OK Crundy

That seems very fair.

My petition was made deliberately vague!
The idea behind that was that I did not know what the answer is and
wanted those in a better position to make the choices.

The agreed bell that I refer to would of course be one approved by the
RSPCA.
At one time they recommended a particular type that would release
itself if the cat became trapped by the associated collar.
Such a device does exits but the RSPCA had to stop recommending it as
it was seen as a commercial interest which they could not be
associated with.

I paid attention to the other petitions regarding cats and found them
to be 'extreme' in many cases! Many demanding all sorts of controls
and abuses.
I did not want to be associated with any of that so stuck to the
basics in that I wanted non cat owners to have some redress upon the
cat owner if they were inconvenienced by an animal that roams free.

At the moment as the law stands a cat is not deemed to be owned if it
is free!

Maybe this law needs to be changed.
If it was it would have advantages for the cat owners as well!
The reason being if a cat was hit by a car the car owner would have to
stop and check and try to find the owner.
But from my point of view I could then ask my neighbour to keep his
animals out of my garden and the onus would be on them to take
reasonable steps.
Such a fencing, or buying me a cat scare.

26 other people seem to think my petition is a good one.
And I hope that by the close I will have at least 100 so that the
government will be obliged to look at it and then at least know its a
concern!

After that its up to them but at least I will have attempted to do
something rather than just being cruel to cats as some advise.

But here and in many areas the domestic cat population has exploded
due to in the main 'families' moving away from what they see as high
maintenance dogs to low maintenance cats! of course this means the
cats have to be put up with by all those around and the distress of
having the wildlife killed for fun and finding cats mess with the
associated diseases and unpleasantness in your garden has become more
of a problem than it may have been 10 years ago or so.

I hope this enlightens as to my views?

Cheers

Mike