With a quick resolution to a UK cat theft that made international news, it’s become clear that our friends across the Atlantic are way ahead of us in crafting laws that protect animals.
In the US, the legal system views pets as property. You can see the vestiges of our agricultural past in the way animal-related crimes are categorized. Here in New York, they’re found in Agriculture and Markets law, not the state penal code.
The former was written to handle things like compensation for killed or stolen livestock, not to recognize the emotional damage a thief does to both the person and pet when they’re separated.
Today laws forbidding puppy mills and defining the responsibilities of municipal pounds are lumped in with legislation governing things like farm fencing and how horses may be tested for performance-enhancing drugs ahead of county fairs. It’s archaic, confusing and limits the legal consequences for mistreating pets.
That means the penalties for stealing someone’s beloved dog or cat amount to a slap on the wrist. Your cat may mean the world to you, but in the eyes of the court she’s worth the $175 fee for adoption and shots you paid to a shelter.
That’s also why police enforcement is a crapshoot. If someone makes off with your furry friend, you might get lucky when you find out the local sheriff loves his dogs dearly and makes sure animal-related crime is taken seriously.
Or you might get a desk sergeant who thinks you’re wasting department resources, glowers at you from behind the desk as you submit your report, and leaves it in a pile with other things he believes are beneath the dignity of real police.
It’s easy to blame the police, but their attitudes are impacted by the outdated laws and a society that hasn’t caught up. SPCA law enforcement officers are often treated like Ace Ventura with a badge, and police agencies are reluctant to devote significant resources to cases that will amount to misdemeanor charges, which can be pleaded down further in court.
Compare that to the West Yorkshire police, who launched an investigation when security camera footage showed an Amazon delivery driver stealing a family’s cat a week ago. Happily the feline has been reunited with her people and is back home, but neither the driver nor the company are off the hook, as the police still have an active investigation.
In the UK, courts take animal-related crimes seriously, and so do the police. That’s because of several important pieces of legislation, starting with the Animal Welfare Sentience Act of 2022.
The law finally frees cats and dogs from any remaining association with property laws. Instead they’re viewed as what they are, sentient creatures who have their own feelings. It also recognizes animals like the octopus, which can be startlingly intelligent.
That opens the door to legislation like the Pet Abduction Prevention Act of 2024, which takes into account the trauma to the human and animal victims. Both dogs and cats are likely to be deeply confused and distressed at being taken from their people, and cats in particular don’t do well when removed from their territory.
When a judge sentences a person for, say, stealing a family’s beloved senior dog, he can take into account the stress both the family and dog endured, and the disruption to their lives. When a couple breaks up and both sides fight over a cat, the judge can base a decision at least in part on what’s best for the kitty.
You can’t do that when a law says the animal in question is no more important than a toaster.
The 2024 law cited more than 2,000 dog abductions and more than 400 cat thefts in 2020, and it has legal teeth — judges have discretion to put convicted pet thieves behind bars for as many as five years.
American lawmakers should take a look at how things are done across the pond. At a time when rancorous politics and divisive ideology stains almost everything, this is an opportunity for legislators of all ideological stripes to work together, earning a win for themselves, and most importantly, for animals.
Pain In The Bud 
Spot on!
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There’s a lot that happens in my country that I’m uncomfortable with – and occasionally ashamed of – but it’s good to know that the UK got this one right.
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The UK looks like the image of sanity compared to the US right now, and at least you guys have some amusing characters. All we’ve got are a bunch of extremists screaming at each other.
But truly, I hope the animal welfare laws on your side of the pond serve as inspiration. There have been a handful of cases here and there in which judges have acknowledged that pets have emotions, and that legal decisions should take their welfare into account, but without legislation establishing legal rights for animals, judges have limited discretion.
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Sanity is relative! Some of ours are oddballs, to say the least. The system that I’ve grown up with here is collapsing, and we are on a precipice. I feel increasingly like a stranger in a strange land. Our next general election is due in 2029, and all bets are off as to what happens then and thereafter. Having said all that, what’s happening on your side of the Pond is even more alarming, not least because it impacts massively on us over here. But at least for now the cats – and the dogs and the rabbits and octopuses – are relatively safe.
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Have you seen this? Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G interviewing a young Jacob Rees Mogg, who thought Cohen was serious and it was a real interview for Channel 4:
Trolling at its finest, decades before it was in fashion! This is what I meant by characters, unintentionally funny though the likes of Rees Mogg might be.
Well, cheer up! No matter what happens, Larry the Cat will remains a stoic presence at Downing Street, and the exiled Palmerston waits, biding his time for a return and a reckoning. Muahaha!
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This is because of J6 traitors like my sister and her orange savior along with brainwashed imbeciles.Please do not go to the bothsiderism bs.U.K seems to care more about animals and children. U.K. does not have mass shootings.
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I’m not on anyone’s side except people, animals and respecting the value of life. No ideology, no party affiliation, no tribalism. Of course that means I can’t vote in primaries, but we live in New York so it hardly matters. Curtis Sliwa will run for mayor every cycle, the GOP will offer a sacrificial lamb for the gubernatorial race, they’ll both get shellacked, and it’s business as usual.
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My daughter’s cat Onyx decided that she was tired of being a house cat last summer and decided to slip outside whenever she could while guys were working on the basement. She is an emotional support cat for my daughter. It would have been horrible if one of the workmen had slipped her into the truck. We can get a new toaster; there would have been no replacing Onyx
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I remember when you blogged about it. It must have been a horrible day for your daughter, and thankfully the contractors were not the pet-stealing sort. I imagine it’s much more difficult to know when a cat is missing when you’ve got a whole pride of ’em and probably just assume that one of them has retreated to a quiet spot.
The one and only time Bud slipped out was when he was a kitten and he jumped off the balcony, presumably in pursuit of a bird or squirrel or something. The problem is, we live in an apartment building and he can’t get back inside.
Thank God he’s a loudmouth because I realized I hadn’t heard him talking in a while, frantically searched the place, then went outside and eventually found him terrified and cowering under a car. We were both incredibly relieved.
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