Gizmo’s Legacy petition to be debated in Parliament

A petition calling for local authorities to check all cats killed or injured on the roads for a microchip will be debated in Parliament on Monday 17 June.

Gizmo’s Legacy was started after the eponymous cat was hit by a car and euthanised, despite being microchipped. As a result, she was not reunited with her distraught owner, Heléna Abrahams, of Bury, who has called for the UK government to change the law.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/126795/littleborough-cat-rescue-urges-people-to-back-gizmos-legacy-petition-to-scan-all-cats-killed-on-the-roads-for-microchips
   
• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/123243/support-gizmos-legacy-in-scanning-all-cats-killed-on-the-roads-for-microchips

Now, following Heléna’s petition, which garnered over 107,000 signatures from across the UK, Gizmo’s Legacy will be debated in Parliament on 17 June.

The petition gathered the most support of anywhere in the country in Heywood and Middleton (634 signatures), and Rochdale (607 signatures).

Heléna said: “We are absolutely delighted to be going to debate and can’t thank everyone enough for backing the campaign. Now we have to make the law happen for all our pets.

“We will be at Manchester Piccadilly Station at 11am [on 17 June] in our Gizmo t-shirts and we will have our posters.

Heléna and a group of campaigners will be handing the petition over to Downing Street at 3pm with the debate taking place at 4.30pm.

If approved, the UK law could require that cats be scanned by councils in the same way that dogs are, saving their owners from the heartache of not knowing what happened to their beloved pet.

Rochdale Borough Council previously told Rochdale Online it has a policy in place to scan deceased cats for microchips and 'makes every effort to identify pet owners'.

Despite being one of the UK's most popular pets, it is not required by law to report running a cat over: as cats can roam freely, the same argument which makes reporting a dog mandatory simply does not stand.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, you must stop and report the collision to the police if you hit kill, injure or hit any of the following: dogs, horses, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, donkeys and mules.

In the eyes of the law, accidents involving dogs are more likely to lead to damage, either to property or people, so drivers need to report the details to the police to establish liability.

Because dogs are required to wear collars and be kept on a lead on the highway, drivers need to report accidents involving dogs in case an offence has been committed by the owner.

The debate will be aired on the UK Parliament YouTube channel:

• www.youtube.com/UKParliament