Road Traffic Collision Reporting: Cats Debate
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Perran Moon
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Road Traffic Collision Reporting: Cats
Perran Moon Excerpts(3 days, 4 hours ago)
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Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)
I beg to move,
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 co-funded by Mandy Hobbis and Tiya Ivy, who are here today. I am standing in today for my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone), who had the privilege of meeting Mandy ahead of today’s debate and learned that both of them had lost cats on the roads. Anyone who has waited up for a pet that never came home will understand why the campaign has kept going since 2017.
I should declare an interest. I have always lived with cats and have lost several to being run over. Just a few weeks ago, a family member lost their cat, Comet, who was hit by a car in a residential cul-de-sac and just left there. As with every loss of a cat, they were devastated. My daughter Emily has a beautiful white fluffy cat that rules the Wrigley household. He is called Ignatius D Flufflesworth—not that he comes when called by that name, of course. He was, however, very fond of joining in with my Zoom calls during the pandemic and pretending he was in a James Bond movie. I know how much he means to her, and the idea of losing him to a car accident without knowing what happened does not bear thinking about.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)
For many, particularly older, people—I know this from Cornwall and our remote coastal towns and villages—a cat is not simply a pet; it is a much loved companion and important source of comfort. Does the hon. Member agree with me and the 419 constituents of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle who signed the petition that the Government need to consider further steps to ensure that when cats are involved in collisions, they are treated in the same way as pet dogs?
Martin Wrigley
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.