North Swindon MP Joins In Feline Festivities

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson joined other politicians at a parliamentary reception to celebrate the work of Cats Protection and help the charity come up with names for unwanted cats that come into its care.

Cats Protection is the UK’s largest cat charity, helping around 200,000 cats every year through a network of over 250 voluntary-run branches and 32 centres.

The event, held in the House of Commons, was designed to highlight the charity’s work in campaigning on issues affecting cat welfare in the UK.

Justin added his suggestion of Chairman Meow to a list of moggy monikers to be used for cats and kittens that come into the charity’s adoption centres in 2017.

Justin Tomlinson MP said: “During my time as North Swindon’s MP, I have worked closely with organisations like Cats Protection to ensure that the welfare of cats and other animals is protected. Fellow local residents regularly raise the issue of protection cats & kittens with me, and I am proud to offer my support to Cats Protection as they undertake this vital work. I was honoured to be able to put forward my suggestion to name one of the cats - there are a lot of ‘purrfect’ suggestions for names but hopefully Chairman Meow will win!"

Cats Protection Advocacy Manager Jacqui Cuff said: “Cats are one of the nation’s favourite pets so it was wonderful to welcome so many politicians to discuss how we can improve feline welfare in the UK. Sadly, despite their popularity, we see huge numbers of cats and kittens coming into our care every year. This year we have also launched our True Cost of Kittens campaign to highlight a growing kitten breeding industry which frequently puts profit before welfare. As part of this campaign, we’ve been calling for a change in the law to better protect kittens and breeding cats from poor breeding practices that frequently lead to serious health issues. So this Christmas, we thought we’d ask MPs to get involved coming up with names for the cats in our care. There’s been some lovely suggestions and we’ll be choosing our seven favourites in the New Year.”

To find out more about Cats Protection’s advocacy work, please visit www.cats.org.uk/speakingupforcats. To find out more about its True Cost of Kittens campaign, please visit www.cats.org.uk/speakingupforcats