Animal welfare code of practice for cats

The purpose of the consultation by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) was to seek views on the draft Animal Welfare Code of Practice for Cats.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture received 100 responses to the consultation. Of these, 98 responses were from individuals and 2 responses were representatives of society/ company/ charity.

• 55% of responses said that the code covered everything required
   
• 20% of the responses said there were things in the code that they disagreed with
   
• 80% said that the code had enough detail
   
• 94% said the code was understandable

The Department is grateful to those individuals and organisations who took time to respond to the consultation and tell us their views on the proposed Animal Welfare Code of Practice for Cats. As stated above some minor changes have been made to the code to address some of the concerns. Whilst some of the responses to the consultation are outside of the scope of the code, the Department will look at addressing some of the other concerns in future policy development, e.g. micro chipping of cats.