Has Your Neighbour Taken Your Cat?

What Do You Do if Your Neighbour has Taken Your Cat?

When I was a kid, my parents told me that there were no such things as monsters and they certainly were not living under my bed, now many years later, I know that monsters really do exist because I deal with them all the time. And the monsters I deal with are snatching your pets.

Definition of a Monster Collins Dictionary

A Monster If you describe someone as a monster, they are cruel, frightening, or evil

I’m going to explain the circumstances behind a recent incident where a family was reunited with their cat that had been missing for five years. All that I ask of you is that after hearing all the FACTS of this case is for you to decide whether a crime has been committed or not

So Here Are the Facts of the case (this is a true story)

Recently a cat ended up in a cat rescue shelter after the owner of the cat passed away which is quite unusual because most cat owners will make arrangements for the future care of their cat before they pass away.

So, this got me thinking what had happened with this cat, had the owner suddenly passed away or was this another incident of cat snatching?

When the rescue shelter scanned the cat’s microchip, they discovered that it belonged to a family who had reported their cat missing five years previously and when contacted, they immediately dashed over to the rescue shelter and collected their cat. Stating

“We are shocked and over the moon we’ve missed him so much.”

So, the woman who had passed away had possession of someone else’s cat which may well explain why the cat ended up in the rescue shelter.

So, has a theft taken place or not?

So, what do we know about this cat’s disappearance? The rescue shelter shared the following information

“The cat’s interim owner, who took him in as a stray, had the best of intentions and cared for him very well.”

Interim Owner 

There is no such thing as an interim owner when it comes to cats. You are either the owner of a cat or you’re not. There are no grey areas, and ownership is established by proof of purchase or proof of adoption; a history of veterinary treatment in the cat owner’s name and of course the cat’s microchip being registered in the owner’s name and address. It is a combination of all these things and more.

However, ownership is never determined simply through possession, otherwise every single cat minder could claim they own the cat that they’re looking after.

Who Took Him in as a Stray

It is generally accepted that the definition of a stray cat is a cat that has been socialized, used to have a home and used to have an owner.

Therefore, this cat clearly was not a stray

Had the Best of intentions

The law is clear when it comes to a finder’s intentions.

A person’s appropriation of property belonging to another is not to be regarded as dishonest if they appropriate the property in the belief that the person to whom the property belongs cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps.

Reasonable 

The jury must consider the following two-stage test:

· What was the defendant’s actual state of knowledge or belief as to the facts; and

· Was the defendant’s conduct dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people?

The most reasonable step is to take a found cat to a rescue shelter or a vet to discover if the cat has a microchip and we know this step was not taken.

So, the defendant did not take reasonable steps and therefore an offence of Theft by Finding has been committed.

Cared for him Very Well

Caring for a cat that has been taken unlawfully will never justify depriving an owner of the possession of their cat and just because the cat looks skinny, doesn’t mean to say it needs to be fed.

Cat feeders fall into two separate categories. The first genuine are animal lovers who are acting entirely in the best interests of the cat. unfortunately some quickly form a strong bond with the cat and are often guilty of willful blindness ignoring missing cat posts about the cat and not taking any steps to identify whether the cat is lost and has an owner. Many others however will usually share information about the cat they are feeding with other people across social media.

The next group are the CAT SEDUCERS. They are only thinking of themselves. Feeding a cat that visits their garden is just the first step to unlawful acquisition Theft by Finding

Step One

They place high value food in their garden to seduce cats to visit and remain

Step Two

They remove the cat’s collar and give the cat a new name

Step Three

They encourage the cat to come into their home or lock the cat in their home or an out building

Step Four

They claim the cat as their own property often fabricating a story about how they acquired the cat.

All cat seducers suffer from ‘Feline Savior Complex’ a psychological pattern of behavior where the individual derives personal value and identity, entirely from the acquisition of cats. The cultural archetype ‘Crazy Cat lady’ is often used to describe this behaviour. Cat seducers rarely stop with just one cat most will acquire dozens of cast throughout their lifetime.

Over the last 20 years I have assisted thousands of cat owners whose cats have suddenly been taken from them, and all these people have one thing in common. Which is they were suffering from the loss of their cats, some more so than others and for a few unfortunate souls, who never discovered what happened to their cat their suffering lasts for months if not years.

Conclusion

If your cat has been taken by a neighbour then the police are likely to tell you that an offence under The Pet Abduction Act has not been committed, and they are right. The Pet Abduction Act does not include keeping or retaining a cat.

However, if the finder has failed to take reasonable steps to identify the owner of the cat, then an offence of Theft by Finding is likely to have been committed.

(You can watch the video for this post via this link).

Colin Butcher

The Pet Detective