Petition to change law on cats killed by cars from former Edinburgh student to be heard in parliament

An opera actress whose petition to make it a legal requirement for drivers to stop and report collisions with cats could become law after it is debated by MPs later this month.

Olivia Holland-Rose, 33, was a student at Edinburgh University before moving to London to start her career as an actress in Phantom of the Opera.

Olivia and her husband, Chris Johnstone, re-homed D’artagnan, also known as Dart, when he was only nine months old.

However, on January 22 last year, Olivia received a text from her downstairs neighbours asking her to meet.

Dart had been found on the side of the road, hit by a car and the driver had not stopped.

The “callous carelessness of the motorist who left him broken on the side of the road” prompted her and her husband to do something to remember their beloved pet and so they created the petition to make it a legal requirement for drivers to stop and report collisions with cats.

Olivia told STV News: “It was getting closer to the deadline and we were so close but so far, we were about 80,000 signatures about a week away from the deadline and then the petition got tweeted the unofficial account for the Downing Street cat, Larry, and it went insanely viral.

“Within a week we suddenly had the 20,000 signatures to reach the 100,000 threshold which was absolutely amazing.”

The petition is set to be debated by MPs at Westminster Hall on January 9,

Olivia said: “We had a conversation with the team at the petitions committee and we were really pleased to hear that they had been following the petition for months and rooting for us.

“The debate will hopefully open up a dialogue about the subject.

“Obviously on a personal note I am so pleased that members of parliament have decided it’s important enough to deserve a hearing and we’ve had incredible support from our local MP in London in Lambeth and great support UK wide.

“Me and my husband refer to it as Dart’s Law, that would be our hope because it seems crazy that you can have a domestic pet, lavish it and invest in it only for drivers to leave it in the road.

“We understand of course that accidents happen and that cats will dash across the road and get hit. What we don’t understand and do not accept is that the Road Traffic Act does not recognise cats as animals to report.

“In this day and age and with more than 12 million cat owners in the UK, we feel it is an outdated stance for the Government to take.”