That this House has considered e-petition 750612 relating to placing a requirement on drivers to report collisions with cats.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers—I suspect they might need to change the nameplate. The petition was started by CatsMatter, a group …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"Yes, absolutely. It is the not knowing that is really awful. I will come on to that.
I am told that this is the largest cat welfare petition that has ever come to Parliament. That is a great many people and they deserve to have their concerns properly heard today. …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"I agree. Cats are not just companions; they are members of the family, so, yes, collisions should be reported. Clearly, we are not alone. By the time the petition closed on 17 June, it had gathered 189,192 signatures, many of which were in my own Newton Abbot constituency...." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"I thank Mandy Hobbis, Tiya Ivy, CatsMatter and the nearly 200,000 people who signed the petition, which has enabled us to have this debate. I also thank Members from across the House for their contributions.
Some significant themes have emerged from the debate, including cats being part of the family; …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"I tend to agree, and we will come to working animals shortly.
Cats are not on the list. Neither, I might add, are llamas or alpacas, which gives a fair idea of how old the list is. It has come down to us, almost untouched, from the Road Traffic Act …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"From my experience, I suspect that the right hon. Member’s third option is probably correct.
On people’s confusion about where to report a collision with a cat, section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 says that a driver who hits certain animals must stop and, if necessary, report it …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
In their response to the petition, the Government noted they have “no current plans” to change the law due to the fact that cats are small and often out at dawn and dusk, so a driver may genuinely not know that they have hit one. They …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"I agree with my hon. Friend that that is the right, moral thing to do and we need to encourage drivers to do it.
The animals in section 170 are ones whose owners are expected to keep them under control or fenced in, and the law has long accepted that …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
The campaigners have answered the Government’s points with some care. On the working animals argument, CatsMatter has done its own sums. Using a University of Bristol study and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs farm figures, it reckons that there could …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech
"Yesterday, we heard in this Chamber many of the shortcomings of this year’s SFI window 2. Just one week after it closed, I visited Ross and Ginny Thomson at Smallacombe farm in my Newton Abbot constituency and their successful herd of milking goats. They described the SFI process as a …..." Martin Wrigley - View Speech