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Government urged to regulate cat breeding
Scottish folds are one of the pedigree cat breeds that can have breed-related health problems.
Report from Animal Welfare Committee calls for new legislation.

The Animal Welfare Committee, which advises the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Scottish and Welsh governments, has called for new legislation to regulate cat breeding.

The call is included in a new independent report on cat breeding produced by the the committee, which is made up of veterinary and animal welfare experts.

The committee wants to see licensing introduced that explicitly prevents the breeding of cats which suffer from health and welfare problems linked to breed characteristics.

The recommendations also include allowing only registered veterinary surgeons to undertake ultrasound scans of pet cats for pregnancy diagnosis and only after careful consideration has been given to welfare harms, and that all artificial reproductive procedures should be banned from being used in domesticated cats.

The committee’s report has been welcomed by Cats Protection. According to the charity’s Cats And Their Stats report for this year, sales of pedigree cats have overtaken sales of non-pedigree cats for the first time.

The charity is concerned that some genetic mutations in pedigree cats, such as that which causes the folded ears of Scottish fold cats, can also cause significant health and welfare problems. A petition launched by the charity calling for cat breeding to be regulated has attracted more than 50,000 signatures.

Madison Rogers, associate director of advocacy, campaigns and external affairs for Cats Protection, said: “Cats Protection has been calling on the government to urgently introduce regulations to licence cat breeding.

“Following engagement earlier this year with the Animal Welfare Committee, we are delighted to see they have released an independent report recommending that the government regulate cat breeding and ban the breeding of cats with known and harmful extreme traits.”

The full report from the Animal Welfare Committee can be read here.

Image © Shutterstock

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Applications open for MMI research grants

News Story 1
 RCVS' Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) has launched round two of its veterinary mental health research grants.

Researchers have until 11.59pm on Wednesday, 28 May 2025 to apply for a grant for research which reflects MMI's 2025 focus areas.

Only one Impact Grant was awarded last year, and so this year there are two Discovery Grants and one Impact Grants available. Each Discovery Grant is worth £5,000 and the Impact Grant is worth £15,000.

For more information or to apply, email researchgrants@rcvs.org.uk to contact the MMI team.

 

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News Shorts
Germany livestock import ban lifted

The UK government has amended its ban on the import of livestock, meat and dairy products from Germany.

Defra said the decision follows 'rigorous technical assessment' of the measures applied and the current situation. "If the situation changes, we will not hesitate to take necessary action in response to the FMD outbreaks in the European Union to protect our domestic biosecurity," it said.

The ban was implemented in January following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) near Berlin. Personal imports of meat, milk and dairy products will remain in place at a country level.