Pet Theft Awareness

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Fri, 6 Feb 2026 11:24:00 -0800

2026 PTAW Day Planner:

This year's aim is to raise awareness and increase signatures for the 'Central Microchip Portal' petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/748648

-. Mar 8th: Pre Week - post highlighting PTAW (Sat)
1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Sat)
2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Sun)
3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Tue)
4. Mar.19th: Horse Theft Day (Thu)
5. Mar.20th: Avoid Buying a Stolen Pet. (Fri)
6. Mar.21st: #MissingCatsDay (Sat)

GTAW 2025 Week Planner:

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 07:07:00 -0700

GTAW 2025 Week Planner:

Mon Oct. 27th: Ahead
Fri Oct. 31st: Who Steals Gundog Breeds?
Sat Nov. 1st: Prevention
Sun Nov. 2nd: Victim Advice
Mon Nov. 3th: Don't Buy a Stolen Dog
Wed Nov. 5th: Garden and Kennel Security
Thu Nov. 7th: Puppies: Buying and Selling

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Wed, 5 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0800

2025 PTAW Day Planner:

-. Mar. 9th: Pre-week - post highlighting PTAW (Sun)

1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Fri)
2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Sat)
3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Mon)
4. Mar.19th: Horse Theft Day (Wed)
5. Mar.20th: Avoid Buying a Stolen Pet. (Thu)
6. Mar.21st: #MissingandstolenCatsDay (Fri)

Gundog Theft Awareness Week 2024.

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 09:45:00 -0700

GTAW 2024 Week Planner:
Sun Oct. 27th: Ahead
Thu Oct. 31st: Who Steals Gundog Breeds?
Fri Nov.1st: Prevention
Sat Nov. 2nd: Victim Advice
Sun Nov. 3th: Don't Buy a Stolen Dog
Tue Nov.5th: Garden and Kennel Security
Wed Nov.7th: Puppies: Buying and Selling

What is the Pet Abduction Act 2024?

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 08:49:00 -0700

What is the Pet Abduction Act 2024?

From August 24th 2024 this much needed new law came into effect.
Following the significant increase in pet theft during the pandemic, the government appointed a Pet Theft Taskforce to investigate. Their recommendation included the creation of a Pet Abduction Offence in recognition that pets are not inanimate objects as they were previously classified under the Theft Act 1968, but sentient, loved family members who have the capacity to suffer when stolen. The word 'abduction' was more appropriate since it places the emphasis firmly on the welfare of the pet, whilst recognising the impact on the owner.

The Act comprises two separate offences:
Dog Abduction and Cat Abduction.

It will be a criminal offence to "take" and "detain" a dog however, only the 'taking' of a cat will fall within the scope of the Act. This is to reflect the different lifestyle and freedoms that our family cats enjoy, leaving them to continue to roam and 'drop in' to neighbours' gardens and houses without triggering the offence.

Neither of these offences will apply if the cat or dog has lived with the accused at anytime.

The offence allows the provision of 'reasonable excuse'. This might include someone who can show that they had 'lawful authority' or being concerned that a cat or dog has become displaced from its home or is looking in need of veterinary treatment or care. (It is worth noting that in such instances there should be a reasonable expectation of evidence that veterinary care had been sought and the dog or cat had been scanned for a microchip. Scanning is provided free of charge at any veterinary surgery.

We are pleased that this new offence will enable the courts to send those convicted of pet abduction to prison for up to 5 years and/or to issue a fine. This new legislation will help provide a significant deterrent to dog and cat thieves and will oblige police forces across England and Northern Ireland to record pet theft data with a new identifying code, ensuring that we can at least start collecting meaningful data and build a more accurate picture as to the scale and nature of cat and dog theft.

England and NI only.

This new legislation does not extend to Scotland and Wales so we will be lobbying the Scottish parliament and the Welsh Assembly to introduce a similar Pet Abduction law - to include family cats too.

Pet Theft Awareness is delighted with this new legislation and would like to thank our campaign partners, Cats Protection, and everyone in parliament across all the political parties who made this a much needed reality!

Our Opinion

It is vital that the punishment fits the crime and acts as a deterrent. The severity of the punishment must send shockwaves through the community and make anyone think twice about stealing a dog or a cat. The consequences must be so grave for offenders that they fear the punishment so much that they won't even consider taking away a much love pet.

Pet Theft Awareness would like the law to be extended to other pets, companion animals, and horses. We will also be actively encouraging the law to be extended to Wales and Scotland.

Government Website:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/16/contents

IS THE PROPOSED CAT ABDUCTION OFFENCE IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY?

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:27:00 -0700

IS THE PROPOSED CAT ABDUCTION OFFENCE IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY?

After campaigning hard, collecting vital and persuasive cat theft data and lobbying MPs and Ministers to get cats included in any proposed pet abduction legislation, we thought we had succeeded when Anna Firth introduced a Pet Abduction Bill outlining two offences: A dog abduction offence and a separate offence for cats.

Anna Firth MP. Her private members' Pet Abduction Bill has government support.

Enjoying the support of the government and sailing through both its Second Reading and Committee Stage, its swift passage through the Commons seemed assured, but has now been hindered by the notoriously obstructive MP Sir Christopher Chope tabling several amendments to the Bill. If he is successful, this could result in the cat abduction offence being dropped altogether, once again leaving our family cats outside of the legal protections and deterrents that this legislation affords to dogs.

Attempting to explain his rationale, Chope expressed concern that cats should not be included until the Cats Microchipping Regulation has come into force, adding that "cats could be included at the stage we know that microchipping is working". With compulsory microchipping for cats over 20 weeks of age coming into force on June 10th this year, we are bewildered as to why this would be an issue and a reason to remove cats from the Pet Abduction Bill.

Christopher Chope.

We are concerned that any proposal to exclude cats at the Bill's inception will result in many more years of further campaigning to get them included retrospectively. After all, it has taken eight years to secure compulsory microchipping for cats since it was made mandatory for dogs back in 2016, so we are all-too-aware how slowly the cogs of parliament turn.

A parliamentary MPs 'drop in' event organised by Cats Protection and supported by SAMPA and Pet Theft Awareness.

Following the Committee Stage, there has been a concerning amount of false narrative in the media suggesting that the Bill will be seeking to criminalise people greeting/stroking cats in the streets. This should be dismissed as fake news as clearly such harmless, well-meaning activities will not fall under the scope of the Bill. However, please be warned that the deliberate taking of a cat, either by removing or inducing, will risk triggering the offence. There is the provision of 'reasonable excuse', however should you remove a cat for welfare or safety reasons, there will be an equally reasonable obligation to get the cat scanned at a veterinary practice or responsible rescue and also to advertise where they are. Any 'Granny Meow' characters out there - (as described by Sir Edward Leigh during the Second Reading) - should be mindful that they should ensure that the cat is still allowed to roam freely and there is no intention to permanently deprive the owner of their cat - the Theft Act 1968 still serves as a back-up.

Let's debunk some myths:

You will not be committing an offence for feeding or petting a neighbour's cat.
Family ownership disputes are unlikely to result in police action - this can occur after relationship splits. The proposed Pet Abduction Offence exempts people who have lived in the same household.
If a cat comes into your property it will not be an issue unless you permanently prevent the cat from returning to its home.

Please remember that most wandering cats are owned or are lost, displaced family members in need of someone who can help them get home. Their owners could be searching and worried.

Please get them SCANNED and ADVERTISE.

Who Is Christopher Chope?

The Christchurch MP has a track record of intervening in Private Members' Bills.
In 2018, he faced criticism for using a parliamentary procedure, under which any MP can stall a bill by shouting "object", to block a ban on "upskirting" - secretly taking a photo up a woman's skirt.
It was later brought in after the government adopted the measures. Sir Christopher said he supported the ban but had been objecting to parliamentary procedure.
He has also used the same mechanism to block other pieces of legislation including bills to offer protection orders for children at risk of female genital mutilation, to pardon the World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing and to ban wild animals in circuses.

Source: BBC Website

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Sat, 2 Mar 2024 05:21:00 -0800

2024 PTAW Day Planner:

-. Mar 10th: Pre Week - post highlighting PTAW (Sun)
1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Thurs)
2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Fri)
3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Sun)
4. Mar.19th: Horse Theft Day (Tue)
5. Mar.20th: Avoid Buying a Stolen Pet. (Wed)
6. Mar.21st: #MissingandStolenCatsDay (Thurs)

TEMPLATE LETTER TO SEND TO YOUR MP - including cats in proposed Pet Abduction Offence

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 02:00:00 -0700

TEMPLATE LETTER TO SEND TO YOUR MP

Please cut and paste the template letter and send it to your MP.
(or feel free to personalise as you wish).

You can find your MPs email address here: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Dear …………………….. (MP name)

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO INCLUDE CATS!

As one of your constituents, I am writing to you regarding the Government’s Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill which is set to expire on 8th June 2023.

I understand that the options available to the Government are:

1. To let the Bill drop.

2. To table a further debatable carry over motion to extend this time or

3. To schedule a date for the Bill’s remaining stages before the 8th June and enable it to progress to the House of Lords.

To date there has been no announcement as to how, or even whether, the Bill will progress and time is running out. As of Tuesday 9th May there were only 15 PARLIAMENTARY DAYS until 8th June.

This Bill is a major step in the improvement of animal welfare in this country with both cross-party support and the support of the public. It would be a travesty of justice were this Bill to be dropped after years of work by charities and other animal organisations, as well as MPs and ministers.

However, there is one important omission which needs to be urgently addressed: The theft of cats has not been included alongside dogs in the proposed Pet Abduction Offence within the Bill. As currently drafted this will apply solely to dogs. Data from the Pet Theft Awareness Cat Theft Report 2022 has revealed that cat theft increased by 40% in 2021, an alarming statistic which highlights the need for cats to have legal protection from being stolen. Pet theft figures from the Metropolitan Police dashboard are indicating that the composition of pet theft is changing - it is clear that cats are increasingly becoming a target!

The Government is aware of the latest evidence and has commented that, 'it has noted the contents of the Cat Theft Report'. DEFRA have added, 'We have listened carefully to the views expressed during the passage of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill that the new Pet Abduction Offence should be extended to cats. We are currently considering this issue further'.

In addition to providing evidence-based research from FOIs sent to all UK police forces, the report also points out that cat theft meets all the criteria set by the Government themselves for inclusion in the offence (Power to Extend Section 43). Since the intrinsic value of family cats as companions has now been recognised by the government following the introduction of compulsory microchipping of cats (due to come in to force 10th June 2024), the case for an amendment to be included is even stronger. I appreciate that there is provision within the Bill to extend the offence to include cats or other species via the Enabling Powers at some date in the future, but given all the evidence contained in the report and the cross-party and public support there is for their inclusion at the outset, it makes sense for this amendment to be made prior to the Bill being passed to the House of Lords.

I am therefore asking you to write to DEFRA requesting:

1. That the theft of family cats is treated as pet abduction and included in the Bill alongside dogs and,

2. Assurance that the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill will progress to the House of Lords as soon as possible.

Time is running out and I, like many others, are seeking answers before it is too late.

I trust that you will support my request and I look forward to DEFRA’s response.

Yours sincerely

(Name and address. Address must be provided to confirm you are a constituent)

APGOCATS Parliamentary Event 14th March 2023/ The Inclusion of cats in the proposed Pet Abduction offence.

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 10:24:00 -0700

APGOCATS Parliamentary Drop-in Event for MPs 14th March 2023

Hosted by APGOCATS at the start of #PetTheftAwarenessWeek, we were delighted to be invited to attend this event with copies of our Cat Theft Report 2022 - The Summary. These were handed out to MPs who came along to pledge their support for family cats to be included, alongside dogs, in the proposed Pet Abduction Offence - one of many important animal welfare provisions covered in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.

The secretariat of APGOCATS put together a briefing for the MPs and attendees of the event outlining the key issues.


click to enlarge

TEMPLATE LETTER TO SEND TO YOUR MP

Please cut and paste the template letter and send it to your MP.
(Or feel free to personalise as you wish).

You can find your MPs email address here: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Dear …………………….. (MP name)

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO INCLUDE CATS!

As one of your constituents, I am writing to you regarding the Government’s Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill which is set to expire on 8th June 2023.

I understand that the options available to the Government are:

1. To let the Bill drop.

2. To table a further debatable carry over motion to extend this time or

3. To schedule a date for the Bill’s remaining stages before the 8th June and enable it to progress to the House of Lords.

To date there has been no announcement as to how, or even whether, the Bill will progress and time is running out. As of Monday, 20th March there were only 34 PARLIAMENTARY DAYS until 8th June.

However, there is one important omission which needs to be urgently addressed: The theft of cats has not been included alongside dogs in the proposed Pet Abduction Offence within the Bill. (Pet Theft Awareness Cat Theft Report 2022 revealed the alarming statistic that cat theft had increased by 40% in 2021)

The Government is aware of the contents of Cat Theft Report 2022 and has commented that, 'this evidence has been taken into consideration'. In addition to providing evidence-based research from FOIs sent to all UK police forces, the report also points out that cat theft meets all the criteria set by the Government themselves for inclusion in the offence (Power to Extend Section 43). Since the intrinsic value of family cats as companions has now been recognised by the government following the introduction of compulsory microchipping of cats (due to come in to force 10th June 2024), the case for an amendment to be included is even stronger. I appreciate that there is provision within the Bill to extend the offence to include cats or other species via the Enabling Powers at some date in the future, but given all the evidence contained in the report and the cross-party and public support there is for their inclusion at the outset, it makes sense for this amendment to be made prior to the Bill being passed to the House of Lords.

I am therefore asking you to write to DEFRA requesting:

1. that the theft of family cats is treated as pet abduction and included in the Bill alongside dogs and,

2. assurance that the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill will progress to the House of Lords as soon as possible.

Time is running out and I, like many others, are seeking answers before it is too late.

I trust that you will support my request and I look forward to DEFRA’s response.

Yours sincerely

(Name and address. Address must be provided to confirm you are a constituent)

APGOCATS Parliamentary Event 14th March 2023

Baroness Hayman of Ullock with Richard Jordan
and Toni Clarke

Margaret Ferrier MP

The various organisations who attended this event

Greg Smith MP

MPs queueing to pledge support

Dr Neil Hudson MP and vet surgeon, with

Pet Theft Awareness's Richard Jordan.

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Tue, 7 Mar 2023 10:46:00 -0800

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2023

0. Mar 11th: Pre Week - highlighting PTAW and blogs (Sat)
1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Tues)
2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Wed)
3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Fri)
4. Mar.19th: Horse (Sun)
5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Mon)
6. Mar.21st: #StolenAndMissingCatsDay (Tue)

Mar 7th Pre Week -
#PetTheftAwarenessWeek March 14th to 21st. Pls Share.
The annual Pet Theft Awareness Week begins next week.
Having any pet stolen is a horrific life-changing crime that ruins the lives of owners and families. It happens every day.
EDUCATION - This year we are highlighting the 'Theft by Finding' misery caused by illegally keeping 'found' pets.
PREVENTION - To continue with the message that all pet owners need to consider the ease at which someone could steal their beloved family members. How easily can someone take your pet?
#DogTheftAwarenessDay March 14th. Dog related businesses and organisations can share our graphics OR create their own content.
#HorseTheftDay is March19th.
#StolenAndMissingCatsDay - March 21st use the hashtag and share your missing and stolen cat photographs.
www.pettheft.org.uk

1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Tues)

March14th is #dogtheftawarenessday and the beginning of #PetTheftAwarenessWeek Consider how and why dog thieves steal pets. Think about what would deter them?
www.pettheft.org.uk
Theft-by-Finding is a crime.

2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Wed)

Pet Theft Prevention
How can you prevent your pets or horses from being stolen?
Where are they vulnerable? Never leave your dog unattended in the garden.
Stay fully focused whilst walking your dog. Avoid being distracted by mobile phones.
Organised dog thieves will steal from gardens, or puppies at viewings and targeted burglaries.
www.pettheft.org.uk
Theft-by-Finding is a crime.

3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Fri)

Where are pets stolen?

Gardens are the most common place for dog thefts. From vehicles, unattended outside shops, kennels, and whilst on walks are all other places where dog theft occurs.

Cats get stolen in burglaries especially if they are targeted valuable cat breeds. Kitten and puppy viewings are also places where pets have been taken. Theft by finding is probably the most common cause of cat theft.

Horses are stolen during loans that are not properly agreed on so take legal advice when loaning, and draw up contracts.

Our best advice is to not take any risks, concentrate on walks, and never leave your dog unattended.
www.pettheft.org.uk
Theft-by-Finding is a crime.

4. Mar.19th: Horse (Sun)

It's #HorseTheftDay as part of #PetTheftAwarenessWeek
Install CCTV and put up deterring signs.
Always seek legal advice when loaning out horses.
Horse thefts from victims: http://www.pettheft.org.uk/case-studies-stolen-horses
Theft-by-Finding is a crime.

5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Mon)

6. Mar.21st: #StolenAndMissingCatsDay (Tue)

Cats owners love their pets as much as dog owners love theirs but TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
The Government’s Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill is set to expire on 8th June.
The options available to the Government are:
    1. to let the Bill drop
    2. to table a further debatable carry over motion to extend this time or
    3. to schedule a date for the Bill’s remaining stages before the 8th June and enable it to progress to the House of Lords.
To date no announcement has been made.
As of Monday, 24th March there are 34 PARLIAMENTARY DAYS until 8th June.

Please contact your MP asap to get him/her to write to DEFRA to get clarification as to when this Bill will move forward and remember to remind him/her that CATS are pets and MUST be included in the offence of pet abduction. TEMPLATE LETTER click HERE:

On March 14th Cats Protection held an MPs drop-in event in parliament.
Click here to read more.
#StolenandMissingCatsDay recognises that cat theft is a serious issue with a 40% increase in recorded police crimes in 2021 Read the 2022 Cat Theft Report:
http://pettheftawareness.blogspot.com/2022/05/cat-theft-report-summary.html

Theft-by-Finding is a crime.

Template Letter for MPS - including cats in proposed Pet Abduction Offence

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 07:44:00 -0700

Your address here

(NB must be included for your

MP to respond to your

correspondence)

Your MP’s name

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Date

Dear Name of your MP

Including Family Cats in the Proposed Pet Abduction Offence in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

I am writing to you as my constituency MP to express my disappointment at the Government’s decision to limit the new Pet Abduction Offence in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill to dogs and to ask you to make representations to relevant ministers to reconsider their position with regard to the inclusion of our family cats.

As you are aware, in May 2021 in response to growing public concern about the rise in reported pet theft since the start of the pandemic, the government established a Pet Theft Taskforce to investigate and to recommend any necessary measures to tackle the problem. After taking expert evidence from individuals and welfare organisations, albeit almost exclusively in respect of dogs, the Taskforce published its report in September. Its key conclusion was that “The Taskforce does not believe that the creation of a new Pet Theft Offence or a statutory aggravating factor—in line with recent campaigns—would have the desired impact. This is because theft deals with the deprivation of property, and so the welfare of the stolen animal would not be a primary consideration when sentencing. However, a new ‘Pet Abduction Offence’ could switch the focus from the loss to the owner to the welfare of the animal”. In other words, instead of seeking changes to the Theft Act 1968, which deals primarily with the theft of inanimate objects, it recommended including the proposed offence as part of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill in recognition of the suffering inflicted on a sentient animal.

Disappointingly, despite the fact that the Taskforce’s recommendations were written unambiguously with respect to all pets, the Government has decided that the proposed offence should, in the first instance, be limited solely to dogs. I recognise that there is provision in the Bill to include other species of companion animal at some unspecified future date, but the mechanism for achieving this is cumbersome and likely to prove extremely protracted. More importantly, the criteria for triggering these ‘enabling powers’ are already fully satisfied as regards our family cats—they are kept as pets, are capable of forming bonds with their owners and their removal would adversely affect their well-being. Instead, the decision seems to have been based on nothing more than the often-cited statistic that seven out of 10 pet thefts involve dogs. However, this figure relates solely to the Metropolitan Police area and simply represents the total for the last 10 years as a whole. As such it says nothing about the relative trends in pet theft over time. In fact, the number of thefts involving dogs as a percentage of total pet theft crimes has been on a firmly downward trend since 2018 and now comprises less than six out of 10. By contrast, the proportion involving cats has been on an almost continuous, steeply upwards trajectory, such that in 2021 they represented almost one third of all pet theft crimes. And nationwide, according to The Cat Theft Report 2022, the number of police recorded cat thefts in 2021 increased by a staggering 40%.

However, this shouldn’t be an issue that is determined on the basis of statistics but by the fact that these animals are sentient beings as recognised by the Government. When it comes to their ability to suffer when taken away from home and family, it is not possible to differentiate between a dog and a cat regardless of the relative proportions of those stolen.

By not including cats from the outset, they will remain trapped within the limitations of the Theft Act 1968 as property and therefore afforded no more protection from being stolen than an inanimate object and without their sentience fully recognised. Moreover, without the same inherent protection and deterrents afforded to dogs it is not unreasonable to conclude that the relative attractiveness of stealing family felines can only increase further; cat theft will remain a low risk, high reward proposition for thieves.

With the Bill having about to reach the Report Stage in the House of Commons there is still time to table an amendment to include cats alongside dogs in the proposed Pet Abduction offence. Can we please count on you either to support such an amendment or to table one yourself? Could we also ask you to write to the Rt Hon Ranil Jayawardena MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, urging the Government to include cats in the proposed legislation from the outset. If it is more convenient, please feel free to forward this email to the Minister.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely

Your Name

Pet Abduction legislation MUST include cats.

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Mon, 3 Oct 2022 10:05:00 -0700

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW!

Cats are family members - can you help us by writing to your MP?

Cat theft soared by 40% last year and yet it is not included in the Pet Abduction offence currently going through parliament as part of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. It was a recommendation of the Pet Theft Taskforce that this offence should include cats and horses and it was intimated that it would come into law by Spring 2022. Cat owners love their cats every bit as much as dog owners love their dogs and they have an equal capacity to suffer; the government seems to be ignoring this.

Delay-after-delay later pet owners are wondering if this Bill will ever become law. A broken promise? We hope not. We need ministers, MPs and the Lords to understand that cat theft causes the same misery as dog theft and they need the same protections and deterrents.

Pet Theft Awareness has been campaigning hard to have the theft of cats included in the offence and, until the Government Ministers played musical chairs (some ministers barely getting their seats warm before being replaced), we were optimistic that the possibility of cats being included within this offence was being given serious governmental consideration. The Rt Hon Lord Goldsmith, until very recently Minster of State at DEFRA overseeing animal welfare issues, stated that the Government, '...had noted the contents of the Cat Theft Report 2022' and had made a 'commitment to review the wording of the Pet Abduction provisions...including extending the offence to cats'.

Crucially, with cats meeting the Government’s own criteria we find it incredulous that dogs should be singled out for special treatment whilst cats should be ignored, especially given that the population of dogs and cats across households are pretty much equal and both contribute in similar ways to the health and wellbeing of their owners.

There is a strong public movement to have the Kept Animals Bill passed into Law without delay, but it should be noted that any amendment to include cats at the Report Stage will NOT impede its progress through Parliament.

Acting quickly by writing to your MP, you can influence him/her to support an amendment.
Please click the link to find your MPs parliamentary email address.
https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
Explain why you think cats should included into the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill which is still being scrutinised. For the sake of convenience, a template email can be found here: https://pettheftawareness.blogspot.com/2022/10/template-letter-for-mps-including-cats.html

Our Cat Theft Report 2022 makes a number of important points that call into question the Government’s decision to limit the protection afforded by the proposed legislation solely to dogs. A synopsis of the main points below might be helpful:

Cat theft as recorded by the police is rising sharply across the country as a whole, surging 40% in 2021 alone.
The decision is in conflict with the recommendations of the Pet Theft Taskforce, which are inclusive of all pets. (The report simply states that dogs should be included).
Cats already fully satisfy the criteria laid out in section 44 of the Bill for extending the legislation in that they are commonly kept as pets; there is evidence that they are capable of forming bonds with the people who keep them; removing them from a person with whom they have formed a bond may adversely affect their well-being.
The composition of pet theft crime is changing. The often-cited figure of seven out 10 pet thefts involve dogs—one of the main justifications for limiting the proposals—is misleading. It ignores the fact that the proportion involving dogs has declined in recent years (fewer than six out of 10 in 2021), whilst the proportion involving cats has risen from just 6% in 2012 to almost one third in 2021 (all data from Metropolitan Police Dashboard).
The relative proportion of recorded thefts across species is irrelevant; what matters is that they all suffer equally as do their owners.
Restricting the protections afforded by the proposals solely to dogs may have unintended consequences: namely, altering the risk/reward trade-off and so making the theft of family cats more attractive to thieves.
Cats are often the companion of choice of our elderly; their abduction can have devastating consequences for the mental well-being of this particularly vulnerable demographic.
The enabling powers are costly, cumbersome and would take up valuable government time. Why wait when the evidence is already there?

Can you do even more?

If you can spare a little more time then why not support our work and write to The Rt Hon Ranil Jayawardena MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Email: defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk

Together we can get justice for cats and their owners. We feel it is now or never!
Thank you for reading this. Please ask your friends for their help too.

The Cat Theft Report 2022 - The Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Tue, 3 May 2022 10:47:00 -0700

The Summary

“Stealing pets is evil and depraved. It brings profound unhappiness. It cannot and will not be tolerated”.

Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Home Secretary

Preface

Main Findings

Pet Abduction Offence

Is Cat Theft Being Afforded Sufficient Priority by Our Police?

Recorded Cat Thefts by Police Authority

Prosecutions and Cautions

Cat Breeds being Targeted

Preface

Pet Theft Awareness is an organisation dedicated to highlighting the growing threat of pet abduction within the public and parliamentary consciousness. Originally founded in 2013 by Richard Jordan and Arnot Wilson, they were subsequently joined by Toni Clarke following the theft of her much-loved Siamese cat, Clooney, when it became apparent there was a lack of official recognition of the theft of family cats by those in authority.

The Cat Theft Report 2022 is the result of evidence-based research using data gathered year-on-year under a Freedom of Information request to all UK police forces. It spans the period 2015-2021 and aims to bring the theft of cats under greater scrutiny. Very little data on the subject had previously existed and it seemed to us that if we were ever to sharpen our claws when it comes to legislation this needed to be addressed.

In 2021, the burgeoning rise in dog abduction during the Pandemic dominated the headlines, with the public, media and police all focusing their attention on the heinous theft of our canine friends. It left us wondering whether this had created the opportunity for cat theft to become an increasingly invisible crime. On receipt of the latest figures we now have our answer: Our cats were most certainly a target too, with recorded cat theft soaring by an alarming 40% in the last 12 months.

This hugely concerning figure sits uncomfortably alongside the government’s decision to exclude cats from the forthcoming Pet Abduction Offence in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, particularly as statistical data seems to have formed the basis of its reasoning for limiting this offence solely to dogs. If stolen therefore, this means our beloved family cats will still be treated as inanimate objects in court under the Theft Act 1968, with their sentience and intrinsic value not fully recognised. After years in which Pet Theft Awareness has campaigned for the theft of all our pets to be recognised as a specific crime in its own right, it concerns us that the Government has failed to grasp that ALL pets are family. The owners of abducted cats are every bit as devastated as those with stolen dogs.

This is all the more surprising given that much of the narrative throughout the Pet Theft Taskforce Report appears to be in full support of an inclusive pet abduction offence. It is very much recognised that sentience and the capacity to suffer are not limited to dogs.

“The creation of a new offence of pet abduction is absolutely the right approach because it recognises that pets are more than mere property that can often be replaced, but sentient beings. It acknowledges not only the owner’s loss but also reflects the worry and anxiety that can be caused through the uncertainty of the safety and well-being of a loved friend and member of the family”. Robert Buckland QC MP, then Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (from Pet Theft Taskforce Report, 2021).

Furthermore, we are concerned that restricting the protections afforded by the proposed Pet Abduction offence solely to dogs may have unintended consequences: namely altering the risk/reward trade off and so making the theft of family cats and pets of other species more attractive to thieves.

This report provides invaluable data about the sharply rising trend in cat theft across the country as well as highlighting the disparate nature of police attitudes and their recording systems.

Our belief is that the evidence-based research and analysis contained within this report more than justifies the inclusion of cats in the proposed Pet Abduction legislation.

Main Findings

The Pet Abduction Offence: Why we believe the Government is wrong to exclude our feline friends?

So what is the rationale for limiting the pet theft offence to dogs? It appears to be just a question of numbers; more specifically, the often-cited statistic that seven out of 10 thefts are dogs. However, closer inspection reveals that this headline figure relates solely to the Metropolitan Police area and spans the entire 10-year period since the Met first established its Dashboard in 2012. Crucially it ignores the rapidly changing dynamic that has seen cats increasingly becoming the target of thieves over time. Indeed, the Metropolitan Police Dashboard reveals that recorded cat theft has risen from just 19 in 2012 to 234 in 2021—a twelve-fold increase. In fact if we turn the spotlight on this year's figures, the Met reports a shocking increase of 74% in the London area over the last 12 months! On this basis, fewer than six in 10 recorded thefts were dogs, whilst more than three in 10 were cats. The composition of pet theft crime is therefore clearly changing. We are challenging the Taskforce on this one: Shouldn't any report worth its salt be looking at trends rather than rounded up aggregate figures?

Whilst this data is extremely important in ensuring that the theft of our family cats can be thrown into the parliamentary spotlight alongside our canine companions, anyone who acknowledges the capacity of our family pets to feel traumatised when stolen surely should be focusing on sentience rather than statistics. Should it really matter whether six or seven out of 10 stolen pets are dogs, cats or horses; what matters is that 10 out of 10 suffer equally - as do their owners. The proposed Pet Abduction Offence should be there to protect dogs, cats and all kept animals by acting as a deterrent to the vile crime of pet theft that causes immeasurable misery and harm.

We recognise that the inclusion of enabling powers in the Bill theoretically facilitates the extension of the offence to other species of companion animal at some point in the future. However, in practice this process is likely to be costly, cumbersome and arduous as it requires the consent of both parliamentary chambers. Much simpler therefore to widen the scope now to include cats before the offence is written into law.

Is cat theft being afforded sufficient priority by our police?

Given that as a nation we save a space on our sofas for an estimated 12 million cats*, our suspicion remains that the aggregate figures continue to understate the extent of cat theft as recorded by the police, despite our figures for 2021 showing a startling annual increase of 40%. If we further consider that in the 12 months to end-September 2021 total theft and burglary actually declined by 18% and 21% respectively**, the surge in the number of cat thefts is even more concerning. The total for 2021 of 560 is more than four times higher than was recorded just seven years previously in 2015.

Notes: * PFMA Survey 2021
** Crime Survey for England & Wales

Annual Recorded Cat Theft Crimes by Police Authority 2015-21

Cat Theft Data by Police Force: A Disparate Picture

One of our aims was to establish whether our police forces were recording cases of cat theft and whether there appeared to be any consistency in process and policy. Our results show that there certainly seems to be a wide and ever-increasing divergence.

As part of the discussion surrounding the Pet Abduction Offence, pet theft data from the Metropolitan Police has received a lot of attention. Indeed, The Met accounted for more than 40% of all recorded cat thefts last year. Undoubtedly the quality and detail of the data collected and maintained by the Met is streets ahead of any other police force in the country. However, West Yorkshire and Kent are also worthy of mention, accounting for 10% and 7% of cat thefts respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, there were several forces who recorded NO cases of cat theft at all in a whole year – and some for consecutive years. Derbyshire, South Wales, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire returned an incredulous zero for 2021—can they really be cat crime-free zones? We are far from convinced. Infinitely more compelling is the conclusion that it's just not possible that these are perfectly law abiding areas of the UK when it comes to stealing cats, rather that they represent worrying regions of police indifference or disbelief.

There is increasing evidence that some police forces are actually de-prioritising cat theft. In 2021, West Midlands Police became the latest constabulary declining to provide us with information, joining Staffordshire Police, Greater Manchester Police, Police Scotland, North Wales, Hampshire and Thames Valley who have opted out in previous years.

In common with the recommendations of the Pet Theft Taskforce Report, we believe that pressure should be brought to bear on ALL police forces in the UK to provide the requested information. This would help form as clear a picture as possible about the true scale and nature of cat theft in this country. If our family felines were included alongside dogs in the proposed Pet Abduction Offence the police would be obliged to collect and store such data routinely.

Which are the Forces to be reckoned with when it comes to prosecutions and cautions?

When it comes to taking cat thieves to court in 2021, despite 560 crimes recorded, there were only TWO prosecutions across all of the forces and just four police cautions. Combined, this represents barely 1% of recorded thefts.

This looks bleak enough as a deterrent to stealing a cat, but when the figures are analysed for trends it’s been very much a deteriorating picture. In 2015 when our data was first collected, 3.3% of cat thefts resulted in prosecutions, with the following four years seeing a steady decline to a staggering zero in 2019. Thanks to the Metropolitan Police there was a strong rebound in 2020 (11 out of 13 prosecutions), but this has slumped to just two prosecutions in 2021, equivalent to a minuscule 0.35% of cat thefts.

Taking the last seven years as a whole (2015-2021), just 1.2% of all recorded cat thefts resulted in prosecutions, with a further 1.5% of cases resulting in a police caution.

25 out of 39 forces have failed to prosecute a single case in the last seven years.

Our aim is to encourage all authorities to understand that cats can be, and are being, stolen. It is clear that the theft of dogs is a major concern; they are not legally allowed to wander and therefore theft is largely unambiguous, making it far easier to convince police that a dog who has disappeared is a dog who has been purposefully stolen. Dog theft figures bear witness to this. By contrast, cats enjoy freedoms that put them at risk of vanishing and herein lies our reason for the suspiciously low cat theft figures. However, a right to roam is hardly licence for the police to dismiss our claims of theft – as personal testimonies suggest. Our family cats can also fall victim to the particularly insidious and invisible crime of ‘Theft by Finding’ whereby someone assumes possession without taking reasonable measures to find the true owner. Whilst difficult to quantify, we are certain that the true scale of the theft of our family cats is potentially huge. In the absence of the legal protections that the Pet Abduction Offence would confer as with dogs, there will be little incentive for those who either overtly steal, or furtively ‘adopt’, to think twice. It is our fear that this concerning trend can only continue to rise.

Are valuable cats being targeted?

Pedigree cats have been targeted by thieves for breeding, or re-sale if found to be neutered, particularly the breeds that are distinctive or identifiable. 2021 saw a sharp rise in the number of Bengal cats stolen, now 25% of all those recorded by breed/type. Interestingly, there was also a significant increase in Tabbies stolen, the coat pattern of whom can often be mistaken for the highly-valued Bengal.

Given that pedigree kittens can sell for upwards of £500 and pet theft is still largely dealt with in the Magistrates Court, with penalties often a small fine at best, it is a low risk, high reward crime. With prices rising, there is a serious need for changes to the law to protect our precious companions.

Pet Theft Awareness: Arnot Wilson, Toni Clarke & Richard Jordan at Westminster, July 2018

Toni Clarke and stolen Clooney

“One of the recommendations that we will be developing further is the introduction of a new pet abduction offence, reflecting the fact that pets are not just property.”

George Eustace MP, Secretary of State, DEFRA.

The full Cat Theft Report 2022 is available at:
https://pettheftawareness.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-cat-theft-report-2022.html

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

The Cat Theft Report 2022

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 12:43:00 -0700

In a year in which the growing problem of pet theft is about to be recognised by a new Pet Abduction Offence, we pose the question: Why have our family cats been left out in the cold? Pet abduction has silently become dog abduction!

In 2021, the burgeoning rise in dog theft during the pandemic gripped the headlines with the public, media and police focusing their attention on the heinous theft of our canine friends. It left us wondering whether this had created the opportunity for cat theft to become an increasingly invisible crime. On receipt of last year's startling cat theft figures we now have our answer: Our cats were certainly a target too with cat theft soaring by an alarming 40%!

This hugely concerning figure sits very uncomfortably alongside the government's decision to exclude cats from the Pet Abduction Offence in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, particularly as statistical data seems to have formed the basis of their reasoning for limiting this offence solely to dogs. In essence, this means our beloved family cats will still be dealt with as inanimate objects in court under Theft Act 1968 with their sentience not fully recognised. After years of campaigning for the theft of our pets to be a specific crime in its own right, it seems that the government have failed to grasp that ALL pets are family!

Our FOI 2021 data returns show that recorded cat theft crime is up by 40% on a like-for-like basis, with the annual total more than quadrupling between 2015 and 2021.

Despite the concerning increase in recorded cat theft across the UK police forces, there were only two prosecutions in 2021 and four cautions. This means that barely 1% of recorded cat thefts resulted in some form of legal action. Following a shocking zero return in prosecutions across all forces in 2019, there was a welcome glimmer of hope in 2020 that cat thieves were at last being brought to justice with 13 cases reaching the courts. However, this was almost entirely attributable to one police force, the Metropolitan Police. Disappointingly, 2021 saw a reversal, with the Met declaring not a single prosecution, despite a massive 74% year-on-year increase in cat thefts in the London area!

Desirable breeds, particularly Bengals, remain the most targeted by cat thieves.

The Insurance Emporium’s Chief Executive Officer, Francis Martin, said:

“The Insurance Emporium support the important work being done by Pet Theft Awareness, highlighting significant issues surrounding cat theft including the devastation caused by loss or theft of a beloved pet cat. We wish Pet Theft Awareness the best of luck with their campaign to reform cat theft legislation and procedures, hopefully this will deter would-be cat thieves, which can only be good news.”

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

Why the need for a Cat Theft Report?

One of our aims was to establish whether our police forces were recording cases of cat theft and whether there appeared to be any consistency in process and policy. What the results have shown is that there certainly seems to be a wide and ever increasing divergence.

The Cat Theft Report 2022 is the result of data gathered year-on-year under a Freedom of Information request to all UK police forces, spanning the period 2015-2021 and aims to get the theft of cats under scrutiny alongside their canine friends. In a period dominated by the pandemic where we have appreciated the value of furry companionship more than any other and the demand for pets has escalated beyond supply forcing the price of puppies and kittens to record levels, the alarming rise in cat theft has amply demonstrated that thieves have responded to this new opportunity to capitalise.

The Cat Theft Report also exposes the disparate nature of police attitudes and their recording mechanisms.

The Pet Abduction Offence: Why we believe the government is wrong to exclude our feline friends.

After fighting for pet theft reform for many years, how reassuring it was to see that the government had at last stuck its head out from the hallowed halls of parliament to notice what the public and media had picked up on - our family pets had become the new target of the unscrupulous and lawless. In response they commissioned a Pet Theft Taskforce to investigate and report on its findings. The Report was published in September 2021 with the narrative consistently in support of recognising all companion animals as being worthy of protection. Robert Buckland QC MP, then Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice stated: "The creation of a new offence of pet abduction is absolutely the right approach because it recognises that pets are more than mere property which can often be replaced, but sentient beings. It acknowledges not only the owner's loss but also reflects the worry and anxiety that can be caused through the uncertainty of the safety and wellbeing of a loved friend and member of the family."

With all looking so positive and inclusive, how stunned and baffled we were to note that the Government had decided that this offence would be limited to dogs in the first instance with other species only being considered for inclusion at a future date when they had satisfied some nebulous qualification criteria. This was to be decided on a piecemeal basis under the costly and cumbersome 'enabling powers'. This exclusion leaves our stolen family cats trapped within the confines of the Theft Act 1968 which sees them still treated as 'property' in law and afforded no more intrinsic value than inanimate objects. Small wonder therefore that there are so few prosecutions for cat theft; the cost of legal action is hard to justify against the notional value of whatever the cat cost in the first place. We know that their true value cannot be measured in terms of money; our cats are family and family is priceless. To leave our cats out in the cold whilst dogs sit cosily round the glowing fires of yet more protective legislation is a direct contradiction to Robert Buckland's statement above - this hardly feels like justice for our cats to us!

So what is the rationale for limiting the pet theft offence to dogs? It appears to be just a question of numbers; more specifically, the often cited statistic that seven out of 10 thefts are dogs. However, closer inspection reveals that this headline figure relates solely to the Metropolitan Police area and spans the entire 10-year period since the Met first established its Dashboard in 2012. Crucially it ignores the rapidly changing dynamic that has seen cats increasingly becoming the target of thieves over time. Indeed, the Metropolitan Police Dashboard reveals that recorded cat theft has risen from just 19 in 2012 to 234 in 2021 - a twelve-fold increase. In fact if we turn the spotlight on this year's figures, the Met reports a shocking increase of 74% in the London area over the last 12 months! On this basis, fewer than six in 10 recorded thefts were dogs (422), whilst more than three in 10 were cats (234). The composition of pet theft crime is therefore clearly changing. We are challenging the Taskforce on this one: Shouldn't any report worth its salt be looking at trends rather than rounded up aggregate figures?

Whilst this data is extremely important in ensuring that the theft of our family cats can be thrown into the parliamentary spotlight alongside our canine companions, anyone who acknowledges the capacity of our family pets to feel traumatised when stolen surely should be focussing on sentience rather than statistics. Should it really matter whether six or seven out of 10 stolen pets are dogs, cats or horses; what matters is that 10 out of 10 suffer equally - as do their owners. The proposed Pet Abduction Offence should be there to protect dogs, cats and all kept animals by acting as a deterrent to the vile crime of pet theft that causes immeasurable misery and harm.

We look at the evidence: Is cat theft is being afforded any greater priority by our police?

Given that as a nation we save a space on our sofas for an estimated 12 million cats, our suspicion remains that the aggregate figures continue to understate the extent of cat theft as recorded by the police, despite our figures for 2021 showing a startling annual increase of 40%. If we further consider that in the 12 months to end-September 2021 total theft and burglary actually declined by 18% and 21% respectively (Crime Survey for England & Wales), the surge in the number of cat thefts is even more concerning. The total for 2021 of 560 is more than four times higher than was recorded just seven years previously in 2015.

Police forces providing data: Another one bites the dust

Somewhat perversely, given the massively increased interest amongst politicians and the general public in pet theft during the pandemic, this year yet another police force stated it was unable to answer our FOI request. West Midlands Police, who have provided precisely the same data in each of the previous six years, said it had 'recently updated its recording system', which meant that the requested information was 'not currently available'. This brings the list of police forces either unable to provide the requested information or declining to provide it on cost grounds to seven. The seven are: Hampshire Police, North Wales Police, Police Scotland, Staffordshire Police and Thames Valley Police (due to excessive costs) and Greater Manchester Police and West Midlands Police (due to a system update). At the time of writing, we were still awaiting data from Essex Police and West Mercia Police, so for the sake of consistency we have also excluded these two forces from the figures in all years.

The attitude towards cat theft implicit in such an inability or unwillingness to provide this important information, sits in stark contrast to the best practice followed by other constabularies. The Metropolitan Police, for example, has established its own dedicated pet-theft data dashboard. Similarly, West Yorkshire, Devon & Cornwall, Northumbria and Kent Police, simply by virtue of numbers recorded, clearly take the issue of cat theft seriously. In common with the recommendations of the Pet Theft Taskforce Report, we believe that pressure should be brought to bear on ALL police forces in the UK to provide the requested information so that as clear a picture as possible can be formed about the true scale and nature of cat theft in this country.

What do we make of this?

Despite the number of cat thefts in the UK surging 40% in 2021 to a new record high, we remain convinced that the recording of cat theft crime by the police as a whole is still very much understated. However, last year's jump in thefts very much echoes what we have observed anecdotally throughout the pandemic across social media, with the various platforms awash with the misery of bereft owners posting up photos of their mysteriously disappearing felines. Given the appetite for fluffy lockdown friends having generated an alarming surge in dog thefts, it is now clear that we should also have been hyper-vigilant to the possibility that our cats were also being taken in the shadows of the pandemic.

Regional Data Recorded Cat Thefts 2015 to 2021

How well did your police force do in 2021: which forces are upping their game and which are we keeping under surveillance?

As far as we are concerned, the Metropolitan Police are the cats' whiskers when it comes to consistent performance. In 2021, they were responsible for more than four in 10 of the total number of cat thefts recorded across all the forces. Special mention must also be given to the Met for their dedicated interactive web-page on stolen pets: https://www.met.police.uk/sd/stats-and-data/met/stolen-animals-dashboard/ . What a reassuring sign that pet theft is very much on at least one police force's radar.

West Yorkshire accounted for 10% of those recorded and Kent almost 7%.

At the other end of the spectrum, there were several forces who recorded NO cases of cat theft at all in a whole year – and some for consecutive years. Derbyshire, South Wales, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire returned an incredulous zero for 2021 - can they really be cat crime-free zones? We are far from convinced. Infinitely more compelling is the conclusion that it's just not possible that these are perfectly law abiding areas of the UK when it comes to stealing cats, rather that they represent worrying regions of police indifference or disbelief!

A Closer Inspection: Standardising the data for population density reveals potential scale of cat theft under-recording

As part of the discussion surrounding the Pet Abduction Offence, pet theft data from the Metropolitan Police has received a lot of attention. Undoubtedly the quality and detail of the data collected and maintained by the Met is streets ahead of any other police force in the country. And this got us thinking; what if all police forces were as diligent about cat theft as the Met? One way of calculating this - and thereby getting a handle on the potential scale of police under-recording of cat theft - would be to assume that all police forces in the United Kingdom have the same number of cat thefts per million of population as the Metropolitan Police Service. With the Met covering an estimated population of 8.9 million, this works out at just over 26 cat thefts per million of population. Applying this rate per million to the populations in each individual police area means that instead of the 560 cat thefts revealed by our 2021 Freedom of Information requests, a figure of around 1,540 would be recorded! This isn't too far behind the figure of 2,000 dog thefts in 2020 also mentioned in the Pet Theft Taskforce Report.

But is it reasonable to apply London's per million of population cat theft rate to the whole country or does London possess special characteristics that make it more prone to the cat abduction? Certainly, population density is much greater in London, but this by itself cannot explain the higher rate as the police in less densely populated regions such as Cumbria, Devon & Cornwall and West Yorkshire also reported comparatively high rates. Indeed, it could even be argued that high population densities ought to be associated with higher proportions of cats kept indoors, which, everything else being equal, might be expected to result in fewer cat theft crimes. An undeniable difference, however, is funding, with the Metropolitan Police Service having significantly more resources that it has been able to allocate towards establishing and maintaining a dedicated database on pet theft. The difference in reported cat theft rates across the country might simply be a resourcing issue, one which could be addressed by affording pet theft increased priority in police budgets. The recognition of pet abduction as a separate offence independent of the Theft Act 1968 can only help in this direction, which is why it is absolutely vital that cats are given the same protection as dogs under the proposed legislation.

So who are the top performers in our population-adjusted table? West Yorkshire Police and Kent Police are worthy of special mention as each recorded more than 20 cat thefts per million of population, with Devon & Cornwall and Humberside not too far behind with scores just above 15. Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Dorset also found themselves in comparatively high positions, recording scores of 13.33, 12.20 and 12.09 respectively. Interestingly, Cumbria, which was placed second in 2020, slipped to ninth as it was one of only a few forces to record a decline in cat thefts during the course of 2021.

Apart from the zero returners we have already mentioned, Avon & Somerset Constabulary once again find themselves caught red-faced at the bottom of the table with just one cat theft in 2021, despite policing the 8th largest area by size of population in England. Since this covers both the cities of Bristol and Bath, is this a question of people not reporting their cats stolen or the police failing to listen?

A cat may have nine lives, but are any of them valued as they should be?

In 2021 those failing to give us data were:

Hampshire Constabulary (Too costly)

Thames Valley Police (Too costly)
North Wales Police (Too costly)
Police Scotland (Too costly)

Staffordshire (Too costly/new data system)
Greater Manchester Police (New data system disabling data retrieval)
West Midlands Police (New data system disabling data retrieval)

"...Staffordshire Police are now using a new system to record crime. Data from the old recording system has been brought over to the new system and although the system has structured property fields only property with identifying marks i.e. serial numbers, registration plates etc., will be recorded under these fields."

The extraction of data relating to stolen cats is therefore not possible, unless of course you have one of those rarer breeds who come with a serial number or a purr-sonalised registration plate! This strikes us as nothing short of absurd. Greater Manchester Police, historically one of the largest issuers of CRNs for stolen cats, have also subscribed to a similar system and in so doing, have disabled their cat theft data retrieval. What does this say about their prioritisation of pet theft if they - and we - are prevented from effectively analysing crime rate trends and outcomes?

This represents yet another reason why specific legislation relating to the theft of pets and companion animals is desperately needed. If our family felines were included alongside dogs in the proposed Pet Abduction Offence the police would be obliged to collect and store such data routinely.

Why cat theft must be taken seriously.

“No one can truly understand the bond we form with the cats we love until they experience the loss of one” – Unknown

Three years ago we reported on the impact of cat theft on Toni Clarke, when her Siamese cat, Clooney, was taken during the summer of 2013. It detailed her struggle to convince the police to take her claim of theft seriously. The following is an update to her story and for completeness, the 2019 post follows immediately after. The full, catalogued story can be read here:

https://pettheftawareness.blogspot.com/2020/03/reporting-stolen-pets-are-police-our_20.html

Toni Clarke and stolen Clooney

Update: Clooney at last awarded a CRN!

Following evidence Clooney had been scanned and details accessed by someone using the unique, confidential logins and PIN codes, traceable to two vet practices, unbelievably, Clooney is still not home. How can this be?

Cat theft is not, and with the law as it stands, cannot be, a budgetary priority to the police. However vital we consider our pets to be with regards to our well-being, their value is simply a cold, heartless calculation on the basis of a replacement; they are merely personal objects under the Theft Act 1968. From the outset of Clooney's case being opened I was brutally informed that the investigation budget would be equal to his perceived monetary value and towards the end of the initial interview, advised that the case would be immediately closed. I could see I had some serious work and persuasion ahead! Under pressure to investigate this promising lead, the vets were contacted but alas, it seems that denial of having any record of Clooney has proved protective: robust and meaningful investigation eats up funds.

After several challenges to the process and changes to those in charge of his case, thank heavens we now have a sympathetic Inspector from Norfolk Constabulary willing to investigate lines of enquiry. Covid closures have seriously hampered replies and time is not on our side when it comes to a living, feeling, ageing being, but I refuse to take no for an answer! The law needs to recognise emotional distress - we would never search endlessly for a laptop or any other inanimate possession, nor would we have sleepless nights praying they aren't suffering. Pet theft carries endless torment and whilst there is evidence that Clooney was stolen and is waiting to be found, we can't give up.

We just hope the police don't.

Taken from Cat Theft Report 2019

Cat theft victim Toni Clarke was devastated when her pet mysteriously disappeared after a courier driver left at her property during the summer of 2013. As soon as she noticed her cat had gone, she immediately reported the theft of her Siamese cat 'Clooney', but how seriously did the Police take her plea to get her family member back?

"The reaction of the policeman answering my call could only be described as instant, disinterested dismissal, citing a cat’s 'right to roam' and that they were in a separate category due to this well-accepted, nomadic instinct.

I tried reporting Clooney's disappearance as a theft again a few weeks later when I was utterly convinced there was no other explanation. I had spent every hour for weeks searching, putting up posters, delivering fliers, door knocking, walking, calling, crying.... He had quite simply vanished. And despite having employed the services of a tracker dog on two separate occasions who had found no trace of my boy, the response from Norfolk Constabulary was still a heart-sinking and definitive, "No". Unless there was concrete proof, no Crime Reference Number would be issued.

Despite reporting Clooney as a potential victim of pet theft twice to Norfolk Police, he remains unrecorded on their statistics of theft. This is tough to accept. My experience throws a huge question mark over the integrity of police data and their consistency across Forces in recording what people are telling them. Owners' reporting of cat theft is distinct from, and shouldn't be confused with, police recording of pet theft crimes; the figures could paint an entirely different picture as my experience shows."

Does a cat's 'right to roam' give people a right to keep and the police a right to dismiss your claims of theft?

No! Keeping a displaced pet without making reasonable efforts to find the owner is 'Theft by Finding' and you can be charged. If you find yourself engaged in an ownership dispute or feel that you have rational cause to suspect that your cat has been stolen, don't be fobbed off by the police with this commonly-held view.

"As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat." Ellen Perry Berkeley

Except in law we do! Cats who wander are legally the property of the original owner.

Are valuable cat breeds being targeted?

Who steals cats and which breeds are most at risk?

Pedigree cats have been targeted by thieves for breeding or resale if found to be neutered, particularly the breeds that are distinctive and easily identifiable such as Bengal, Siamese and Persian. 2021 has seen a sharp rise in Bengal cats stolen, now 25% of all those recorded by breed/type. Interestingly, there was also a significant increase in tabbies stolen, the coat pattern of whom can often be mistaken for the highly valued Bengal.

Given that pedigree kittens can sell for upwards of £500 and pet theft is still largely dealt with in the Magistrates Court with penalties often a small fine at best, it is a low risk, high reward crime. With prices rising, there is a serious need for changes to the law to protect our precious companions.

Theft by Finding - a very covert operation.

Cats are stolen for many reasons but in many cases it is 'Theft by Finding', a particularly insidious, invisible and yet often well-meaning criminal offence where someone assumes possession without taking reasonable measures to find the true owner. Whilst it is impossible to quantify the number of cats that are subsumed into local households, it is entirely feasible that our cats may well have increasingly fallen victim to this crime over the pandemic, with cats popping in to say hello or scrounge a little extra side-serving or two and finding the welcome of home workers hard to resist. How many might have been mistaken for strays and encouraged to slip their paws under the table, never to return to their waiting owners? Without compulsory scanning in vets sadly we will never know...

If you have a cat who is taking up residence in your house and you are not the legitimate owner, please remember that you have a legal obligation to do your best to find their home, including scanning for a microchip as soon as is reasonably practical. Vets will do this for free or organisations may even come out to scan in situ. Consider placing a paper collar on your furry visitor as a first action, alongside door knocking and postering/ advertising on social media.

Ownership disputes can occur if you keep a cat without taking the above steps but beware - the law supports the original owner!

We advise neutering as one of the best ways to protect your pet.

Consider having their tag engraved with ‘neutered’ or ‘spayed’.

Who are the Forces to be reckoned with when it comes to prosecutions and cautions?

This data is especially important in highlighting which constabularies have taken this crime seriously.

Just 1.2% of all recorded cat thefts resulted in prosecutions (2015-2021).

A further 1.5% of cases resulted in a police caution, community resolution or adult restorative intervention (2015-2021).

25 out of 39 forces have failed to prosecute a single case in the last seven years!

"Well done to the constabularies who have brought prosecutions, although the figures show that just 0.35% of the total of cat thefts resulted in prosecutions. The cautions would suggest that the suffering of the owner is not being considered. The theft of a pet is life changing so a 'slap-on-the-wrist' caution is not the strong deterrent needed to cut this crime. Unfortunately, the value of the stolen 'object' is the deciding factor when it comes to punishments.".

Richard Jordan, Pet Theft Awareness.

Stolen or Missing: Police criteria for recording a crime - is there a uniformity across the forces?

In 2018, we invited all UK police forces to tell us the criteria they use for recording a cat stolen and issuing a CRN as opposed to dismissing it as simply missing. We were curious to discover whether our chances of having our concerns taken seriously were dependent on a police force’s formal policy or whether it could even come down to the personal attitude of the officer. What came back was extremely varied and somewhat perturbing.

Many of the constabularies cited the 'Home Office Counting Rules' on whether or when to record a crime. Essentially, this is determined on ‘balance of probability’ that a) the circumstances of the victim’s report amount to a crime as defined by law and b) there is no credible evidence to the contrary immediately available.

So far so good, but what does it mean when it comes to the typical ambiguity surrounding the disappearance of a cat? We can only conclude that it seems to us that this was up for individual interpretation:

"If an individual believed their cat to be missing it would be recorded as such. If, however, they believed that it had been stolen it would be recorded as stolen and the Local Neighbourhood Team informed." (Derbyshire)

"Missing is not a property status variable… therefore if a cat is reported as stolen it will always be recorded as such." (Devon and Cornwall)

"Cats being cats do go walkabout and unless there was anything to suggest that a crime has been committed then they would just assume to be missing." (West Midlands – might explain their zero return in 2020!)

"We would never record a missing cat as theft. It would not be ‘crimed’ unless there was evidence to support the assumption it had been stolen." (Humberside)

This is a fascinating, yet confusing insight. On the surface, Derbyshire boasts perhaps the most liberal and accommodating policy of trust in the owner's beliefs that their cat has been a victim of theft across the forces. Has this been reflected in their recorded cat theft figures? Far from it! Just 5 cat thefts in a seven year period (including zero returns in both 2020 and 2021), placing them last in the league of cat theft recording figures.

We can probably conclude that geographical location will influence whether your claim for being a victim of cat theft crime will be recorded and given that all-important Crime Reference Number.

Insist on a Crime Reference Number!

Jayne Hayes

DogLost.co.uk also reunites cats with owners. Their founder Jayne Hayes agrees that some police constabularies might be letting cat owners down by not recording cat theft.

"We have over 3,000 cats registered with us and have only THREE cats have been issued with a CRN number as stolen!" (2019. Updated figures unavailable)

Pet Theft Awareness suggests that if at first you are refused a CRN. be persistent and insist on getting one. You can register a complaint if your claim is not taken seriously.

What Should Cat Owners Do?

Establish who legally owns each pet.
Have plenty of photographs, especially showing any distinguishing features.
Every time you visit your vet ensure the microchip is checked.
Theft by Finding is a crime. If you find a stray you must take reasonable action to find the owner.
Be aware of any local hot-spots of cats going missing. Share information.
If you are a cat theft victim insist that the police record it as a crime. As you can see from the results some forces are better at recording thefts than others. If at first you are denied a crime number please explain you require it and challenge the decision until you are issued one.

"More cats are reported missing or stolen year-on-year"

Wayne May of DogLost explains,

"We're getting an average of 90 cats each month registered as missing or stolen and this number has been increasing year on year. Due to the nature of cats, it's hard to ascertain actual thefts." (2019. Updated figures not available)

DogLost.co.uk is the UK's largest service for missing / stolen and found pets. Any animal can be registered and their service is free.

Campaigner and dog theft victim Debbie Matthews adds: "We are grateful to Pet Theft Awareness, our partners at Stolen And Missing Pets Alliance (SAMPA), for working on Cat Theft figures. The way police categorise Pet Theft varies and the same issues arise for both dogs and cats, although we have the added problem with cats as they have the right to roam and they will often have several homes they like to visit!"

To members of the public we ask you to ‘think lost’ when you see a stray cat, they may be someone’s beloved pet. Please report to the local animal warden, try to capture them and take to the vet to be scanned for a microchip.

What is the purpose of this Cat Theft report?

Our aim is to encourage all authorities to understand that cats can be, and are being, stolen. It is clear that the theft of dogs is a major concern, particularly targeting those breeds that are deemed 'fashionable', but thankfully the police and government are being forced to sit up and take notice. And so they should! Dog theft is frequently audacious, overt and more recently, accompanied by an alarming rise in violence. Our canine friends are not legally allowed to wander and therefore theft is largely unambiguous, making it far easier to convince police that a dog who has disappeared is a dog who has been purposefully stolen. Dog theft figures bear witness to this. Cats however, enjoy freedoms that put them at risk of vanishing and herein lies our reason for the suspiciously low cat theft figures. A right to roam is hardly licence for a right to dismiss! We'd like to see all police listening to our individual stories, recording our reports of theft with consistency and uniformity and also to refrain from hiding behind the ambiguity of a cat who fails to return home - we know our feline family members and their habits! Although cat theft as recorded by the police is small in relation to the estimated 12 million cats that share our sofas, it is clear, with the 2021 total more than 350% higher than in 2015, that the trend is rising sharply. What's more, for the reasons given above we believe this substantially understates the true picture. In truth, it is difficult to conclude much from the data: whether higher figures are indicating hot spots of cat crime or whether we are looking at police forces who genuinely take cat theft more seriously. Either way, our hope is that by requesting these figures it will prompt better future records and in time, raise the awareness of the theft of our valued feline friends. We believe it also justifies the inclusion of cats in the proposed Pet Abduction Offence.

Praise must be given to all the forces and police personnel who understand that cats are family.
We'd like more understanding and action for victims and through perseverance we hope this can be achieved.

"Home is where the cat is" Anon.

Please mention Pet Theft Awareness or SAMPA if using any content.
Support #PetTheftReform
PetTheft.org.uk
SAMPA: Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance

Compiled by Richard Jordan and Toni Clarke

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2022

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 10:31:00 -0800

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2022 - Day Planner:

(ahead of week Mar 5th: graphic and post highlighting PTAW and petition)
1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Mon)
2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Tues)
3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Thurs)
4. Mar.19th: Horse (Sat)
5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Sun)
6. Mar.21st: #MissingCatsDay (Mon)

Sign our petition:
Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

What is #ClooneysLaw? #PetAbduction must include cats!

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 07:20:00 -0800

Thank you for taking the time to read this and sign the new Clooney's Law petition.

We all welcomed the new #PetAbduction legislation (as part of the forthcoming Kept Animals Bill) but it comes with a huge disappointment that cats, horses, and other companion animals have been omitted despite the original promise that the pet abduction legislation would not be restricted exclusively to dogs.

Cat-theft victims are equally as devastated as dog-theft victims.
Horses and their owners form close bonds.
Rabbit, parrot, alpaca, and reptile owners value their pets as much as dog owners value theirs.
Cat owners consider their pet as part of the family and need this to be recognised.
ALL pet owners campaigned for #PetTheftReform, helping to make dog abduction a crime. We now need dog owners to sign this petition to help extend the legislation to include ALL pets.

Clooney's Law is the name given to the e-petition campaign calling for other companion animals to be included (alongside dogs) in a new pet abduction offence within the Kept Animals Bill.

If a cat is stolen then thieves should face the full weight of the law for the misery caused. Pet theft should not be a high-reward, low-risk crime.

Aims: To get 10,000 signatures forcing the government to explain why 'Pet Abduction' only includes dogs. If this can be achieved before the bill goes through our hope is that it is amended.

If the petition gets to 100,000 then there will be a parliamentary debate.

A Background to Clooney.

“It is impossible to describe the torture that is pet theft.” – Toni Clarke

Toni Clarke and stolen Clooney

Clooney is a large, neutered and microchipped Siamese cat owned by Toni Clarke in Norfolk.

Victim Toni Clarke was left devastated when her pet mysteriously disappeared after a courier driver left her property during the summer of 2013. As soon as she noticed her cat had gone, she immediately reported the theft of her Siamese cat 'Clooney'. The police did not take her claim that he had been stolen seriously and refused to give her the all-important Crime Reference Number for many years.

Toni has never given up searching for her much-loved cat, so you can imagine how her hopes of getting him back home were increased when she discovered his microchip details had been accessed on two separate occasions five years after he was taken. Someone must have scanned him!

FACT: Clooney is out there somewhere.

26/03/2018: 17:45 hours: Clooney's Chip number entered by someone on Identibase main database using Vet ID code and user-chosen password for Wigmore Veterinary Practice in Rainham, Kent.

27/03/2018: 14:05 hours: Clooney's Chip number entered by someone on Identibase main database using Vet ID code and user-chosen password for The Crossings Veterinary Practice in Downham Market.

On both occasions, personal details were accessed including name, address, contact details as well as Clooney's information relating to DOB, neutered status etc - and a 'MISSING' flag. A digital footprint was left on his account identifying the veterinary practices concerned, but the searches were not disclosed by Identibase until March 2019 following a specific enquiry from Toni. There was no contact from either Identibase advising of the data access or from the person carrying out the search.

How can it be that a family pet can be abducted, his microchip number entered into a national database and personal information accessed, and yet nobody contacted his bereft owner with the good news that he had been found? And all this with a 'MISSING' flag against his name on the database!

This is why it is vital that cats, and other companion animals, are included in pet abduction laws.

Since 2015 hundreds of stolen cats have been recorded by police as thefts.

So with some background information on #ClooneysLaw we hope you can help us support all pets and their families. Please post the link below and let's reach our target.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

Cat Theft Report 2021

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 09:21:00 -0800

VISIT THE 2022 CAT THEFT REPORT

(ARCHIVED PAGE)
The 2021 UK Cat Theft Report:

In a year of soaring dog thefts during lockdown, we are asking the question: Are our family cats a target too?

With the public, media and police quite understandably focusing their attention on the burgeoning rise of dogs being stolen - we have all seen the shocking headlines during the Covid pandemic - has this created the opportunity for cat theft to become an increasingly invisible crime?

Pet theft is NOT yet a specific crime despite several government petitions leading to parliamentary debates. Gathering data on cat theft is proving to be increasingly difficult due to the disparate nature of recording crime statistics across the forces, but perversely, had we requested data on bicycles, scrap metal or even wild mushroom theft, we would be working with a full return of figures as all three have their own categories under the Theft Act 1968. It's scandalous that the law attaches more value to these inanimate objects than it does our cherished companions!

Our FOI 2020 data returns show that recorded cat theft crime is up by 12.3% on a like-for-like basis in the past year, with a near threefold increase (194%) between 2015 and 2020.

Following a shocking zero return in prosecutions across all forces in 2019, there was a welcome glimmer of hope in 2020 that cat thieves were at last being brought to justice with 13 cases reaching the courts last year. However, this was almost entirely attributable to one police force, the Metropolitan Police.

Desirable breeds, particularly Bengals, remain the most targeted by cat thieves.

The Insurance Emporium’s Chief Executive Officer, Francis Martin, said:

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

Why the need for a Cat Theft Report?

The Cat Theft Report 2021 is the result of data gathered year-on-year under a Freedom of Information request to all UK police forces, spanning the period 2015-2020 and aims to get the theft of cats under scrutiny alongside their canine friends. In a year where we have appreciated the value of furry companionship more than any other and the demand for pets has escalated beyond supply forcing the price of puppies and kittens to record levels, we want to know if this has also contributed to an increase in cat theft and what, if any, has been the police's response.

We look at the evidence: Is cat theft is being afforded any greater priority by our police?

The 2020 statistics had us studying the trends with furrowed brows; what are we to make of this data? What is clear is that the figures being returned by police forces are suspiciously low given that as a nation we save a space on our sofas for an estimated 10.9 million cats and the clamour for the companionship of pets has seen a surge like no other year previous.

More police forces decline FOI request

At first glance the 2020 data tells the story of cat theft crime up by just 2.4% in the past year - or at least as recorded by the police. However, with two further police forces declining our request for information this year, very much distorting the picture with fewer returns, we have needed to adapt the data to make them consistent. Consequently, excluding these police forces (Greater Manchester and Staffordshire, as well as Thames Valley who stopped reporting in 2019) from previous years to create a like-for-like comparison, this rises to 12.3%. Whilst this is marginally the slowest annual rate of increase we have seen, it extends the trend of double digit percentage growth for a fifth successive year (50.7% increase in 2016, 15.5% in 2017, 33.7% in 2018 and 12.6% in 2019).

What do we make of this?

Rather than gaining solace from this apparent deceleration, we remain convinced that the recording of cat theft crime by the police is massively understated. In the absence of being able to compare FOI data against that collected from other databases such as DogLost or up-to-date figures from Insurance Companies we can but surmise, but if social media is anything to go by the situation is spiralling. We are certainly seeing platforms awash with the misery of bereft owners posting up photos of their mysteriously disappearing felines, creating a puzzling dichotomy in the cat theft picture with the police data we are scrutinising. Given the current appetite for fluffy lockdown friends generating an alarming surge in dog thefts, should we be hyper-vigilant to the possibility that are our cats are also being taken in the shadows of the pandemic?

According to the 2020 figures the very worrying upward trend is continuing but it is hard to argue that police data is supporting the concern that we need to impose a similar 'right to roam' lockdown on the whiskered members of our families. The past year has ripped up the rulebook for most of us when it comes to redefining our roles and priorities - could it be that we are reporting our beloved felines as stolen but the police are failing to recognise that the theft-for-breeding/profit issue that is facing our desirable breeds of dogs could also be happening to our beloved cats?

The answer to these questions remains ambiguous, but by gathering and publishing this data year on year it is hoped that it might throw this issue into the police spotlight.

So what is the story of cat theft in 2020?

Regional Data Recorded Cat Thefts 2015 to 2020

How well did your police force do in 2020: which forces are upping their game and which are we keeping under surveillance?

The Cats' Whiskers Award for Cat Theft Recording has to go to the Metropolitan Police for consistent performance. This past year they were responsible for almost a third of the total number of cat thefts recorded across all the forces! Special mention must also be given to the Met for their dedicated interactive web-page on stolen pets: https://www.met.police.uk/sd/stats-and-data/met/stolen-animals-dashboard/ . What a reassuring sign that pet theft is very much on at least one police force's radar.

West Yorkshire accounted for almost 9% of those recorded and Kent at just over 7%.

At the other end of the spectrum, we are tempted to direct the spotlight of shame on the forces who recorded NO cases of cat theft at all in a whole year – and some for consecutive years. Derbyshire, Police Service of Northern Ireland, South Wales, Surrey and Merseyside returned an incredulous zero for 2020 - can they really be cat crime free zones? We are far from convinced. Infinitely more compelling is the conclusion that it's just not possible that these are perfectly law abiding areas of the UK when it comes to stealing cats, rather that they represent worrying regions of police indifference!

Just under half of the 44 forces have reported no incidents of cat theft at all in one or more of the years we have studied - there's only one conclusion from that sorry statistic!

Is the data all that it seems - a closer inspection.

The Metropolitan police dominate the charts but we wondered how the picture of diligence or cat theft might change when put in the context of population sizes for each of the force areas covered. This is where it gets enlightening...

With by far and away the largest population of all the forces at 8.9 million, the Metropolitan police actually slink down the performance charts with the top spot for cat crime recording, stolen by West Yorkshire and Kent. The big surprise from this was Cumbria: a very modest return in a less-than-auspicious set of data returns, in 2020 they have managed to claw their way to a very respectable 2nd place status on account of having the smallest population and upping their game considerably. Well done to these forces.

And what about the laggards? Once again, we are drawn to West Midlands Police, recording a downright embarrassing figure of just 4 cat thefts across the second largest population area of just under 3 million. To put that in context alongside the best, statistically we should be expecting a figure of around 44 stolen cats! With their region covering the cities of Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton, is this public or police apathy in the Midlands? We will leave it to you as to whether you to question the integrity of the recording process and whether this is likely to be a true reflection of the number actually reported by the owners to the police.

Aside from the shameful zero returners we have already mentioned, Avon and Somerset Constabulary find themselves caught red-faced at the bottom of the table with just 1 cat theft despite policing the 8th largest area by size of population in England. This covers both the cities of Bristol and Bath. We are throwing the book at these poor performers!

A cat may have nine lives, but are any of them valued as they should be?

There are some important issues highlighted here.

In 2020 those failing to give us data were:

Hampshire Constabulary (Too costly)
North Wales Police (Too costly)
Police Scotland (Too costly)

Staffordshire (Too costly/new data system)
Greater Manchester Police (New data system disabling data retrieval)

There is increasing evidence that some police forces are actually de-prioritising cat theft. In 2020 two further police forces (Staffordshire and Greater Manchester Police) declined to provide any information whatsoever, joining Police Scotland, North Wales, Hampshire and Thames Valley who have opted out in previous years on cost grounds. Take a look at the explanation below put forward by Staffordshire police for their inability to furnish us with cat theft figures:

This represents yet another reason why specific legislation relating to the theft of pets and companion animals is desperately needed. If pets had their own category under the Theft Act 1968 the police would be obliged to collect and store such data routinely.

Why cat theft must be taken seriously.

“No one can truly understand the bond we form with the cats we love until they experience the loss of one” – Unknown

Two years ago we reported on the impact of cat theft on Toni Clarke, when her Siamese cat, Clooney, was taken during the summer of 2013. It detailed her struggle to convince the police to take her claim of theft seriously. The following is an update to her story and for completeness, the 2019 post follows immediately after. The full, catalogued story can be read here:

https://pettheftawareness.blogspot.com/2020/03/reporting-stolen-pets-are-police-our_20.html

Toni Clarke and stolen Clooney

Update: Clooney at last awarded a CRN!

Cat theft is not, and with the law as it stands, cannot be, a budgetary priority to the police. However vital we consider our pets to be with regards to our well-being, their value is simply a cold, heartless calculation on the basis of a replacement. They are merely personal objects under the Theft Act 1968. From the outset of Clooney's case being opened I was brutally informed that the investigation budget would be equal to his perceived monetary value and towards the end of the initial interview, advised that the case would be immediately closed. I could see I had some serious work and persuasion ahead! Under pressure to investigate this promising lead, the vets were contacted but alas, it seems that denial of having any record of Clooney has proved protective: robust and meaningful investigation eats up funds.

We just hope the police don't.

Taken from Cat Theft Report 2019

Cat theft victim Toni Clarke was devastated when her pet mysteriously disappeared after a courier driver left at her property during the summer of 2013. As soon as she noticed her cat had gone, she immediately reported the theft of her Siamese cat 'Clooney', but how seriously did the Police take her plea to get her family member back?

"The reaction of the policeman answering my call could only be described as instant, disinterested dismissal, citing a cat’s 'right to roam' and that they were in a separate category due to this well-accepted, nomadic instinct.

I tried reporting Clooney's disappearance as a theft again a few weeks later when I was utterly convinced there was no other explanation. I had spent every hour for weeks searching, putting up posters, delivering fliers, door knocking, walking, calling, crying.... He had quite simply vanished. And despite having employed the services of a tracker dog on two separate occasions who had found no trace of my boy, the response from Norfolk Constabulary was still a heart-sinking and definitive, "No". Unless there was concrete proof, no Crime Reference Number would be issued.

Despite reporting Clooney as a potential victim of pet theft twice to Norfolk Police, he remains unrecorded on their statistics of theft. This is tough to accept. My experience throws a huge question mark over the integrity of police data and their consistency across Forces in recording what people are telling them. Owners' reporting of cat theft is distinct from, and shouldn't be confused with, police recording of pet theft crimes; the figures could paint an entirely different picture as my experience shows."

Does a cat's 'right to roam' give people a right to keep and the police a right to dismiss your claims of theft?

Except in law we do! Cats who wander are legally the property of the original owner.

Are valuable cat breeds being targeted?

Who steals cats and which breeds are most at risk?

Pedigree cats have been targeted by thieves for breeding or resale if found to be neutered, particularly the breeds that are distinctive and easily identifiable such as Bengal, Siamese and Persian. Given that pedigree kittens can sell for upwards of £500 and pet theft is still largely dealt with in the Magistrates Court with penalties often a small fine at best, it is a low risk, high reward crime. We need changes to the law to protect our precious companions!

Theft by Finding - a very covert operation.

Cats are stolen for many reasons but in many cases it is 'Theft by Finding, a particularly insidious, invisible and yet often well-meaning criminal offence where someone assumes possession without taking reasonable measures to find the true owner. Whilst it is impossible to quantify the number of cats that are subsumed into local households, it is entirely feasible that our cats may well have increasingly fallen victim to this crime this past year, with cats popping in to say hello or scrounge a little extra side-serving or two and finding the welcome of home workers and the furloughed hard to resist. How many might have been mistaken for strays and encouraged to slip their paws under the table, never to return to their waiting owners? Without compulsory scanning in vets sadly we will never know...

If you have a cat who is taking up residence in your house and you are not the legitimate owner, please remember that you have a legal obligation to do your best to find the home, including scanning for a microchip as soon as is reasonably practical. Vets will do this for free or organisations may even come out to scan in situ. Consider placing a paper collar on your furry visitor as a first action, alongside door knocking and postering/ advertising on social media.

Ownership disputes can occur if you keep a cat without taking the above steps but beware - the law supports the original owner!

We advise neutering as one of the best ways to protect your pet..

Consider having their tag engraved with ‘neutered’ or ‘spayed’.

Who are the Forces to be reckoned with when it comes to prosecutions and cautions?

This data is especially important in highlighting which constabularies have taken this crime seriously.

When it comes to taking cat thieves to court in 2019, despite 431 crimes recorded, there were ZERO prosecutions across any of the forces! Thankfully the 2020 figures tell a more reassuring story with 13 prosecutions in total. However, 11 of these were entirely due to the diligence of the Metropolitan Police bringing these criminals to justice.

There were a further 9 police cautions in 2020.

Just 1.4% of all recorded cat thefts resulted in prosecutions (2015-2020).

A further 1.7% of cases resulted in a police caution, community resolution or adult restorative intervention (2015-2020).

31 out of 44 forces have failed to prosecute a single case in the last 6 years!

This looks bleak enough as a deterrent to stealing a cat, but when the figures are analysed for trends it’s been very much a deteriorating picture. In 2015 when our data was first collected, 3.3% of cat thefts resulted in prosecutions, with the following four years seeing a steady decline to a staggering zero in 2019. Despite the Metropolitan police's efforts, we are still not yet back up to the 2015 figure but it is a very encouraging rebound. It has to be said though, once set in the context of an increase in recorded cat theft crimes of 194% over the same period, it's certainly less than impressive.

"Well done to the constabularies who have brought prosecutions. The figures show that just 1.4% of the total of cat thefts resulted in prosecutions. The cautions would suggest that the suffering of the owner is not being considered. The theft of a pet is life changing so a 'slap-on-the-wrist' caution is not the strong deterrent needed to cut this crime. Unfortunately, the value of the stolen 'object' is the deciding factor when it comes to punishments.".
Richard Jordan, Pet Theft Awareness.

Stolen or Missing: Police criteria for recording a crime - is there a uniformity across the forces?

In 2018, we invited all UK police forces to tell us the criteria they use for recording a cat stolen and issuing a CRN as opposed to dismissing it as simply missing. We were curious to discover whether our chances of having our concerns taken seriously was dependent on a police force’s formal policy or whether it could even come down to the personal attitude of the officer. What came back was extremely varied and somewhat perturbing.

Many of the constabularies cited the 'Home Office Counting Rules' on whether or when to record a crime. Essentially, this is determined on ‘balance of probability’ that a) the circumstances of the victim’s report amount to a crime as defined by law and b) there is no credible evidence to the contrary immediately available.

So far so good, but what does it mean when it comes to the typical ambiguity surrounding the disappearance of a cat? We can only conclude that it seems to us that this was up for individual interpretation:

"If an individual believed their cat to be missing it would be recorded as such. If, however, they believed that it had been stolen it would be recorded as stolen and the Local Neighbourhood Team informed." (Derbyshire)

"Missing is not a property status variable… therefore if a cat is reported as stolen it will always be recorded as such." (Devon and Cornwall)

"Cats being cats do go walkabout and unless there was anything to suggest that a crime has been committed then they would just assume to be missing." (West Midlands – might explain their zero return!)

"We would never record a missing cat as theft. It would not be ‘crimed’ unless there was evidence to support the assumption it had been stolen." (Humberside)

This is a fascinating, yet confusing insight. On the surface, Derbyshire boasts perhaps the most liberal and accommodating policy of trust in the owner's beliefs that their cat has been a victim of theft across the forces. Has this been reflected in their recorded cat theft figures? Far from it! Just 5 cat thefts in a six year period, placing them last in the league of cat theft recording figures.

We can probably conclude that geographical location will influence whether your claim for being a victim of cat theft crime will be recorded and given that all-important Crime Reference Number.

Insist on a Crime Reference Number!

Jayne Hayes

DogLost.co.uk also reunites cats with owners. Their founder Jayne Hayes agrees that some police constabularies might be letting cat owners down by not recording cat theft.

"We have over 3,000 cats registered with us and have only THREE cats have been issued with a CRN number as stolen!" (2019. Updated figures unavailable)

Pet Theft Awareness suggests that if at first you are refused a CRN. be persistent and insist on getting one. You can register a complaint if your claim is not taken seriously.

What Should Cat Owners Do?

Establish who legally owns each pet.
Have plenty of photographs, especially showing any distinguishing features.
Every time you visit your vet ensure the microchip is checked.
Theft by Finding is a crime. If you find a stray you must take reasonable action to find the owner.
Be aware of any local hot-spots of cats going missing. Share information.
If you are a cat theft victim insist that the police record it as a crime. As you can see from the results some forces are better at recording thefts than others. If at first you are denied a crime number please explain you require it and challenge the decision until you are issued one.

"More cats are reported missing or stolen year-on-year"

Wayne May of DogLost explains,

What is the purpose of this Cat Theft report?

Our aim is to encourage all authorities to understand that cats can be, and are being, stolen. It is clear that the theft of dogs is a major concern, particularly targeting those breeds that are deemed 'fashionable', but thankfully the police and government are being forced to sit up and take notice. And so they should! Dog theft is frequently audacious, overt and more recently, accompanied by an alarming rise in violence. Our canine friends are not legally allowed to wander and therefore theft is largely unambiguous, making it far easier to convince police that a dog who has disappeared is a dog who has been purposefully stolen. Dog theft figures bear witness to this. Cats however, enjoy freedoms that put them at risk of vanishing and herein lies our reason for the suspiciously low cat theft figures. A right to roam is hardly licence for a right to dismiss! We'd like to see all police listening to our individual stories, recording our reports of theft with consistency and uniformity and also to refrain from hiding behind ambiguity of a cat who fails to return home - we know our cats and their habits! Whilst the recorded numbers of stolen cats are but a faint mew in a gathering storm, what is evident is that the trend is very much on the up, nudging a three-fold increase since 2015. In truth, it is difficult to conclude much from the data: whether higher figures are indicating hot spots of cat crime or whether we are looking at police forces who genuinely take cat theft more seriously, but our hope is that by requesting these figures it will prompt better future records and in time, raise the awareness of the theft of our valued feline friends.

"Home is where the cat is" Anon.

Please mention Pet Theft Awareness or SAMPA if using any content.
Support #PetTheftReform
PetTheft.org.uk
SAMPA: Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance

Compiled by Richard Jordan and Toni Clarke

2021 Pet Theft Awareness Week:

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 09:46:00 -0800

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2021

No copyright on any of the graphics.
Images at footer are created 'dog theft' images. Please use where appropriate.

Pre Week - 'Who Steals Dogs?'

1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Sign Petition and Write to MPs (Sun)

2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Mon)

3. Mar.17th: Where are Dogs Stolen From? (Wed)

4. Mar.19th: Horse (Fri)

5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Sat)

6. Mar.21st: #MissingCatsDay (Sun)

Images below copyright free.
Staged dog theft photographs.

Reporting Stolen Pets: are the Police our Friend or Foe?

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 16:11:00 -0700

Reporting Stolen Pets: are the Police our Friend or Foe?

Victims of pet theft often feel they are banging their heads against a brick wall.
This blog exposes the shocking flaws in the microchipping system and inadequate police resources.

Read about a victim's near-seven year struggle to find her stolen cat. Red-tape, data protection, and excuse-after-excuse have prevented Clooney the Siamese cat from being reunited with his rightful owner...

It is impossible to describe the torture that is pet theft. I would have to possess the artfully accomplished alliterative powers of a master wordsmith to be able to take you to the hellish place I have been over the past six and three-quarter years and it still could not begin to convey the scale of the emotional tsunami. Suffice to say it is a forbidding landscape where your darkest fears dominate; where images of starvation, injury or purposeful cruelty hijack your sanity and where panicked imaginings are matched only by the horrifying reality of understanding that thieves don't steal with compassion or care. The object of their theft is just that - an object to them.

And herein lies the most absurd parallel between law makers and law breakers: the law also considers our beloved pets as mere objects. How can this be? Sentience and trauma gives no added value to their worth with pet thieves being all too often let off the legal leash. Under the Theft Act 1968 our furry companions are treated much the same as any other personal possession. You might be perplexed to learn that lead piping, bicycles and wild mushrooms have been selected as being worthy of their own category under this Act and criminals dealt with under specific penalties allied to their categorisation, but not so our precious family members. The penalty for stealing our pets is calculated solely on their monetary value. Replacement value in pounds and pence - not for a something, but a someone. A someone who is utterly irreplaceable. Yet most owners know that what makes them priceless is all that is nebulous and incalculable: companionship and love. So far there is scant room for emotion in legislation and yet most of us - MPs and police officers alike - consider our pet cats and dogs as treasured members of the family. To some they are their only family.

So why are our lawmakers stubbornly refusing to reflect this and what happens when we try to report our pets, particularly our feline family, as stolen to the police?

Clooney: a brief background to his story

I carry the story of Clooney's theft heavily; it is with me every single day I have been without him. This madly loved male seal-point Siamese was taken in June 2013 from his spoilt and protected existence in rural Norfolk. It would have been unthinkable for me not to have given him the added security of a microchip and the protection of being neutered because I already knew how important he was to my world - and me to his. He was most definitely a strikingly noticeable boy and, being a desirable breed, also vulnerable. I felt somewhat shielded living down a quiet unmade lane with no through access since our position limited his exposure to dog walkers, horse riders or couriers.

And yet location served as no protection from theft that summer's day.

Clooney was undoubtedly a very indulged family member and predictably I raised an irresistibly demanding cat-brat of epic proportions: comical, loving and needy with a toweringly impressive ability to observe and reason to the point where he had worked out how to gain access to everywhere and anywhere in his home. His biggest access frustration however was the irritatingly regimented, curfew-imposing cat flap, restricting his garden access to a few golden daylight hours of relative freedom.

I have learned to my endless cost that limiting outside playtime also proved to be no obstacle to pet theft.

As you might imagine this is but a tiny glimpse of the backdrop to Clooney's story to touch on the elements pertinent to his vulnerability to theft, but from here my focus is primarily concentrated on how police attitude and engagement affects the victims of pet theft and the outcome. This is a perniciously evil crime and has a lasting effect that I doubt the theft of any object could ever have. Do our police recognise this?

A Diary of Disinterest: Police Encounters and Triggering Events

June 2013: Norfolk Constabulary: Reporting Clooney as missing/suspected theft. Dismissed instantly as missing not theft. 'Cats wander' and 'He will come home in a few days'. No report made or Crime Reference Number (CRN) given.

Late June 2013: Reporting Clooney as stolen. Dismissed citing the unique status of cats and their Right to Roam - cats therefore cannot be stolen was the attitude. Unless there was concrete evidence of theft a missing cat was just that: Missing. Courier driver who had lingered in the drive was flagged up as a possible focus for investigation. Still no CRN for Clooney and nothing recorded.

The impact of two police dismissals was to decisively shut the door on the possibility of any future engagement or help but such was my conviction that Clooney was taken - probably for breeding - and subsequently passed on for a small profit when discovered to be neutered, there was nothing else to do but to plough on alone with searching nationwide, both physically and on social media, whilst campaigning alongside like-minded and affected friends to challenge the obvious systemic failures within the microchipping system. I was brought up to believe that no one owes you anything, never to make a nuisance of yourself but if you want something badly enough it is your job to make it happen. I wanted Clooney home so badly - I owed him that - but in my determined quest to find him I all but sacrificed myself on that altar of desperation for what was to turn into several very difficult and emotionally exhausting years.

Police support from the outset would certainly have taken some of the emotional burden but it wasn't until the intervening years that I did actually secure police interest in Clooney's case. I had a phone call demanding reward money or I'd never see Clooney again. Action Fraud unhesitatingly issued a CRN. What a sad indictment of our priorities that extortion is clearly a tangible crime worthy of immediate recognition; it seems however, that the freedoms of our feline companions and the resultant ambiguity over their status, often consigns the notion of cat theft to the police bin of mythological crime. To my troubled mind this felt like an insult to all I had lost. Money was nothing to me; a loved and stolen family member was everything.

Police involvement and a CRN recognising the theft of Clooney was secured years later by a chance encounter of the fortuitous kind. How ironic that this should have been in the Houses of Parliament at the Pet Theft Debate, campaigning alongside the wonderfully tenacious SAMPA founders for pets to be recognised as a category in their own right. It had been over five and a half years of soul-destroying, empty leads until this opened the door to a discovery that has proved to be so painfully bitter-sweet.

26/02/19 Pet Theft Debate, Houses of Parliament, Westminster. Introduced to the CEO promoting new PetScanner microchip scanner which uses phone app to alert if chip number entered on chip checker sites. Decided this was worth a purchase.

01/03/19: Registered Clooney and subscribed to alerts. PetScanner came up with the following historical searches:

12/10/2018: PetScanner Alert: Clooney's chip number checked on PETtrac Website (Chip Checker).

03/02/2019: PetScanner Alert: Clooney's chip number checked on Petlog Website (Chip Checker). No follow up check of ownership details with Identibase possible.

Was this proof that Clooney was alive and with someone? If my boy hadn't been scanned then how else would they have got hold of his unique 15 digit chip number to look it up - and why? Of course I called PetScanner immediately and although they were both encouraging and helpful, it soon became apparent that these generic home page look-ups have no way of being traceable to the where and the who - only that someone, somewhere, had wanted to look Clooney up. Someone in possession of his chip number.

01/03/2019:Contacted Identibase to see if they have any record of the two Chip checks reported by PetScanner. Advised that their system was not set up to record such searches but confirmed that two different, full searches were carried out within 24 hours in March 2018 by someone using access PIN codes assigned to two separate veterinary surgeries! Identibase immediately disclosed who these were. (They've since explained that they were unable to inform us at the time this happened because their system was not set up to trigger alerts to staff or customers from accounts accessed).

I invite you to take that in for a moment... Surely I can't be alone in being somewhat horrified to learn that someone, with all the invisibility and stealth of a real-life cat burglar, can silently gain entry to your microchip account, rifle through its personal details and then surreptitiously tip-toe away without anyone at the database company noticing the digital footprint that is left behind. And all this whilst we have a missing flag flapping desperately on our account. 'I am missing!' it shouts - and the echo must surely be 'I am loved' because we microchipped them. Because we want them found if ever they are lost or stolen. (In the wake of Clooney's case this has been challenged, discussed and I have been informed that the necessary changes to the system are in the development stage. Good news indeed).

26/03/2018: 17:45 hours: Clooney's Chip number entered by somebody on Identibase main database using Vet ID code and individual password for Wigmore Veterinary Practice in Rainham, Kent. Missing flag and personal details accessed including name, address, contact details and Clooney's information relating to DOB, neutered status etc. Digital footprint left, identifying veterinary practice confirmed by Identibase but not until March 2019 following specific enquiry. No contact from either Identibase advising of the data access nor from the person carrying out the search.

27/03/2018: 14:05 hours: Clooney's Chip number entered by somebody on Identibase main database using Vet ID code and individual password for The Crossings Veterinary Practice in Downham Market.Missing flag and personal details accessed including name, address, contact details and Clooney's information relating to DOB, neutered status etc. Digital footprint left, identifying veterinary practice confirmed by Identibase but not until March 2019 following specific enquiry. No contact from either Identibase advising of the data access nor from the person carrying out the search.

I cannot begin to describe the soaring hope that this revelation had handed me. I got off the phone and wept with all the suppressed pain of years of loss without answers. Were my answers just a phone call away....? Did I dare allow myself such an unguarded expectation? Clooney simply had to be with someone somewhere and what's more, I had the name of the vet practices who had accessed his details the year before. I didn't permit any thought as to the failures that had resulted in me not being informed at the time it had happened; I was just too full of nervous exhilaration; fearful trepidation; any and every emotion that I had kept a lid on until now.

01/03/19: Multiple telephone calls over the next couple of weeks to Wigmore surgery and the Crossings veterinary practice. Neither can explain why the searches were undertaken or suggest who accessed Clooney's account. Both claim that Clooney's chip number is not recorded against any of their registered clients or consults. Asked for RTA records to be checked and informed neither work with rescue cats for local animal charities which might account him being brought in but not recorded on veterinary client records.

I have no words here. Just a creeping, familiar numbness...

02/03/19: Ascertained from Identibase that neither surgery searched any other microchip number immediately after accessing Clooney's account (or at any time during the day in question) in order to mitigate the possibility that Clooney's chip number was entered erroneously.

This proved a very useful pre-emptive initiative since one of the vets did indeed propose, by way of a definitive explanation, that it was simply a mis-typing of Clooney's number that led to his account being accessed. They were invited to prove that they had a pet on their client/consultation records with near identical chip number to account for this. This was declined.

14/03/2019: Emails sent to both vets explaining the history of Clooney's disappearance, reinforcing that I had no desire to cause any difficulties and that I would be prepared to let Clooney stay where he was if that was appropriate and asking officially for their help to get to the bottom of the look-up. Friendly, collaborative exchanges were very much my preferred option but following an abrupt cessation of verbal communications with one surgery in particular, it was necessary to formalise and recruit some uniformed clout behind the real victim in this theatre of theft: Clooney.

22/03/2019: Kent Police via DogLost involvement. Doglost get involved offering to publicise the news of the searches in Kent and Downham Market and pursue the matter with their contacts at Kent Police. Unfortunately, after a promising start and a long eight weeks later, Kent Police decline to investigate as Clooney was stolen from Norfolk. We are therefore advised to involve Norfolk Constabulary ourselves.

May 2019: Norfolk Constabulary contacted. Several communications later they agree to send an officer to our house to interview us. The PC assigned to our case, misses first appointment. He telephones the next day to ask if he could carry out the interview over the phone. We explain this would not be acceptable.

25/05/19: PC duly attends our home and after seeing location and hearing the story accepts that Clooney was indeed stolen. However, he seems more interested in the possibility that one or both of our daughters might have stolen him and the data protection implications of us having contact details for the Courier driver than on questioning him and the veterinary practices about why they had undertaken searches for Clooney's chip number! Advises that a CRN would be allocated but that the case will be immediately closed as there was nothing they could do to assist. PC given copies of all correspondence to vets and was persuaded to reopen case. He agreed to contact the courier driver and write to the two veterinary practices.

13/06/19: PC emails vets.

We had been at pains to explain to the PC, both verbally and via back-up email, that this is no longer about a historically missing cat, but that the chip searches were proof that Clooney had indeed been stolen as I had tried reporting six years previously. These veterinary practices had to be the source of our answers somehow, despite their protestations of non-involvement. We had no interest in being unreasonable and were prepared to believe that the vets themselves knew nothing, that there was a possibility that Clooney had been scanned by a third party maybe even outside of their surgeries, but what we did know - and there was proof of - was that someone with Clooney's microchip number, using the vet surgery PIN code and password, had accessed my account. Clearly it was not for reunification purposes as I had not been contacted despite the up-to-date details and the missing flag - so why were his details looked up?

"In order for missing pets to be reunited, authorised organisations such as vet practices, rescue centres, charities etc, need to be able to access registered keeper details and when used in this way, this is not a breach of GDPR" (Privacy Coordinator AnimalCare UK, parent company Identibase, in reply to my request for clarification and confirmation).

So if the motive for these data accesses were not 'in order for missing pets (Clooney) to be reunited' was this therefore a GDPR breach? What's more, if no practice staff member with authorisation owns up to scanning Clooney and there's no record of him on the client database nor consult records in either surgery, was this an unauthorised access by someone not formally associated with the practice and a safeguarding issue of practice login details? An alternative needs exploration: perhaps it was an unauthorised look-up by an authorised person who is staying silent? So many thoughts... I invite yours please.

19/06/2019: Complaint made to ICO about inappropriate accessing of personal data. This was followed by multiple calls and correspondence which won't be explored in this account.

25/05/19: PC phones to advise on results of enquiries. He reported that the courier driver knows nothing about our cat (he most certainly knew about Clooney since we paid him to deliver fliers on his rounds) and predictably, that both vets also denied having Clooney in their practice on the day in question (which we knew!). PC reports that Clooney's case is now again closed. Strong protestation from us following suspicions of inadequate questioning, requesting a call from a superior to discuss case and ineffectual police action.

25/05/19: Call from Sergeant S reinforcing decision to close case. However, reading case notes entered by PC, he realises that the investigation was very much incomplete given that one of the vet practices had in fact refused to answer police questions, insisting on my permission for disclosure citing GDPR.

And this on a case that was opened at my request! It was very alarming that we had been expressly told that BOTH surgeries had confirmed that Clooney had not been recorded as being present at their surgery that day and on the back of the two vets' responses the case had been closed.

26/05/19: Case again reopened having given my verbal authorisation for the vet to release information regarding Clooney and to secure the vet's cooperation and response.

26/06/2019: Email to RCVS and RCMS. Separate issue for a different blog!

15/07/19: Disclosure Form sent to vet for their response from Sergeant S.

08/08/19: Sergeant S announces via letter that his investigation is complete. Vet's response was to suggest that Identibase system is at fault. Case is again closed on the basis that Sergeant S is 'inclined to agree' but without even contacting Identibase for their response to the allegations of culpability!

19/08/2019: Emailed Sgt S contesting decision to close the case since they hadn't spoken with Identibase who could confirm that the searches had taken place and that there was no fault with their system as verbally confirmed to me. No reply or acknowledgement.

19/08/19: Subject Access Request (SAR) applied for to Norfolk Constabulary to be able to view Clooney's case notes.

23/08/2019: Letter to Police and Crime Commissioner. No response.

03/09/19: Follow up email to Sergeant S as no response to previous. No reply received to this either.

05/09/19: Three Recorded Delivery letters posted to Chief Exec of Identibase parent company advising them that the vets had implicated their system as being at fault and that this would remain as the case conclusion, inviting their response. Specifically requested confirmation of the integrity of their processes and systems to offer chance to counter vets' claims in the absence of police action. Also requested corroboration of digital footprint on Clooney's account and to outline their authorisation access policy.

10/09/19: Reply received as requested.

Sept/Oct: Various communications, both email and verbal, continue across multiple organisations.

16/10/20: Called to chase up the non-appearance of the Subject Access Request (SAR) for Clooney's case notes to be informed that many had gone astray in the police system and to apply again!

16/10/20: Expedited SAR received. Case notes were massively redacted.

How heart-sinking to read that the police investigation consisted of just one question - and that one was based on an inaccurate representation of our report.

"I was informed this cat (Clooney) was seen at your surgery in 2018. Would you be able to check this information for me and reply to this email?" (SAR entry recording email to vets)

I'm quite sure there isn't a suitable emoji for my feelings on absorbing the uselessness of such an 'investigation'! I feel compelled to mention the perturbing revelation from the original PC when he came to our house to take our opening statement about police budgetary guidelines. In essence, he had alluded to a policy whereby the budget for the investigation was very much aligned to the value of the item. Clooney wasn't 'worth' very much so the cost of any investigation would quickly surpass his value and therefore the case would be closed immediately after issuing a CRN. Tumbleweed moment... Basically, what we had just processed was that the impact of the crime wasn't a consideration; that justice is a limited commodity, and cats don't quite come up to scratch - pedigree claws or otherwise. Given this, isn’t it screamingly obvious then that the quality of each intervention is therefore paramount and designed to extract maximum benefit to the investigation? None of the precious budget should be frittered on predictably hopeless questioning that would allow for an equally hope-lessening answer. Interestingly there was no entry for the PC's conversation with the courier on which he reported to us, unless it was contained within the redacted sections. I can't help but speculate as to why that would be concealed from us or not recorded as an entry. The SAR document certainly confirmed our fears and fired up our impetus for the next challenge.

Clooney the Protector

05/11/2019: Hand delivered a letter to acting Inspector M at Station presenting confirmation from Identibase that there could not have been any error on their part and that the look-ups did in fact take place. Asked to speak with Inspector M and to re-open the case as this constituted new evidence.

15/11/19: Contacted by new Inspector T assigned to our case who offered his apologies on behalf of the police, agreeing that the investigations had been neither effective nor robust. This reassuringly sympathetic attitude manifested into a declaration that he would be approaching the vets again.

At last a glimmer of commitment and understanding! Finally, I feel I have someone guiding the investigation who respects the individual merits of each case. The crucial element of empathy that had been lacking in our previous police encounters made itself known when he admitted that he himself shares his lap with a feline felon and that had she been stolen and scanned, he would want action. I smile and breathe...

14/01/2020: PetScanner alert: Clooney's chip number checked on Animal Care Website (Chip Checker)

14/01/2020: Call to Identibase to ask if there had been a corresponding full data access of our account. Disappointingly the look-up had halted at the home page stage, but our contact offered to consult the IT dept to see if the IP address of the search had been stored and was retrievable. This was one of the changes to their IT systems that had been upgraded following the failures exposed by Clooney's case.

Wouldn't it be wonderful for him to be a beneficiary of his own legacy!

15/01/20: Returned call from Identibase advising us that the IP address had been retrieved but that data protection restrictions meant it could not be revealed to us.

15/01/2020: Conversation with Inspector T advising him of this new activity on Clooney's account. He readily agrees to apply to Identibase for its release and to investigate.
Vets reply discussed: no further information following new responses but suggested we concentrate on new lead with a view to discussing strategy re veterinary surgeries later.

18/02/20: Email received outlining where we are with IP address. Reassuring news that whilst it is not a simple process and IP is dynamic, the Covert Authorities Bureau and Cyber Crime Team are researching it. I have been advised that whilst it is not a straightforward task, it is achievable! It will however take several weeks.

Currently we wait...

Can Clooney's story teach us anything for the future?

So what can we take away from my experiences and journey through the police chicanes of avoidance, apart from to advise you to expect multiple stingers to be thrown across the path of investigation in a somewhat perturbingly eager attempt to close cases, take down your tenacity and deflate your determination? Cat Theft isn't a police priority; I dare say it isn't even an option unless you are prepared to sharpen your claws and fight for a Crime Reference Number and an effective investigation. Be persistent if you feel this is most definitely what happened and dig deep for your inner resilience - our stolen family members need us to fight for the recognition of cat theft as a crime. Remember too, that a right to roam gives no-one the right to steal. Figures show that cat theft has risen by a staggering 34% over the last year of available data (Cat Theft Report 2019, Pet Theft Awareness). Perhaps counter-intuitively, I'm going to propose that this could be encouraging news. The suspicion is that this may well be a stronger representation of improvements in police recording rather than a reflection of the increase in the theft of our felines. Be warned though, there is no doubt that pet theft generally is gaining momentum since it is a low-risk crime with pitiful penalties.

Cats have few legal protections: does this set the template for police attitude?

The crux of the problem we are facing as pet owners, especially pets of the purry variety, is that this kind of furry 'personal object' in law just happens to be property on four legs that can walk themselves into trouble - and there is no shortage of police officers willing to remind you of that fact. It's convenient for our police to create a e-fit profile of the average feline and apply it universally across the species - as they did when I first reported Clooney. But only you know your companion, their character and their routine. I can say with unshakable certainty that Clooney most definitely did not walk; my boy was taken and I bitterly regret not asserting this with more force at the outset. But why should I have had to wait until the evidence of his theft had come to light years later to be able to secure the vital CRN? Clearly the police have limited resources and guidelines concerning budgetary constraints for investigations, but a CRN costs relatively little and ensures that you have the necessary ammunition should there be a subsequent ownership battle and you need the services of a solicitor. What's more, each CRN provides legitimacy to the need for more protections in law for our cats. How poignant it was to be compiling and analysing data from police FOIs on cat theft across the forces to know that my own beloved stolen Siamese was absent from those statistics. If my experiences were anything to go by, recorded cases of cat theft are criminally unrepresentative of the reality and scale of the heartbreak out there.

Our irreplaceable cats have nine precious lives, so fight for them all to be spent where they belong - with you.

But perhaps the most important lesson of all when it comes to securing that crucial uniformed clout to your crusade? Just keep going until you find the police inspector who has cat hair on their uniform - he's your man!

Toni Clarke
21st March 2020

If you feel any of the issues raised in Clooney's story need addressing, please sign these two important petitions calling for change to our laws by clicking on the links below.

#Ferns Law. Compulsory to scan & check microchips to reunite stolen dogs, cats.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300010

#PetTheftReform. Make pet theft crime a specific offence with custodial sentences.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300071

My huge thanks to Richard Jordan, founder member Pet Theft Awareness, for your support and work to raise awareness of this crime. Also to Debbie Matthews for unfailing commitment to the campaign for compulsory microchipping/scanning and Dan Allen for research and petitions to challenge the laws.

Police, Pets, and Microchip Scanners.

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 05:10:00 -0800

How many pet microchip scanners do the UK Police own?

With almost ten million dogs in the UK required to have microchips - and the possibility of compulsory cat microchipping - we contacted all the UK constabularies to see if they have enough scanners to deal with the current laws that go with dog and horse compulsory microchipping?

This report is not a criticism of the police but more a critical look at how their service could be improved with some funding and training.The foi was requested in July 2019 and the figures returned between then and the end of the year.

Before we get into the figures let's talk briefly about microchips and scanners and databases:

All pets and animals (except insects of course) can have a chip inserted. Dogs and cats will have them implanted above their shoulders below their neck. Reptiles have their chip in their rear left leg. Valuable carp fish are microchipped and so are parrots. Dogs must legally be chipped with correct ownership details. The equine microchip number is in each horse's passport which includes veterinary entries of drugs used.
The UK government is consulting whether or not to introduce compulsory microchipping for cats. If this becomes law an estimated 10.9 million pet cats (source: PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report 2019) will join the 9.9 million dogs already covered by legislation. Since April 6th 2016 all dogs in the UK (over eight weeks old) have been required to have microchips and correct owner details. A vet can exempt a dog's microchip on health grounds.

Horses: From October 2020 it will be mandatory for all owners to microchip their horses, ponies and donkeys. There is a DEFRA Central Equine Database: https://www.equineregister.co.uk/home

A decent scanner costs less than £50. For less than £15 you can purchase one that connects straight to your phone via its usb port. Many agree that the HALO is the best scanner because it has its own battery which charges via a usb cable. The HALO also sends the data to a database which alerts the scanner if a chip has been registered missing/stolen.

Each microchip is the size of a grain of rice.
The microchip (RFID = Radio Frequency Identification) emits radio waves picked up by the 'reader' known as the scanner. A database could hold any information as it is only a a pairing to a set of numbers and letters.There is no central database for pet microchips, only for horses and this is because horses can enter the food chain and the medication they might have taken such as commonly used 'bute' (phenylbutazone) is a risk to humans.

So with a brief description of the main three parts of the system (microchips, scanners, databases) we thought that it would be a useful resource to find out if our police are equipped to deal with stolen pets and the legislation requirements for dogs and horses.
We sent a foi - freedom of information request to all the uk constabularies. As expected the response was hit-and-miss and proving that the police are ill equipped and under resourced when it comes to scanning pets and implementing the laws where a pet needs to be scanned.

Who has scanners and how many?

With pet theft on the increase and legislation requiring dogs to be chipped does this mean our forces are equipped to enforce the law? Like most things some forces are much better equipped than others, and some are not equipped at all!

Facts:
There are 161 known scanners for the 857 police stations.

Despite the introduction of microchipping laws many forces do not have the simple equipment and training needed.

Many of the scanners in the police possession were donated by organisations including the 'Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance'. That's great, but the police should have the tools they need rather than rely on hand-outs in order to enforce the microchipping legislation.

Despite over a thousand dog thefts reported in 2019 there were only 5 recorded number of court proceedings related to microchips. There are just five recorded incidents where dogs' microchips (or lack of chip with correct details) led to court proceedings.

The police and courts generally take a 'softly-softly' approach to dog owners failing to have their dogs microchipped with correct details. Offenders are often given a few weeks to chip their dogs and no further action is taken. Fines of £500 are only enforced if an owner subsequently fails to adhere to the law.

Dog theft has increased year on year as seen by Dr. Daniel Allen's research and report.

click link to see report

What has caught our eye from the police FOI figures?

The amount of constabularies unable to give us data because they just don't know how many scanners they have!
Beds, Cambs, and Herts only having eight scanners between them.
The Port of Dover Police owning just ONE scanner.
Greater Manchester Police owning just 2 scanners between 39 stations.
Northumbria Police not even responding.

Who came out the best?

Metropolitan Police 22 scanners for 37 stations
Humberside Police 22 scanners for 38 stations.
Kent Police 15 scanners. They work alongside DogLost.co.uk

So just how seriously do the police take pet theft?

"The evidence suggests that police interest in pet theft is very much hit and miss and in many cases criminally lacking.

Toni Clarke, owner of
long-term stolen Siamese, Clooney

Clooney, my much loved and missed, male, microchipped seal point Siamese was stolen in June 2013; it has certainly been a fight to engage the police in his story and to achieve the vital Crime Reference Number. Frustratingly, even evidence that his chip was scanned and my details accessed twice in March 2018 has barely elevated his case, or prompted a commitment to robustly investigate. Each step of the way has required tenacious endeavour to prod, coerce and push the investigative process from the rear and to keep the case open. The process has been long, disheartening and very upsetting given the soaring hope that this discovery generated.

We microchip our pets with the expectation that it will provide them with a passport home so how can I reconcile myself to the irrefutable proof that Clooney is out there, has been identified as missing by whoever looked up his details on our database records and yet the only people who can obtain the information - the police - are letting this happen without serious challenge?

I feel like I've been robbed twice".

Toni Clarke, owner of long-term stolen Siamese, Clooney

So why isn't it working?

It is no wonder that there are virtually no prosecutions regarding owners failing to register or keep records correct and up-to-date. The Police do not have anywhere near enough scanners. But there are many other failings within the whole system:

What can the government do?

How could policing be more effective?

1. Defra to create a central pet microchip database of databases.
2. Each police station have at least two scanners.
3. Police to be trained on how to use the scanner and correctly upload the data.
4. Police stations to have a designated officer responsible for all scanners and to ensure they are used correctly.
5. Police to be given training in recording the thefts of pets (especially regarding multiple pets stolen as individuals rather than one crime), and properly issuing crime numbers, and recording data.
6. Police to not 'farm-out' scanning duties to third parties such as vets, charities, or the council dog warden. It is an offence for dogs (and horses) to not have microchips with up-to-date details and the police should have the necessary tools at their disposal!

What can pet owners do?

1. Sign #FernsLaw petition because scanning legislation will help reunite stolen/missing all microchipped pets. http://chng.it/hxW952ry
2. Write to MPs and tell them why pets matter. Explain to your MP that the police and courts need more powers to deal with stolen pets and that there are many failings which are preventing missing and stolen pets being reunited.
You can do this here: http://www.stolenandmissingpetsalliance.co.uk/write-to-your-mp/

Report researched and compiled by Richard Jordan and Toni Clarke.

Further reading.
Legislation relating to implantation:From: https://www.bsava.com/Resources/Veterinary-resources/Microchipping/Implantation
Anyone wishing to implant microchips in dogs in England may only do so if:
1. They are a veterinary surgeon or a veterinary nurse acting under the direction of a veterinary surgeon;
2. They are a student of veterinary surgery or a student veterinary nurse and in either case acting under the direction of a veterinary surgeon;
3. They have been satisfactorily assessed on a training course approved by the Secretary of State for that purpose;
4. Before these Regulations come into force they received training on implantation which included practical experience of implanting a microchip.

Text for:
The 16 Failings of Pet Microchip Scanning, and why the system doesn’t work.

1. There is no central database holding details of all UK microchips. Currently there are 13 UK databases.*

2. Microchips can be registered to more than one database leading to confusion. There is the potential for the same pet to be registered to different owners on different databases.

3. There is no legal requirement to scan by vets/authorities and to cross reference the registration details of all new pets to ensure the presenting owner and registered keeper match.

4. Vets only reliably scan and check the details of any pet brought in if they are surrendered as 'found' or are an RTA victim.

5. Microchips can fail or migrate around the body of the pet resulting in a failure to detect.

6. Most scanners are battery operated with the exception of the Halo. Scanners can be switched on with live but depleted batteries that do not have sufficient power to read a signal from an implanted chip. This leads to a false negative for the presence of a microchip.

7. Failure to detect an implanted chip can lead to the insertion of a second microchip. If inserted over the original it could effectively prevent the true identity of the pet from ever being read.

8. There is no standard policy as to who registers a newly implanted chip. Some vets/organisations/charities register microchips; others hand the paperwork to the owner to post or register online. Pets with unregistered chips cannot easily be reunited.

9. The public are often unaware that they must update their records with the database company if their details change or that they should contact the database company should their pet go missing.

10. There is a cost involved in updating chip details, leading to many being out of date.

11. The database companies do not notify the owners when personal data has been accessed on an account, suggesting a pet has been scanned. This is critical information when a pet has been registered as missing or stolen.

12. Keepership of a pet can be transferred to someone else by authorised persons without the owners consent or informing them.

13. Animals can be rehomed after just 7 days if they are not claimed. In the case of microchipped pets, they can be put up for adoption simply because there is no legal requirement to scan first. Smaller rescues and charities often do not hold scanners.

14. Police have few and inconsistent numbers of microchip scanners across a Force.

15. There is no standard procedure of compulsory scanning and recording of pets found deceased on highways, roads and railway lines. The microchip could and should give much needed closure to avoid endless searching.

16. Pets brought into the UK will be microchipped in order to travel but they will not be registered on a UK database. Many people believe this is automatically done.

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Sun, 2 Jun 2019 14:09:00 -0700

Gizmo's Legacy parliamentary debate 17 June 2019

URGENT: Please email your MP and tell them why you think it's important they should attend.

FIND MY MP http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

Why is this so important?
Cat and dog owners deserve to know if their pets have been killed on council roads.

This MPs Gizmos Legacy Pack has been sent to every MP.
Please ask your MP if he or she is attending and explain why you think that councils must not dispose of cats and dogs into landfill. Pets are not waste!
Councils must enforce a simple microchip scanning procedure as listed at the back of the MPs pack.
This needs to be done as a law to prevent owners searching for pets they will never find.

Click link below to see the MPs Pack.

The 2019 Cat Theft Report

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:33:00 -0700

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE UPDATED
2022 CAT THEFT REPORT

ARCHIVED PAGE: The 2019 UK Cat Theft Report:
Police crime figures updated and there's not much to purr about!

The 2018 data is now in and it is showing that recorded cat theft has risen by a shocking 34% in the past year, making the overall increase 114% since 2015. The big question is: how much of this increase is due to some police forces upping their game by recording these crimes and how much is it a reflection of the cat theft picture?

Before reading this report please ensure you sign the following important government petitions:
Make pet theft crime a specific offence with custodial sentences. : https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300071

Compulsory to scan & check microchips to reunite stolen dogs, cats. : https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300010/

Why the need for a Cat Theft Report?

Very little primary data has been gathered about the extent of the theft threat for cats and our feline companions were being left out of the debate as a result. It seemed to us that if we were ever going to be able to sharpen our claws when it comes to legislation this needed urgent addressing.

The Cat Theft Report 2019 is the result of data gathered under a Freedom of Information request to all UK police forces, covering the period 2015-2018 and aims to get the theft of cats under scrutiny alongside their canine friends. The figures make for sobering reading.

Do the police take cat theft seriously?

Given that the numbers recorded by police forces overall are dubiously low, the obvious answer to this question is a resounding, ‘No’ - not seriously enough!

One of the aims of this FOI request to UK constabularies was to establish whether our police forces were recording cases of cat theft and whether there appeared to be any consistency in process and policy.

What the results have shown is that there certainly seems to be a wide discrepancy: how well did your police force do?

Regional Data Recorded Cat Thefts 2015 to 2018

What does this data mean?

Our commendations go to the Metropolitan Police Force whose figures represent nearly 18% of the total number of cat thefts recorded in 2015-18, West Yorkshire at almost 9% and Kent at just over 7%.

Examining the data further, there are forces who recorded no cases of cat theft in a whole year – and some for consecutive years. Are they really crime free zones? West Midlands Police, for example, recorded only two cat thefts over the four year period. As the second largest police force covering Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton, we will leave it to you as to whether you are tempted to question the integrity of the recording process and whether this is likely to be a true reflection of the number reported.

Are the regions with higher numbers cat theft 'hot spots', or is it that these constabularies take this crime seriously and record data properly to give a true picture? We expected that some forces genuinely take this crime more seriously than others and hopefully by requesting these figures it will prompt better future records. It is important to note that we only have information on the reporting of cat theft. If two or more cats were stolen at the same time this data doesn't account for this.

A cat may have nine lives, but are any of them valued as they should be?
There are some important issues highlighted here.

In 2018 those failing to give us data were:

Hampshire Constabulary
Gloucestershire Constabulary
Northamptonshire Police
North Wales Police
North Yorkshire Police*
Police Scotland
Sussex Police

*North Yorkshire Police gave us their figures on April 1st 2019, after the graphs were made. Their data will be included in next year's figures.
"The total number of reports where a cat is recorded as ‘stolen’ in 2018 was 3". N.Yorks Police.

Why cat theft must be taken seriously.

“No one can truly understand the bond we form with the cats we love until they experience the loss of one” – Unknown

Toni Clarke and stolen Clooney

Cat theft victim Toni Clarke was devastated when her pet mysteriously disappeared after a courier driver left at her property during the summer of 2013. As soon as she noticed her cat had gone, she immediately reported the theft of her Siamese cat 'Clooney', but how seriously did the Police take her plea to get her family member back?

"The reaction of the policeman answering my call could only be described as instant, disinterested dismissal, citing a cat’s 'right to roam' and that they were in a separate category due to this well-accepted, nomadic instinct.

I tried reporting Clooney's disappearance as a theft again a few weeks later when I was utterly convinced there was no other explanation. I had spent every hour for weeks searching, putting up posters, delivering fliers, door knocking, walking, calling, crying.... He had quite simply vanished. And despite having employed the services of a tracker dog on two separate occasions who had found no trace of my boy, the answer was still a heart-sinkingly definitive, "No". Unless there was concrete proof, no Crime Reference Number would be issued.

Despite reporting Clooney as a potential victim of pet theft twice to Norfolk Police, he remains unrecorded on their statistics of theft. This is tough to accept. My experience throws a huge question mark over the integrity of police data and their consistency across Forces in recording what people are telling them. Owners' reporting of cat theft is distinct from, and shouldn't be confused with, police recording of pet theft crimes; the figures could paint an entirely different picture as my experience shows.
It is clear from the wide discrepancy in numbers documented across the forces, with some recording zero year on year such as Lincolnshire, Durham and West Midlands, that this could just as easily reflect the cold spots of police interest as it does the hot spots of cat theft crime.

Many Forces clearly take the theft of our felines much more seriously than others, and these Forces are to be commended. But we need consistency across the UK on their policies and attitude."

Does a cat's 'right to roam' give people a right to keep and the police a right to dismiss your claims of theft?

No! Keeping a displaced pet without making reasonable efforts to find the owner is 'Theft by Finding' and you can be charged. If you find yourself engaged in an ownership dispute or feel that you have rational cause to suspect that your cat has been stolen, don't be fobbed off by the police with this commonly-held view.

"As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat." Ellen Perry Berkeley
Except in law we do! Cats who wander are legally the property of the original owner.

Are valuable cat breeds being targeted?

Who steals cats and which breeds are most at risk?

Pedigrees have been targeted for resale or particularly for breeding.
Pedigree breeds are distinctive and easily identifiable, making them attractive targets for thieves, especially when you consider that kittens from Bengals, Siamese and Persian along with other desirable breeds, can sell for upwards of £400-£500.
Neutering your pet is the best way to protect them.
Consider having their tag engraved with ‘neutered’ or ‘spayed’.

Cats are stolen for many reasons but in many cases it is 'Theft by Finding'- a criminal offence where someone assumes possession without taking reasonable measures to find the true owner.

Ownership disputes can also occur when couples part or housemates separate. There have been incidents where an ex-partner has deliberately taken a cat as an act of revenge.

Which Forces have acted on Cat Theft?

Which are the Forces to be reckoned with when it comes to prosecutions and cautions?
This data is especially important in highlighting which constabularies have taken this crime seriously.

Just 1.3% of all recorded cat thefts resulted in prosecutions (2015-18).

2.3% of cases resulted in a police caution (2015-18)

Almost half of the police forces who provided data have failed to prosecute a single case of cat theft or issue a police caution over the entire four year period.

This looks bleak enough as a deterrent to stealing a cat, but when the figures are analysed for trends it’s a deteriorating picture.

In 2015, 3.3% of cat thefts resulted in prosecutions.

By 2018 prosecutions across all the forces had plunged to just 0.8% of all cases of cat theft – and these were all attributable in this year to just one police force, West Mercia. This significant decline in prosecutions needs to be set in the context of an increase in recorded cat theft crimes of 114% over the same period.

What can we make of this?

Do these huge differences in recorded cat theft figures suggest that there is a marked differential in recording criteria and will some forces only ever give a Crime Reference Number in the presence of very persuasive evidence? An analysis of the data would indeed seem to support this lack of uniformity in policy.

The Metropolitan police force are top-of-the-league recorders of cat theft by a runaway margin (197 cases 2015-18), however, when it comes to action, their offenders seem to be slinking off… Just 1% of all these cases were prosecuted or cautioned.

Cumbria, on the other hand, recorded just 6 cases of cat theft in the same study period, but their record on issuing cautions was 50%.

Just fifteen prosecutions in total 2015-2018:

"Well done to the constabularies who have brought prosecutions. The figures show there has been a total of only fifteen prosecutions in four years. The cautions would suggest that the suffering of the owner is not being considered. The theft of a pet is life changing so a 'slap-on-the-wrist' caution is not the strong deterrent needed to cut this crime. Unfortunately, the value of the stolen 'object' is the deciding factor when it comes to punishments.".
Richard Jordan, Pet Theft Awareness.

Stolen V Missing: Police criteria for recording a crime - is there a uniformity across the forces?

What criteria do constabularies use for recording a cat stolen as opposed to missing and are your chances of having your concerns taken seriously dependent on a police force’s formal policy? Could it even come down to the personal attitude of the officer? We asked each force this crucial question and what came back was extremely varied and somewhat perturbing.

Many of the constabularies cited the 'Home Office Counting Rules' on whether or when to record a crime. Essentially, this is determined on ‘balance of probability’ that a) the circumstances of the victim’s report amount to a crime as defined by law and b) there is no credible evidence to the contrary immediately available.

So far so good, but what does it mean when it comes to the typical ambiguity surrounding the disappearance of a cat? We can only conclude that it seems to us that this was up for individual interpretation:

"If an individual believed their cat to be missing it would be recorded as such. If, however, they believed that it had been stolen it would be recorded as stolen and the Local Neighbourhood Team informed." (Derbyshire)

"Missing is not a property status variable…. therefore if a cat is reported as stolen it will always be recorded as such." (Devon and Cornwall)

"Cats being cats do go walkabout and unless there was anything to suggest that a crime has been committed then they would just assume to be missing." (West Midlands – might explain their zero return!)

"We would never record a missing cat as theft. It would not be ‘crimed’ unless there was evidence to support the assumption it had been stolen." (Humberside)

We can probably conclude that geographical location will influence whether your claim for being a victim of cat theft crime will be recorded and given that all-important Crime Reference Number.

Insist on a Crime Reference Number!

Jayne Hayes

DogLost.co.uk also reunites cats with owners. Their founder Jayne Hayes agrees that some police constabularies might be letting cat owners down by not recording cat theft, "We have over 3,000 cats registered with us and have only THREE cats have been issued with a CRN number as stolen!".

Pet Theft Awareness suggests that if at first you are refused a CRN then you are persistent and insist on getting one. You can even register a complaint if your claim is not taken seriously.

What Should Cat Owners Do?

Establish who legally owns each pet.

Have plenty of photographs, especially showing any distinguishing features.

Every time you visit your vet ensure the microchip is checked.

Theft by Finding is a crime.
If you find a stray you must take reasonable action to find the owner.

Be aware of any local hot-spots of cats going missing. Share information.

If you are a cat theft victim insist that the police record it as a crime. As you can see from the results some forces are better at recording thefts than others. If at first you are denied a crime number please explain you require it and challenge the decision until you are issued one.

More cats are reported missing year-on-year:

Wayne May of DogLost explains "We're getting an average of 90 cats each month registered as missing or stolen and this number has been increasing year on year. Due to the nature of cats, it's hard to ascertain actual thefts.".
DogLost.co.uk is the UK's largest service for missing / stolen and found pets. Any animal can be registered and their service is free.

Campaigner and dog theft victim Debbie Matthews adds: "We are grateful to Pet Theft Awareness, our partners at Stolen And Missing Pets Alliance (SAMPA) for working on Cat Theft figures. The way police categorise Pet Theft varies and the same issues arise for both dogs and cats, although we have the added problem with cats as they have the right to roam and they will often have several homes they like to visit!

To members of the public we ask you to ‘think lost’ when you see a stray cat or dog, they may be someone’s beloved pet. Please report to the local animal warden and try to capture them and take to the vet to be scanned for a microchip. Theft by Finding is a huge problem and estimating how many pets have disappeared this way is impossible to guess.

Will pet insurance companies offer any help in finding stolen pets?

The Insurance Emporium’s Chief Executive Officer, Francis Martin, said:
“The Insurance Emporium support the important work being done by Pet Theft Awareness, highlighting significant issues surrounding cat theft. Our policies recognise that cats do unfortunately go missing, whether by deliberate theft, theft-by-finding or because the cat has gone roaming. We recognise that the devastation of losing a beloved cat is the same for the cat’s owner whatever the cause.
Cats, as we know, aren’t inanimate objects – they’re so much more than that. Our policies reflect this by offering a number of measures which help reunite owners with their missing cat, including cover for advertising and reward to try to find the missing pet. Our customers also have the option of choosing to add our National Pet Register Elective Benefit to their policies; a 24-hour lost and found service for cat owners. We wish Pet Theft Awareness the best of luck with their campaign to reform cat theft legislation and procedures, hopefully this will deter would-be cat thieves which can only be good news.”

The Insurance Emporium donate money to the Pet Theft Awareness campaign for policies taken out from this link. Please help them support us if you requite pet insurance.

What is the purpose of this Cat Theft report?

Our aim is to encourage all authorities to understand that cats can be, and are being, stolen. To take it seriously it should be recorded properly. It is difficult to conclude much from the data but in a few years' time some patterns might emerge.

Praise must be given to all the forces and police personnel who understand that cats are family.
We'd like more understanding and action for victims and through perseverance we hope this can be achieved.

Please mention Pet Theft Awareness or SAMPA if using any content.
Support #PetTheftReform
PetTheft.org.uk
SAMPA: Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance

Compiled by Richard Jordan and Toni Clarke

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 13:46:00 -0700

Here are the 2019 seventh annual #PetTheftAwarenessWeek graphics and poster.

#DogTheftAwarenessDay 14th March
#MissingCatsDay 21st March

DOWNLOAD and PRINT this A4 poster

DogLost.co.uk has produced this video for Dog Theft Awareness Day

Ahead of the awareness week we published this image:

Councils need to STOP throwing away our pets!

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Fri, 8 Feb 2019 09:27:00 -0800

The Pet Scanning Scandal!

Most pet owners are shocked to find out that many councils are simply disposing of traffic accident pets WITHOUT a simple scan to inform the owners.

Imagine the heartache of someone searching for a pet which the council have not bothered to scan. A one minute scan can halt a lifetime of searching.

Heléna and Gizmo

Heléna Abrahams is campaigning with her petition on behalf of millions of pet owners after her cat, Gizmo, became an RTA victim and was not scanned.
UPDATE: Success!
Her petition has implications for all cat and dog owners.
She reached 107,062 which triggered a parliamentary debate and a future invitation to speak to DEFRA who are now considering options and a planned meeting.

What is 'Gizmo's Legacy' and why is it vital that councils scan pets they find?

much loved Gizmo

"Gizmo's Legacy is a government petition to get some real scanning legislation for pets so that what happened to me doesn't happen to other pet owners.
It started after Gizmo was thrown away after being involved in a road traffic accident (rta) without her chip being checked. Sixteen years she was in my life but she was just classed as a piece of rubbish.".

How long had you spent searching for Gizmo before finding out she had been found and disposed of without even being scanned?

"We spent several weeks of searching and calling around until our worst fears were admitted. When we looked into the issue of what happens to pets found by the council it became very clear that there were no proper rules in place. Some councils act properly and some councils will scan dogs but not cats. Some councils have procedures but they are not followed or enforced."

Gizmo's body was never scanned

I set up the Facebook group Deceased Cats UK and IRL where anyone with a missing cat could come to one place and look to see if their cat had been involved in a RTA so they could get closure quickly. It was through this group we got word of cats being thrown in to the back of refuse trucks and caged vans owned by councils. I knew the only way to stop this was to start a government petition as trying to talk to councils was pointless. We now have hundreds of volunteers who as soon as the posts go on the group race out to beat the council to these little ones. They are scanned and if chipped they are reunited and if not chipped they are treated with dignity and taken to vets and we use photos to try and find the owners.
We need the whole country behind us now to get these last signatures or cats will
just keep being thrown away.".

How quick is it to scan a microchip?

Campaigner Debbie Matthews

Founder of Vets Get Scanning, Debbie Matthews, also of SAMPA, the 'Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance' explains:
"The public have been led to believe that if we microchip our pets it’s our best chance of being reunited with them. Sadly as you can see from the Gizmo's Legacy petition that scanning microchips as mandatory is non existent and the loopholes continue to widen. “.

"Scanning a pet for a microchip is not difficult, nor is it expensive. Each council simply needs a reliable microchip scanner and have an authorised login to the databases in order to be able to find the pet owner's contact details. It really is that quick and simple.".

Toni Clarke and Clooney

There is NOT a standardised policy for councils to follow!

Toni Clarke's cat Clooney was stolen in June 2013. Today her best chance to reunite will probably come from Clooney's microchip:
"Whilst some local councils have a policy of scanning cats who have become RTA victims, many do not. Currently there is no consistent approach across the UK, with councils or their contractors for road cleansing not even being required to hold microchip scanners as standard, let alone scan.
Whilst the Highways Agency has been mandated to collect, scan and notify owners when a deceased pet has been picked up on a motorway or major road, no such obligation is in place to cover family cats who become victims on council controlled minor roads - and this is where the majority are killed.
Making it a requirement for all UK councils to scan would ensure that owners could be saved the heartache of endless searching and wondering what happened. No much-loved family pet should ever just be thrown away!"

Who else has this happened to?

Some may know the story of Coco who was killed in an RTA last December on Dunmore Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Coco

He was at the side of the road for 24 hours without the owners knowing. The owners heard via Facebook a deceased cat was on the path. They later heard the local council were called. After an extensive search having put up posters, calling vets, charities, registering him on Pets Reunited, the council and Biffa (contracted waste team) and having put up a sign asking for information at the point he was seen, the owners were still at a loss as to where he was.
Owner Sarah Brown explains "We spoke to Biffa four times on the day he was taken and I felt I was being more of a hindrance than receiving any support. Each time they had no news. A week after he went missing we received a reply on Facebook that someone saw a Biffa lorry collect the cat and put it in a blue bag. Without this message we would never have known. My husband went to the office immediately with this information.
We waited for the manager's reply but didn't hear for hours later, so I called the council complaints office. Finally we had an answer. They had collected him. The driver put the bag to one side at the depot and got distracted, someone else then put all of them out for incineration. Because of Biffa Waste, we did not get to bring Coco home to be cremated as we would have, but due to their incompetence they did not scan for his microchip and put him out to be incinerated on the same day when collecting wildlife involved in RTAs.".

Currently there is no scanning legislation!

Dr Daniel Allen

“If a cat or dog loses their life in a road traffic accident, councils can simply throw the body away. Scanning deceased cats and dogs for microchips is not compulsory, which means families across the country will never be reunited with their missing pets. This is wrong. It should be compulsory for cats and dogs to be scanned by authorities. If you agree, please add your signature to the Gizmos Legacy petition, and please share widely with friends and family.” Dr. Daniel Allen.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229004

Is Gizmos Legacy also important to DOG owners?

Emmerdale actresses Samantha Giles
and Katherine Dow Blyton.

#GizmosLegacy is important to dog owners because currently there is no requirement for councils (or vets) to scan any deceased pets for microchips. The exact same thing has happened to dog owners. There have been several incidents where dog owners have spent thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours searching for a missing dog - only to find that someone from the council sees a 'missing' poster and remembers disposing of a dog matching the description, without even checking for a microchip.

The current system is a muddle with no structured procedure or policy standardised in place. Pets are family members and it is an outrage that cats and dogs are being tossed away without any concern for a distraught owner.
Pet owners pay council tax and the very least they should expect is a council having a scanner and a few moments to scan a pet.

Heléna Abrahams has celebrity backing for her petition from Emmerdale actresses Samantha Giles and Katherine Dow Blyton. She has also appeared on the television show Do the Right Thing.

To view the closed petition click here:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229004

Other Links:
Gizmos Legacy Twitter
Dr.Daniel Allen Twitter
Find Clooney Twitter

Compiled by Richard Jordan from:
Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance website
Pet Theft Awareness website
Vets Get Scanning website

Ross Thompson MP Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Pet Theft Awareness) — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 08:47:00 -0800

Ross Thomson MP’s second reading of the Pet (Theft) Bill
has been postponed so that DEFRA and the government can have a thorough look at the details of Ross's proposals.

Please tell us about your own pet(s) and what they mean to you?

I have a two year old Jack Russel cross Yorkshire Terrier called Poppy. The worst part of my job as an MP is every Monday morning and having to leave her to travel down to London. The fact she knows I’m leaving and does her uptmost to make me feel guilty about it just makes heading to London so much more harder.

I could not imagine returning home to find that Poppy wasn’t there, I don’t even want to contemplate the notion of her being stolen. For me, just like the millions of pet owners across the UK, Poppy is my family. To be honest I’m like a proud Dad. She has her moments, like any teenager, but I love her to bits and I would hate it for anything to happen to her.

You've already involved yourself in other pet welfare issues. How did you first become aware that pet theft is a (rising) crime and why you decided to do something about it?

Since being elected to Parliament in June 2017 I have been involved in a number of Pet and animal welfare issues. I have campaigned to ban the use and sale of electric shock collars, for the introduction of Lucy’s Law, for the introduction of Finn’s Law, for action to deal with puppy smuggling and for tougher sentences for Animal cruelty.

I was made aware of the growing issue of Pet Theft during the campaign I was running to ban the use and sale of electric shock dog collars. Dog owners who had suffered the distress of having their dog stolen contacted me to share their stories which were truly heart-breaking.

Looking into this issue further I discovered recent findings published by Direct Line Pet Insurance, using UK police statistics, which show an upward trend in pet thefts in recent years, with a 14% rise in 2016 and a further 6.8% increase in 2017

Last year, 61 French bulldogs were stolen – a 27% rise year on year, while Staffies remain the most targeted dog with 210 stolen in 2017.

I came to the conclusion that a change in the law could have a significant impact on these figures.

Pet and horse owners are often very surprised to find out that their animal family members are legally regarded as objects when it comes to theft.What changes would you like to see amended into the 1968 Theft Act?

Pet theft can cause lasting damage to a family, more so than the theft of an inanimate object of the same sort of financial value.

As Dawn Maw – who spent thousands of pounds, took an extended period of time off work, and suffered the breakdown of her marriage after her dog Angel was stolen in 2013 – has said, “losing Angel was like losing my life.”

Or consider the case of Kieran Hamilton, who was stabbed 40 times in a burglary in which his dog Rambo was stolen. According to his mother, he just wants his dog back.

Or the case of Rita and Philip Potter, whose Labrador Daisy vanished from their own back garden in Norfolk eight months ago. Rita says that Daisy was such “a beautiful dog, she was a wonderful companion. We have got seven grandchildren, and they all miss her so much. At Christmas time, our little granddaughter, who is just five years old, said all she wanted for Christmas was Daisy back home.”

As it stands, the law does not properly recognise the real harm that pet theft can cause, because pets are not inherently treated differently to inanimate objects.

In England and Wales, sentencing guidelines are based primarily around the financial value of the possession, whether it be a mobile phone, a TV, or a beloved family pet.

When Dawn Maw, who described Angel as her “best friend,” said that “my phone might have cost the same as Angel, but could have been replaced within 24 hours,” she got to the heart of the absurdity of this situation.

Victims of pet theft have not just lost a financial asset; they’ve lost a much-loved member of the family. Pet theft can be a truly devastating and distressing experience. Losing a Pet can tear the heart out of a family. And that is what the law should, but doesn’t, recognise.

Can you explain briefly what a Private Members' Bill? Can you give us a summary of your Pets (Theft) Bill proposal?

A change in the law is necessary to deliver justice for victims of pet theft, and to give more peace of mind to the 12 million UK households with a pet.

This Bill will create a new, separate criminal offence in its own right of pet theft, recognising the self-evident fact that the theft of a living, sentient being is in a whole different category to the theft of an inanimate object.

We are talking about the abduction of an animal, of what most pet owners would consider a central part of their family. It’s a crime that’s either more thoughtless or more malicious – or both – than the theft of an inanimate possession.

And the Bill will also require that sentencing is appropriate to the level of emotional harm caused by the theft, recognising that, for victims of pet theft, it’s the emotional loss, not the financial loss, that really matters.

After all, today a growing number of companies offer bereavement leave for employees who’ve lost a pet. If we can give due recognition to the emotional effects of the loss of a pet in other walks of life, why can’t we do a better job of it in the courts?

My intention is that this Bill effect these necessary changes across Great Britain – in England and Wales, yes, but also in Scotland.

Your Bill considers pet theft as an animal welfare issue. This is different crime than a theft issue?

No, but current criminal law relating theft is not adequate in recognising the significant and emotional role that our pets play in our lives compared to a mere possession.

For many people, it can be hard to truly comprehend the impact that losing a pet can have.

These animals are an integral part of the families that look after them, or indispensable companions to those who may live alone. As things stand, the law does not recognise a pet as being any different to any other inanimate possession of the same value. But a pet is not something you can simply replace.

You had your 1st reading in the House of Commons on the 3rd July, 2018. How did this go?

The first reading of my Bill went well. It was an opportunity to raise awareness of the issue of Pet Theft amongst other MPs who were able to show their support for the Bill by being present in the Chamber. I also needed to demonstrate that I had cross party support for my Bill by obtaining signatures from other MPs which I am pleased to report I found very easily.

What is the process now for you to further your Bill?

Having now introduced the title of my Bill the next steps are that the Bill is published as a House of Commons paper for the first time.

The next stage is second reading, which is the 23th November (now postponed to allow more time for the government to look at the details) which is the first opportunity for MPs to debate the general principles and themes of the Bill.

Finally, have you met any victims of pet theft and if so has it made you more determined to amend the law?

During the course of my campaign I have met several victims of Pet Theft, I have heard the distress and upset in their voice, I have had people cry because the to this day have no idea what happened to their pet, if they are ok or if they are even still alive. I have seen and heard at first hand the devastation that pet theft causes.

It shows how clearly abhorrent the crime is. How truly wicked it is. Having heard these experiences and reflecting on how I would feel should such a horrible thing happen to me it has made me incredibly determine to bring justice to the victims and send the clearest possible message to these criminals.

Pet Theft Awareness

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2026

GTAW 2025 Week Planner:

GTAW 2025 Week Planner:

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2025

2025 PTAW Day Planner:

Gundog Theft Awareness Week 2024.

What is the Pet Abduction Act 2024?

What is the Pet Abduction Act 2024?

The Act comprises two separate offences: Dog Abduction and Cat Abduction.

England and NI only.

Our Opinion

IS THE PROPOSED CAT ABDUCTION OFFENCE IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY?

IS THE PROPOSED CAT ABDUCTION OFFENCE IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY?

Who Is Christopher Chope?

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2024

2024 PTAW Day Planner:

TEMPLATE LETTER TO SEND TO YOUR MP - including cats in proposed Pet Abduction Offence

TEMPLATE LETTER TO SEND TO YOUR MP

Please cut and paste the template letter and send it to your MP.(or feel free to personalise as you wish).

APGOCATS Parliamentary Event 14th March 2023/ The Inclusion of cats in the proposed Pet Abduction offence.

APGOCATS Parliamentary Drop-in Event for MPs 14th March 2023

TEMPLATE LETTER TO SEND TO YOUR MP

Please cut and paste the template letter and send it to your MP. (Or feel free to personalise as you wish).

APGOCATS Parliamentary Event 14th March 2023

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2023

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2023

0. Mar 11th: Pre Week - highlighting PTAW and blogs (Sat)1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Tues) 2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Wed) 3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Fri)4. Mar.19th: Horse (Sun) 5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Mon)6. Mar.21st: #StolenAndMissingCatsDay (Tue)

1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Tues)

2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Wed)

3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Fri)

4. Mar.19th: Horse (Sun)

5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Mon)

6. Mar.21st: #StolenAndMissingCatsDay (Tue)

Template Letter for MPS - including cats in proposed Pet Abduction Offence

Pet Abduction legislation MUST include cats.

Cats are family members - can you help us by writing to your MP?

The Cat Theft Report 2022 - The Summary

The Summary

“Stealing pets is evil and depraved. It brings profound unhappiness. It cannot and will not be tolerated”.

Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Home Secretary

Contents

Preface

Main Findings

The Pet Abduction Offence: Why we believe the Government is wrong to exclude our feline friends?

Is cat theft being afforded sufficient priority by our police?

“One of the recommendations that we will be developing further is the introduction of a new pet abduction offence, reflecting the fact that pets are not just property.”

George Eustace MP, Secretary of State, DEFRA.

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

The Cat Theft Report 2022

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.

Why the need for a Cat Theft Report?

We look at the evidence: Is cat theft is being afforded any greater priority by our police?

How well did your police force do in 2021: which forces are upping their game and which are we keeping under surveillance?

In 2021 those failing to give us data were:

Why cat theft must be taken seriously.

Does a cat's 'right to roam' give people a right to keep and the police a right to dismiss your claims of theft?

Are valuable cat breeds being targeted?

Who steals cats and which breeds are most at risk?

Theft by Finding - a very covert operation.

Stolen or Missing: Police criteria for recording a crime - is there a uniformity across the forces?

Insist on a Crime Reference Number!

What Should Cat Owners Do?

"More cats are reported missing or stolen year-on-year"

What is the purpose of this Cat Theft report?

Compiled by Richard Jordan and Toni Clarke

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2022

Pet Theft Awareness Week 2022 - Day Planner:

What is #ClooneysLaw? #PetAbduction must include cats!

A Background to Clooney.

“It is impossible to describe the torture that is pet theft.” – Toni Clarke

FACT: Clooney is out there somewhere.

Since 2015 hundreds of stolen cats have been recorded by police as thefts.

So with some background information on #ClooneysLaw we hope you can help us support all pets and their families. Please post the link below and let's reach our target.https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

Cat Theft Report 2021

VISIT THE 2022 CAT THEFT REPORT

(ARCHIVED PAGE) The 2021 UK Cat Theft Report:

In a year of soaring dog thefts during lockdown, we are asking the question: Are our family cats a target too?

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.

Why the need for a Cat Theft Report?

The Act comprises two separate offences:
Dog Abduction and Cat Abduction.

Please cut and paste the template letter and send it to your MP.
(or feel free to personalise as you wish).

Please cut and paste the template letter and send it to your MP.
(Or feel free to personalise as you wish).

0. Mar 11th: Pre Week - highlighting PTAW and blogs (Sat)
1. Mar.14th: DTAD - Who Steals Dogs? (Tues)
2. Mar.15th: Prevention (Wed)
3. Mar.17th: Where are Pets Stolen? (Fri)
4. Mar.19th: Horse (Sun)
5. Mar.20th: Don't Buy Stolen Pets (Mon)
6. Mar.21st: #StolenAndMissingCatsDay (Tue)

Please sign our important government petition: Extend the new dog abduction theft offence to cover cats and all kept animals.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

So with some background information on #ClooneysLaw we hope you can help us support all pets and their families. Please post the link below and let's reach our target.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/602349

(ARCHIVED PAGE)
The 2021 UK Cat Theft Report:

Images below copyright free.
Staged dog theft photographs.

Victims of pet theft often feel they are banging their heads against a brick wall.
This blog exposes the shocking flaws in the microchipping system and inadequate police resources.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE UPDATED
2022 CAT THEFT REPORT

ARCHIVED PAGE: The 2019 UK Cat Theft Report:
Police crime figures updated and there's not much to purr about!