We have some positive news amid all the misery of late.
The government is undertaking research on the upcoming law for the mandatory microchipping of cats following the successful call for evidence in the latter part of last year.
This was as a result of the Cats Bill put forward to Parliament in 2018, which we remain extremely proud of working on. The Bill requested mandatory microchipping and the reporting of cats following a road traffic accident.
After we met Defra officials to discuss things further, it was agreed there first needs to be assurance cats are identifiable following a road accident, along with the many other benefits to microchipping, with the intent of returning to review reportable road accidents following the introduction of the microchipping legislation.
Sadly, when drivers fail to stop and report hitting a cat, local councils usually remove the body from the road.
Campaigning and local petitions on our side has seen 50 UK councils introduce a scanning approach, where they will scan the body for a microchip and, where possible, notify an owner.
This is extremely important as owners need closure and the option to lay their beloved pet to rest at home, and simply say goodbye properly.
We are absolutely thrilled Defra takes the issue seriously and all we ask is that pets are scanned and owners notified.
People view their cats as family, and go to the lengths of microchipping to ensure they are notified should they get lost or something bad happens, it’s only right the authorities scan and keep them informed.
Having said this, we urge drivers to stop and help/report incidents so as the local council never needs to collect a left body in the first place.
Cats Matter
Other things of concern
There is a new major issue of concern to sportspeople and their partners. The partners are tired of being labelled Wags, Wives and Girlfriends, as they consider it demeaning and want to be labelled SOs, Significant Others.
To many, this seems a rather silly request given the real-world problems of Covid and numerous conflicts and natural disasters.
What a lot of football Wags or SOs forget is that there are literally about 3,000,000,000 other SOs out there in the world and not many of them have sponsorships or companies wanting to give them cars and expensive clothes.
As many of them do have a public voice and a social media presence, at least for a few years, they could make better use of their voices and help with many social issues.
It’s time for a bit of SOS – Save our Sanity.
Dennis Fitzgerald
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.