Angus woman to take fight for wildcats to MSPS.

Angus woman will hold a display to convince MSPS to endorse a policy ensuring cat owners have their pets neutered

An Angus woman campaigning for a law to have all cats neutered will sharpen her claws outside the Scottish Parliament wearing a six-foot feline costume.

Dr Ellie Stirling will head to Holyrood on September 5 with a wildcat display and banners and posters after telling MSPS “it’s a no brainer”.

Politicians will be given an invitation to see a wildcat and learn more about cat suffering as part of Dr Stirling’s petition to have all owned cats neutered, microchipped and registered, which is currently going through parliament.

She said: “I do believe the process is better to be done fully and in depth, so that MSPS and others have the opportunity to process and drill down and question the arguments because the more that happens the more convincing the case is and the better it will be bedded in, in action, when it happens.

“The way I see it my job was to bring the evidence and the experiences of frontline cat workers to their attention.

“If you look at that, it’s a no brainer. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s going to be done.

“But it’s a long game and I’m here for the duration.”

A licensed exemption scheme would be set up to enable responsible breeding of owned cats by appropriate persons.

This, she said, would help to stop the suffering of domestic cats and save the Scottish wildcat.

Numbers of the protected species are dwindling and interbreeding is regarded as the biggest threat to the wildcat population.

Dr Stirling praised the work of charities in ensuring 87% of owners have their cats neutered but said a change of policy is required to save the wildcat.

She said: “This is a great achievement, so how do we explain the fact that the domestic cat population is still exploding and animal shelters are in crisis?

“The answer is that the 13% of owners in Scotland who keep un-neutered cats are producing enough new cats to more than double the owned cat population every four years, at a time when the available homes have been on the decline since the turn of the century.

“This over-production displaces existing cats from homes and overspills into the already considerable population of homeless and unwanted cats.

“Seven in 10 kittens born now can expect to be homeless at some point during their lifespan.

“The pet charities and veterinary professionals have done an excellent job with education, voluntary appeals and financial assistance to get us this far.

“However, the level has been stuck at 87% for many years now, and this is not the fault of the charities.”

Pictures: Kim Cessford. Dr Ellie Stirling will wear a 6ft cat costume to make her point about responsible cat breeding in an effort to stop domestic cats mating with Scottish wildcats.