Cat owners are urged to microchip their pets
Yorkshire Cat Rescue warns that cats involved in road traffic accidents are in danger of being put to sleep if their owners cannot be located.
Although vets will make an injured cat as comfortable as possible, they are often unable to provide comprehensive treatment if there are no owners to pick up the bill, and animal shelters often cannot make room for new arrivals, the charity says.
June is National Microchipping Month, when charities and pet companies come together to educate pet owners about this precaution, and about the importance of keeping contact details up to date. Despite it being a quick and affordable procedure, many cats in Britain have still not been microchipped.
Sara Atkinson, founder of Yorkshire Cat Rescue said: “People often fail to make the mind-leap that their cat could have been picked up by a kind stranger outside of their immediate neighbourhood and taken to a vet or animal rescue some distance away.
"Many simply assume that a lost cat will find its way home sooner or later but this is far from always the case. Adverts in local newspapers are no good if they are distributed in the wrong town or city.”
Sara urges all cat owners to make sure their cats have been microchipped and that those details are kept up to date at all times.
“If all cats were microchipped the owners would be notified immediately should their cat get injured and end up at the vet. Should the saddest thing happen and the cat doesn’t survive, at least the owners would know what happened and not be left searching in vain.”
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
