Petition · past parliament

Amend the Road Traffic Act to make it illegal to hit a cat and not report it

Rejected 14 signatures

What the petition asks

Amend the Road Traffic Act of 1998 to include Cats in the defined list of animals that drivers have to stop and report when an accident occurs involving them.
Amending this law will bring closure to families whose cats disappear and they never find out why.
Research has shown that around 8000 cats are killed in road accidents and left unreported in England alone.
This sometimes leads to days if not constant uncertainty as to when a cat goes missing.

If a driver did hit a cat and legally had to report it, it would bring closure to the families and then they would be able to move on. A change in the law could make a huge difference to a lot of families whose cat's have gone missing for days and left on the side of the road or disposed of.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

Timeline

2 Oct 2020 Petition opened for signatures
8 Oct 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 14
Status Rejected
Rejected 8 Oct 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.