Cat Eccles

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett) for securing this important debate. The Government’s animal welfare strategy, published last month, is welcome. It makes important commitments to improving animal welfare, but it will come as no surprise that I want to raise some issues around cats in particular. I will declare an interest as the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on cats. I am also owned by three furry felines. There are roughly 12.5 million cat owners in the UK, with around a third of households owning at least one cat, but there are significant inconsistencies in animal welfare protections between cats and dogs. In July 2025, I presented a petition to No. 10 Downing Street with the charity CatsMatter, which called for cats to receive the same legal protections as dogs when involved in road traffic collisions. Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, drivers are required to report hitting a dog but not a cat. CatsMatter has another petition calling on Parliament to legislate, which has already reached 11,000 signatures. The animal welfare strategy should include a commitment to providing that protection for cats. The strategy needs to go further to address breeding practices, as has already been mentioned today. Over the last 200 years, cats have been increasingly bred for distinctive characteristics to make them look a certain way. Unfortunately, those characteristics become increasingly extreme and over-exaggerated, and they cause serious health and welfare issues. In the Netherlands, new ownership of Scottish Fold and hairless Sphynx cats was recently banned to prevent unnecessary suffering; that followed a breeding ban of those species in the same country in 2014. The UK Government should consider similar moves to prevent cats suffering. Extreme cat breeds such as the Bully cat are bred in ways that predispose them to skin disease and respiratory issues. Breeding Munchkin cats with short legs can lead to joint abnormalities that result in arthritis. There needs to be far greater parity between cats and dogs in breeding regulations to prevent the exploitation of cats for commercial gain. Another significant concern, which other Members have mentioned, is that we have only committed to a future consultation on electric-shock collars. There was already a consultation in 2018, which was fairly conclusive. We do not need another consultation: we need an immediate ban on cruel electric-shock collars. We also need to go further with microchipping and create a single point of information rather than 23 separate databases. At the start of this week, many colleagues were here debating fireworks yet again; that is another missed opportunity in the animal welfare strategy. We have an opportunity before us to deliver a strategy that does more than just gesture at compassion, and one that genuinely protects millions of cats—and other animals—who share our homes and lives. Cats deserve the same consideration, protections and commitment to welfare that we already extend to dogs. I urge the Minister: let us be bold, let us listen to experts and the public, and let us implement meaningful change that cat owners and cats have waited far too long to see.