One-year-old Ella is a classic example of a cat Battersea staff believe had an owner and was mistaken for a stray before being brought to the rescue centre.

Battersea urge owners to microchip their cats to avoid them becoming mistaken for strays

One in five people would assume a cat roaming in their garden was a stray and immediately take it to a rescue centre, the vets or into their home, a new YouGov survey has revealed.

The survey was conducted for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, who say that almost 3,000 cats a year are brought to the charity - 46 per cent of which are classed as "strays". Battersea say that their London cattery is almost at full capacity because many of these suspected strays have owners, but they're not microchipped with their details.

Lindsey Quinlan, Battersea's head of London cattery, said: "It's heart-breaking to see so many cats come through our doors which we truly believe have loving owners out there, but have no way of contacting them. Only 15 per cent of the cats brought into Battersea have microchips. Cats that look like a healthy weight, have clean coats and confident around people are usually not strays and are just out wandering around the neighbourhood."

The survey also revealed that a quarter of the population would assume a cat was a stray if it didn't have a collar, over one in four would think a cat was homeless if it ate food quickly, and over half of the people surveyed chose options that Battersea would not recommend as good indicators of a cat being a stray.

Lindsey added that the only way to truly tell if a cat is a stray is if it's malnourished, dirty or seen living in your garden.

'Sadly, cats with homes don't always wear collars or have microchips, and will very rarely turn down a free meal. So, animal charities across the UK must tackle this problem to make sure there is space for cats which are genuine strays or whose owners can no longer care for them. We're asking owners to get their pets microchipped because this survey has revealed concern, but well meaning, people are literally taking cats off the streets and bringing them to us to find them new homes."

Image (C) Battersea Dogs & Cats Home