cats.
She informed the BBC: “If you included dogs from the outset with out cats, on condition that these are the 2 companion animals, it would drive exploitative criminals or individuals seeking to steal animals for money in the direction of cats.”
The legislation must also recognise “the very related emotional worth and attachment that homeowners could have with their cats, as they do with dogs”, she added.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow informed MPs the federal government supported the invoice and hoped it made “swift progress”.
She stated it recognised pets had been “mainly household”.
“Since my husband died and since my three youngsters left home, my cats have taken on an much more vital function in my life,” she stated.
“The illegal taking of pets is a callous crime and it is proper that perpetrators are delivered to justice.”
It is far more durable for a personal members’ invoice to change into legislation however the likelihood is elevated if it secures authorities help.
To change into legislation, the invoice must cross all its common levels within the Commons and Lords earlier than a normal election was referred to as.
