CatsMatter Edges One (Big) Step Closer to Making Cat RTAs a Reportable Offence

In January, CatsMatter Co-Founder Mandy Lowe headed up to Cumbria to meet with Sue Hayman, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to discuss new legislation requiring motorists to report accidents where an animal has been injured.

We are very excited to report that MP Sue Hayman found the proposed legislation written by CatsMatter, a perfectly feasible approach, from a totally different angle than ever introduced before. She even went to far as to offer praise for taking such a different tactic than any campaign before and never relenting, despite all our setbacks over the years. Based on this, she willingly agreed to push this forward into new legislation on behalf of CatsMatter.

So, when the Labour Animal Welfare manifesto, which has caused quite a stir today, was released, we were absolutely overjoyed to see that Sue had kept true to her word and included our suggested legislation in said manifesto – all of which we fully support.

Currently, Sue is reviewing our draft legislation alongside DEFRA and top Labour Officials and our plans are being put into motion. It has taken over three years of actual blood, sweat and tears to reach this point, and we are overjoyed to have made it this far and finally feel like we have been heard.

We have outlined three possible scenarios of how the new law could work, each supported by existing legislation, however are fairly confident which option will be implemented based on our understanding of the legal system with regards to cat welfare. As soon as everything has been confirmed, we will follow up with another update but, until then, watch this space (and do the happy dance with us)… it won’t be long until cats finally have the rights they deserve!