International Cat Care (iCatCare) has developed the ‘International Declaration of Responsibilities to Cats’, to help with welfare issues.
For pet cats, welfare issues arise when people do not understand or fulfil their needs, or when veterinary care is not as good as it could be.
Human desire to create certain looks for cats through breeding has resulted in cats suffering with serious health problems.
A number of different entities are responsible for feline welfare, ranging from individual owners caring for their pets, to central governments setting welfare legislation.
This document defines best practice for all those responsible for feline welfare, and provides a clear framework for a collaborative and coordinated approach to the protection and improvement of cat welfare.
International Cat Care is encouraging everyone to sign the Declaration. The gathering of signatures will achieve three goals:
1) Those signing will be acknowledging that they have read the document and agree that we need a collaborative way forward to help the global cat population.
2) The gathering of signatures will act as a petition, helping iCatCare to show the world how many people care about cats and want their welfare to be improved.
3) Supporting the Declaration will enable organisations to use the document to help convince other parties to work together or develop new laws or responsibilities which can help deliver better cat welfare.
Once individuals have signed the Declaration, they can declare their support for improving feline welfare by sharing a photo on social media with one of the charity’s downloadable signs, using the hashtag #catdeclaration.
To read and sign the document, and to download iCatCare’s Declaration signs, go to: www.icatcare.org/declaration.
