Purr Minister is back!
Battersea’s search begins for Parliament’s top cat.
Feline-loving politicos may remember Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s cat, the late Patrick, winning Battersea’s Purr Minister contest back in 2020, defeating strong competition. Now the contest to find Parliament’s top cat is back for 2024.
We are asking Parliamentarians to nominate their cats, and the claws will soon be coming out as entrants are put to a public vote to pick the nation’s favourite Parliamentary cat.
While the contest is a chance for MPs and Peers to have fun and get creative talking up their beloved pets, it’s also an opportunity to put the spotlight on key feline welfare issues, which can sometimes come second to dog welfare.
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Microchipping
This year it became compulsory for cat owners to microchip their cats, as has been the case with dogs since 2016. This followed a long Battersea campaign calling for mandatory microchipping, and while the change in the law is very welcome, there is still work to be done to ensure all cat owners are aware and comply.
Microchipping makes it much easier for vets and animal rescue groups to reunite stray cats with their owners and may also help provide closure to owners in the sad event of cats being killed in road traffic accidents.
By helping raise awareness of compulsory microchipping for cats, Purr Minister entrants can ensure the public knows about the requirement, not only to have their cat microchipped but to keep the details up to date by updating their chip details when they move home.
Kitten trafficking
Sadly, we are seeing cases of cats being bred in low-welfare conditions abroad and unscrupulously smuggled into the UK. This can be lucrative for traffickers, and buyers may have no idea what they’re paying for, with the kittens often turning out to have serious and expensive health problems.
The government has the opportunity to tighten regulations on bringing cats across borders, tackling the smugglers and giving the public more confidence when choosing a new cat for their family. In the previous parliament, former North Devon MP Selaine Saxby laid a Private Member’s Bill – the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill – intended to make these changes. It didn’t pass in time but has now been brought back to the House of Commons by Winchester MP and veterinarian Dr Danny Chambers.
We hope all MPs and Peers will back this change to better protect the nation’s pets and raise awareness of the harm of smuggling.
Cat breeding in the UK
Many domestic cat breeders are committed to the health and wellbeing of their animals, but cat breeding is not currently a licensed activity, while dog breeding is. This means a wide variety in standards, with breeders that cut corners and drive down welfare able to make money without oversight.
Bringing in a reasonable system of licensing and scrutiny of cat breeders would be a very welcome step to tackling this growing problem and ensuring that cat owners can have confidence that they are supporting high-welfare breeding.
Choosing Parliament’s top cat
There are many other challenges affecting the nation’s cats and cat owners, and Purr Minister will give us, parliamentarians and the public the chance to raise awareness while having some fun and giving the nation’s favourite parliamentary cat time to shine. Entries close this Thursday, so if you or an MP or Peer you know has a cat with that special something, enter today at https://www.battersea.org.uk/about-us/news/purr-minister-2024.
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