Petition · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Require domestic cats to be kept inside April-September and wear belled collars
Closed
345 signatures
What the petition asks
We require domestic cats to wear quick release multi-belled harnesses or belled collars all the time, when cats are venturing outside, and/or be kept house bound between the start of April, right through to the end of September, annually.
This timescale is the most important period of the year for wildlife to breed, raise their young and maintain their numbers, without being predated.
We want legal protection of wildlife from cat predation. Domesticated cats predate through instinct alone, an estimated 270 million animals and songbirds annually in the UK. We think the loss of tens of millions of animals and songbirds each year through cat predation is an increasingly worrying sign of some species being unable to maintain numbers and becoming possibly extinct in the future.
Over the years, birds have been suffering from habitat loss, climate change and the seriously declining insect numbers, the very food that most birds depend upon and cat predation only condenses the seriousness of falling wildlife numbers.
We want legal protection of wildlife from cat predation. Domesticated cats predate through instinct alone, an estimated 270 million animals and songbirds annually in the UK. We think the loss of tens of millions of animals and songbirds each year through cat predation is an increasingly worrying sign of some species being unable to maintain numbers and becoming possibly extinct in the future.
Over the years, birds have been suffering from habitat loss, climate change and the seriously declining insect numbers, the very food that most birds depend upon and cat predation only condenses the seriousness of falling wildlife numbers.
Timeline
| 16 Dec 2025 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 16 Jun 2026 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
345
Status
Closed
Department
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Opened
16 Dec 2025
Closed
16 Jun 2026
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 5 Aug 2026.