Legalities with "strays"

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Ian_M — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:37:36 GMT

Hi all,

The law is a vacuum in which, as there is no definitive protocol to follow, the situation defaults to the law concerning property and theft. As such, there is no fixed legal period like there is for stray dogs - theoretically an owner could make a claim weeks or months in the future, and in fact we do get involved in such claims in respect of cats we rehome occaionally.

All you can do is ensure you have taken every step to find an owner - report the cat to local charities who have a lost & found facility, scan it (whole cat) for a chip, make sure posters are put up. If the cat isn't in your care yet then a paper collar bearing a message is a good idea for a few days as well. We do this at CP routinely.

While this isn't bombproof, it does establish to a court that there was no intention to deprive an owner of their cat - the legal definition of theft in law is "deliberately misappropriating property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it". Hence if the finder or rescue can show they have tried to locate an owner, then there is no criminal offence of theft.

Thanks

Ian

Ian MacFarlaine

National Neutering Manager, Cats Protection

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Angiy Michael — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:38:54 GMT

If the cat is chipped it's legal evidence of ownership..the easiest way to handle this would be to contact the chip company as well as send a letter yourselves and keep a copy. The chip company can advise you on the legalities in terms of change of ownership if the owner does not respond to them XX

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Sal the 1st — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:45:21 GMT

a stray with a microchip and an identified owner - and yes some practices will make a charge for boarding

Re: Legalities with "strays"

F1chick — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:54:25 GMT

But from what I understand he was just stray?

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Sal the 1st — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:52:37 GMT

might be that they are afraid there will be a bill at the end of it? This happened with a cat I took on. Very distinctive looking and was brought in as a stray RTA and was immediately recognised as a cat we had in just the week before for castrate ( further confirmed by having a quick look under his tail for the bald bits and two scabs). We even went round to the house which was only in the next street and told them we have your cat and they said no it wasnt their cat - even tho their next door neighbours had told us their cat was missing

Re: Legalities with "strays"

F1chick — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:06:25 GMT

I just don't get why you wouldn't claim your kitten, esp if it's microchipped......................*shakes head sadly*

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Sal the 1st — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:03:05 GMT

this comes under Tort law -I know because I have had to use it before, any CAB should be able to advise you on this

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Julie-Anne Wilson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:54:38 GMT

[quote user="F1chick"]

Maybe contact the RSPCA/SSPCA regarding the legalities? They'll deal with this all the time.

[/quote]

I contacted the SSPCA and they couldn't help me, they told me to contact a solicitor or CAB. One of the partners wrote off a letter today that we'll get sent recorded delivery tomorrow.

Thanks for the help.

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Sophie Bedford RVN CertVNECC — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:17:26 GMT

In order to change "ownership" on a microchip they normally write to the previous owner and give 28 days to respond. If they haven't heard back in that time then they change the name on the microchip so I would work on these parameters. If anyone rehomes the cat then they would need to change the microchip details anyway.

Re: Legalities with "strays"

F1chick — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:58:00 GMT

Maybe contact the RSPCA/SSPCA regarding the legalities? They'll deal with this all the time.

Re: Legalities with "strays"

FINNIGAN — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:02:13 GMT

not sure if its the same for cats , but my stray dog i took on, we had in the vets for 12 days then dog warden signed her over to me, he said owners have 14 days to claim back after that they loose theyre legal right, have a chat with the rspca and dog warden, theyl b able to give u the legal low down, and im afraid the "cats dont belong to anyone" comment is untrue,

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Nicola Smith — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:37:43 GMT

We had a chipped cat at my last practice - did a jaw repair post RTA then owner just kept not turning up despite phone calls. In the end we sent them a recorded letter stating it would be rehomed if not collected by certain date. No contact so cat was eventually rehomed to someone who knew the sutuation and lived a long way from the previous owner. The chip details were cahnged to the practice as the owner never answered their letter either.

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Gemma Burden RVN — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:28:52 GMT

Not sure about the legal side of things, but when it comes to changing i/d chip details, unless things have changed since, all that happens if you try and change the chip over to your details is that the company will contact the registered owner, and if they don't hear back from them within two weeks they change the details. I found this out when I took on my cat after his previous owners decided they wanted him put down as he apparently bites. When I tried to contact them they had moved. We had all his paperwork at the vets as they left it with us so we could start the process of changing his chip details. It might be worth speaking to someone at the VDS to see what they advise. We had a cat brought into us for neutering that was supposed to have returned to its owners over a year after having gone missing. As the owners had already taken someone elses cat and claimed it was theirs we were suspicious and scanned it. Turned out it was another clients cat that had been missing for the last month. We contacted the VDS for advice on this as we knew that the supposed owners would kick off and say the cat had been chipped after it had gone missing, and they were really helpful and told us exactly how to deal with it, so I would think they could help in this situation as well.

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Dippy — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:07:02 GMT

I'd still cover yourself, If the cat is chipped, whether it "legally" belongs to the man or not, local papers love a sob story about the local vet having rehomed someone's baby - I've seen it before!!! If you can prove you've done everything within your power, no one can falsely accuse you of being heartless.

Re: Legalities with "strays"

thebeestingbutterfly — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:02:12 GMT

[quote user="Ilovehorses"]Cats legally don't belong to anyone so I think you could rehome her 'legally' straight away. I may be wrong though and I suppose to be careful you could send him a letter recorded delivery advising him he has 14 days to claim her and if he doesn't she'll be rehomed xx

[/quote]

Unfortunately pets are seen as possessions, thus do belong to the "owner"

although there is truth in the saying "You own a dog, but a cat owns you"

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Ilovehorses — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:57:35 GMT

Cats legally don't belong to anyone so I think you could rehome her 'legally' straight away. I may be wrong though and I suppose to be careful you could send him a letter recorded delivery advising him he has 14 days to claim her and if he doesn't she'll be rehomed xx

Re: Legalities with "strays"

Dippy — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:55:58 GMT

I think as long as you could prove you'd made every effort to contact him and given a reasonable deadline, you'd be fine. In the situation you've described, what we would have done at the RSPCA would be to write a follow up letter stating that "following our conversation with you on... when you stated that you would collect her from the surgery on... and did not show up or contact us, we have no option but to set a deadline of... for you to contact us to make arrangements for collection, otherwise we have no option but to rehome her as we are a veterinary practice and do not have facilities to board stray cats long term". That way, if he decides in a month's time that he wants her back and she was microchipped so legally his, you can prove that you did everything reasonable to try and reunite them and cannot be accused of being unreasonable and you have the proof in writing, not just his word over yours by phone conversation. Hope that helps.