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| I wonder what's on Missy's manifesto? |
Imagine you had the ears of a group of a group of politicians who all have a professed interest in animal welfare. What would you ask them to do to improve the lot of companion animals?
Charity Cats Protection is launching a ten-point “cat manifesto”
at the House of Commons ahead of the May election, with the animal welfare minister and shadow
minister and over 30 cat-owning MPs to attend.
Almost 25 per cent of UK
households (around 6.4million homes) include at least one pet cat. According toa poll, more voters would be influenced by the position pollies took on animalwelfare than the issue of same-sex marriage or a high speed rail link.
So what does Cats Protection
want? Among other things, compulsory microchipping of owned cats; a national
database of cats entering the UK legally to better enable identification
illegal entries who may not be protected against rabies, updating the Dangerous
Dogs act to allow prosecution of owners whose dogs attack cats, inclusion of
animal welfare in the National Curriculum and clear labelling of plants and
household products that are toxic to cats.
All very sensible. I’d love to see animal
welfare and companion animal husbandry taught in schools, formal and systematic
collaboration between human health teams, veterinary teams and environmental
scientists around zoonotic diseases and greater allowances for people going
into aged-care or hospital to be able to remain with their pets. That's just a start.
If you had an audience with politicians, what would be on your animal manifesto? How do you think we can do better for our companion animals?
This weekend I'm working very hard to meet a deadline, but I am fostering a little patient. Can't say too much at the moment but he or she is enjoying the sunshine in a big way!
