The Daily Mail runs with a scare story regarding the new law on cats being microchipped.
Millions of cat owners face paying a hefty £500 fine if their pet is not microchipped under new laws in force from today.
Okay, think about that for a moment. Our government found the time to pass a law that isn’t needed, serves no useful purpose and is unenforceable.
If someone has a cat that isn’t chipped, how will the relevant authorities find out? I’m assuming that they expect vets to act as unofficial enforcers, but the most likely outcome is that when taking the animal in, they will simply tell the owner it needs chipping and pocket the twenty or so quid. They are less likely to report their customers to the police as this will be killing off a nice little cash cow.
If the animal is previously unknown to the vet, the owner can simply lie and claim that the animal is a stray that has moved in and can you chip it, please.
So, unless plod or the Rspca plan to roam the streets, stopping random cats and demanding to see their ID, this simply isn’t going to work. I’m betting that no one will be paying any fines. But, yeah, someone somewhere has been seen to do something even if nothing needed doing and doing it serves no useful purpose.
I can’t say that I’ve ever met anyone who owns a cat. There are a couple of them living at our house but I don’t think that they would stick around long if we didn’t feed them.
I thought it was dogs that have owners – cats have servants
At least, while they were doing something pointless, they weren’t indulging their preferred hobby of doing negligent harm.
For a change it’s *inverse* class warfare. All the people who can afford to buy pure breed cats will obliged to have them chipped at the point of sale because otherwise the documentary trail will lead back to them.
All the little old ladies living on tea and biscuits yet get a lot of pleasure from feeding stray cats will be safe from prosecution.
More chips please indeed. Let’s slowly boil the public frog when it comes to chips as ids. Let them learn to accept it.
After all now works with pets, so children next and then the elderly and vulnerable. Finally everyone
Well at least the natives in this land. Otherwise no access to services/money/healthcare/education.
Naturally doesn’t apply to Johnny Foreigner just arrived as that would be against his uman rites and raycisst.
Chips for chicks.
Parrots can be particularly nasty. As well as screaming out hurty words, their beaks , bills?, can sever flesh.
“pass a law that isn’t needed, serves no useful purpose and is unenforceable”.
Since when has that ever stopped them? The “Something must be done” => “This is something” => “let’s do it” is the usual kneejerk reaction so this is par for the course.
One “good” thing is that it increases the power of the State to interfere in peoples lives, requires more government employees (Including Police) to regulate the process, record the Chip ID against owners and increases the useless parasites and gives another revenue stream flowing into the government coffers to be pissed up against a wall. For a politician, Chief Constable or a Civil Servant, there is no down side to this.
Naturally enough, the Police etc. have nothing better to do with their time … Oh, wait …
When referring to “useless parasites” are you referring to the cats, the police or the unCivil Servants?
All seem to have a stake in that one.
As our host is a cat lover I couldn’t possibly comment (to quote a quotable quote) regarding useless parasites and moggies. The rest of them (politicians – from Poly meaning many and Ticks meaning bloodsucking vermin – Police and Snivel Servants) fully qualify for the description of useless parasites.
However, my definition of a cat is something that converts cat food into cat crap without doing anything particularly useful in between. Not my idea of a pet but there again, it would be an odd world if everyone was the same.
We observed a rat helping itself to our chicken feed. Said rat has now been disposed of by particularly useful Max.
This being the obvious use they serve and why they were domesticated in the first place. There is a second one now – companionship. This was brought sharply into focus for me during the lockdowns. For weeks on end the only companionship I had was the cats and for that, I am grateful. They helped keep me sane.
There are enough manic lefties in this country with huge chips on their shoulders already, so deal with them first…
Oh, I forgot all about this law. We only have the one cat left, but she’s getting too old for that shit
From the article:
‘Many lost cats live a frightening life on the streets. No food, no water, no shelter, no veterinary care and constantly at risk of severe injury or death from many hazards such as cars and wild animals.
Yes. That’s called life.
We had a stray cat lived in our garden when i were a lad.
Proper rough little bastard. Gave the neighbours’ cats a good kicking. You could hear their fights and they occasionally would disappear for a while to reappear with stitches and collars. Pampered pet cats were no match for this scraggy tom. I liked him.
The idea that cats can’t take care of themselves is ridiculous. They can easily find what thye need. Dogs can too. Plenty of stray dogs around on the continent. They all seem to do pretty well. It’s just us humans who would struggle if society ended.
I wouldn’t say it ‘serves no useful purpose’ as I had my indoor cats all chipped. In the event that if they escaped, I could be aware of their fate or reunited with them. Not sure that the law will make those who don’t care about that better owners, though.
The reason I say it serves no useful purpose is because those who will do it don’t need the law to tell them. Those who won’t do it will ignore the law because it is unenforceable and it will have no effect on strays and feral colonies. Virtue signalling by cretins is all it is.