CLAIM:
The SNP are “to consider banning cats”. The Telegraph. Picked up by other media outlets, including the Daily Record which reported: "Cats could be banned in Scotland as SNP ministers set to review new report."
DOORSTEP ANSWER:
No, they’re not. In fact, the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission report which the newspaper article was based on does not even contain the word “ban”.
A ban on owning cats is not proposed in the recommendations from the report, which instead calls for Scottish Ministers to “introduce a coordinated campaign for responsible cat ownership and care”.
WHY THE HYSTERIA?
The claims that the SNP are set to consider banning cats first appeared in a Daily Mail article on Saturday. It was more widely picked up, with The Telegraph reporting: “SNP to consider banning cats.”
Most people, it would seem, did not read beyond the misleading headline.
“It’s never ending it’s not about the banning of cats it’s about control”, one anti-SNP account wrote on Twitter.
“Drunk on power. Authoritarian ghouls,” another added.
Others went even further down the rabbit hole.
One account – with almost 100k followers – wrote: “This is serious. It will start with cats and then they will ban dogs saying it is 'climate change' related. Why really though? They don't want people to have dogs to defend their homes.”
SO WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
On January 27, the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission published a report on “responsible ownership and care of domestic cats in Scotland”.
Among other things, the report looked at international schemes which have been launched to try and prevent cats from negatively impacting on local wildlife. Such schemes have included containment areas, where people are restricted from letting their cats roam free.
It states: “It is notable that a number of administrations mandate or recommend different degrees of containment – from keeping cats indoors at all times, to allowing them outside only during the day, or only on a leash, or in a secure outdoor run. Such measures are expected to reduce predation by pet cats, but have obvious implications for cat welfare, which need to be evaluated.”
In seriousness, nobody's banning cats. The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission have written a report, which mentions that cat containment areas have been successful in Australia at reducing the harm to at risk species. You can read the report here: https://t.co/qAgYKOOviG
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) February 3, 2025
Later, the report states that "new housing developments in rural areas could have a stipulation that cats may not be kept in conservation-sensitive areas/other areas that have not had high levels of predation, especially with red-listed or amber-listed birds/other species".
However, this is an aside and does not form part of the official recommendations put forward for ministers to consider.
The official recommendation states: “We recommend that the Scottish Ministers ask NatureScot to commission a report into the advantages and disadvantages for wildlife of introducing cat containment areas, including the definition of vulnerable areas, domestic and feral cat welfare issues, seasonal pressures, restrictions on introducing cats to households in vulnerable areas, and specific containment measures to be considered.”
That's quite a long way from a ban on cats.
You only have to think for a second about how unpopular such a ban would be to realise that no serious political party would ever really consider it.
FACT CHECK RATING
