Sector news
Are Cats Going to be Banned in Scotland
The media have gone to town with headlines about ‘the fur flying’ and ‘getting into a flap’ over a recently published report from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) called Responsible ownership and care of domestic cats in Scotland.
As is often the case, reporters appear to have misinterpreted elements of the report to create controversial headlines by implying that cats may be banned in Scotland or may be forcibly contained. After a public outcry, John Swinney, the First Minister of Scotland had to make a hasty declaration that there was no intention of banning our much-loved feline companions.
SAWC is a group of eminent animal welfare experts with the remit of providing scientific and ethical information to the Scottish Government to protect wild and companion animals.
The report lays out the welfare issues of owned and unowned domestic cats in Scotland but also reports on the impact cats have on the Scottish Wild Cat (SWC) and other wildlife. This is where the controversy has arisen.
In terms of responsible cat ownership, it concentrates on the key actions of microchipping, vaccination, parasite control, neutering and making provision for veterinary care, discusses the pros and cons of each and recommends how each of these should be delivered. It recommends that microchipping of owned cats should be compulsory, following the change in the law in England in June 2024. However, it recommends encouraging owners to vaccinate, use parasite control and to neuter rather than making them compulsory, though neutering will be kept under review. It stresses the need for more data on the movement of cats between different groups such as owned, farm and feral and how the neutering of each group affects the population overall.
The domestic cat Felis catus, is classified as a non-native species in Scotland, having probably been brough the UK by the Romans. The only native cat in the UK is the Scottish Wild Cat, which sadly, with only a few hundred individuals remaining, is on the verge of extinction in the wild. It used to be widespread across the UK, but the population declined rapidly in the 19th and early 20th century, predominantly due to hunting, persecution by gamekeepers to protect their game birds and loss of habitat.
With increasing numbers of free roaming owned and feral cats, and declining numbers of SWC, there is now competition for suitable territory and prey and the possibility of infectious disease being spread from unvaccinated domestic cats to the more vulnerable SWC. The biggest issue currently, is hybridisation i.e. as the SCW and the domestic cat are genetically very similar, they can mate and produce fertile offspring. With the decline in SWC numbers, this is happening more frequently, and recent research has shown that almost all wild SWC have some domestic cat genes. Only captive bred ones are currently genetically pure, but their gene pool is limited.
Initial projects to conserve pure SWC concentrated on trying to control free-roaming domestic cats in SWC areas via trap, neuter, vaccinate and release programmes (TNVR). It is not permitted to release non-native species, once captured except under licence from NatureScot (Scotland’s nature agency) irrespective of whether it is neutered or not.
Although TNVR was proposed in the initial projects to conserve SWCs, the position in respect of alternative methods, such as lethal control, was not always clear and there were media reports and concerns at the time about the possible use of lethal control to prevent interbreeding. There were also concerns about the use of lethal methods by land managers to control feral domestic cat populations. The law in this respect is quite complicated.
Scotland's Animal Welfare Act
Under Scotland’s Animal Welfare Act, domestic cats, including feral cats, are ‘protected animals’ and it is an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to protected animals.
However, the Act also contains a potential defence to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering if there is evidence to show that protected animals, such as feral cats, were killed or injured to protect other animals such as game birds. The Act also contains various other factors that must be considered in determining whether any suffering was unnecessary; it doesn’t provide a blanket licence to shoot cats and the concern was that the use of lethal control to prevent interbreeding might be seen as justifiable by some.
TNVR is challenging in SWC areas due to the rugged terrain and the limited capacity of trained trappers to catch enough feral cats to make a significant impact.
More recent efforts have concentrated on breeding and releasing captive SWC into protected areas and some European Wild Cats have been introduced to the programme to diversify the gene pool. The SWC is a subpopulation of the European Wild Cat and is genetically very similar – so similar in fact that they are not considered a true subspecies. Captive breeding and release programmes are not straight forward; SWC are released into protected areas, but it is also important that local domestic cats are neutered and vaccinated to protect them. Some captive bred SWC have reproduced in the wild which is great news but sadly not all of them survive.
Other wildlife is also affected by domestic cats including birds, small mammals and reptiles via predation or causing stress which reduces successful reproduction. There is much debate about the numbers of prey animals affected in Scotland but in the UK a conservative estimate is that around 90 million small mammals, birds and reptiles are killed by cats per annum.
This has led to suggestions that domestic cats should not be allowed to roam freely, and this is raised in the report. Containment options include keeping cats indoors either all the time or at times when wildlife is more active or in specific areas containing endangered wildlife. The use of outdoor enclosures or ‘catios’, walking cats on a harness and lead or using cat proof-fencing are also considered. The report discusses the pros and cons of containment including the welfare of the cats. It is acknowledged that cats kept totally indoors are more prone to obesity and behavioural problems than those that have some outdoor access. Owners must work harder to provide them with an adequate environment and meet their welfare needs. Cats are innately programmed to hunt and get endorphin release from each stage of the hunting process. Hunting behaviour is essential for their wellbeing and if not given opportunities to hunt, they need play that replicates it such as using fishing rod toys or puzzle feeders.
Contrary to some of the media coverage, the report does not specifically recommend the containment of cats. Its conclusion is to advise that NatureScot is commissioned to do further research on the pros and cons for wildlife of introducing cat containment areas and/or compulsory neutering in vulnerable areas.
There are many practical ways in which cat predation can be reduced such as keeping them in at dawn and dusk as they are crepuscular hunters or limiting outdoor access during prey breeding times. A 2021 study by the University of Exeter found that introducing a premium commercial food where proteins came from meat reduced the number of prey animals cats brought home by 36%, and that five to ten minutes of daily play with an owner resulted in a 25% reduction. Devices such as bells on collars and large bibs have a limited effect on hunting and are likely to be frustrating for the cat. The great irony is that we encouraged cats to live with us, when they were attracted to the rodents in our grain stores in the Fertile Crescent 10,000 years ago because they provided effective pest control. This proved to be particularly important on ships, so they were spread around the world by seafarers.
The decimation of wildlife populations is due almost entirely to the actions of human beings. Hunting, capture for the pet trade, destruction of habitat, climate change, the use of pesticides and other toxins and the introduction of non-native species are all caused by people. Cats, rabbits, grey squirrels, feral pigeons and goats and many others are vilified and blamed for the loss of wildlife when the most dangerous animal on our planet is Homo sapiens.