A pet taken from a garden, a car or a front step is a security incident as much as a welfare one, and since August 2024 the law has treated it differently from stealing an object. The Pet Abduction Act 2024 created two offences, dog abduction and cat abduction. It draws on the Act, the Government’s Royal Assent announcement and the House of Commons Library briefing. It is general information, not legal advice, and it is careful about geography, because the offences do not cover the whole UK.
What the law was before the Act
The Commons Library briefing explains that, before the Act, animals fell within the definition of property in legislation, so pet theft was dealt with under the Theft Act 1968. Campaigners wanted a law that reflected the emotional value of pets and the distress of losing them. The Government set up a Pet Theft Taskforce in May 2021, which concluded in September 2021 that a new pet abduction offence should be created to shift the focus at sentencing towards the welfare of the animal.
The Government’s announcement of the Act cites Taskforce evidence that around 2,000 dog thefts and over 400 cat thefts were reported to police in 2020, and describes cats and dogs as sentient beings that can suffer distress when stolen.
Where the offences apply
Geography matters more here than in most laws. Section 1 makes dog abduction an offence where the person and the dog are both in England or Northern Ireland at the time the dog is taken or detained. Section 2 uses the same test for cats. The Act’s extent marking covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the offences themselves are drawn around conduct in England or Northern Ireland. On the wording of sections 1 and 2, they do not describe conduct that takes place in Wales or Scotland, and the Government’s announcement says the new legislation creates offences for dog and cat abduction in England and Northern Ireland. A taking in Scotland or Wales therefore falls outside these two offences.
What counts as abduction
For dogs, an offence is committed by taking a dog so as to remove it from the lawful control of any person, or by detaining a dog so as to keep it from the lawful control of the person entitled to have it. The Act says taking includes causing or inducing a dog to accompany someone, so a dog lured away is covered as well as one physically carried off. For cats, only taking is an offence. The Act creates no detention offence for cats.
The separating-couple exception
Both sections contain a carve-out for people who lived together before the animal joined them. There is no offence if the person who took the animal, the person it was taken from and the animal all lived in the same household, the two people had lived together before the animal began living with them, they later stopped living together, and the taking or detention happened at or after the time they separated. In plain terms, the offence is not aimed at disputes between former partners about who keeps a pet. Those disputes are left to other areas of law.
Defences
Both offences have a defence for a person who shows lawful authority or a reasonable excuse. The Act also gives dog-specific defences for people who detain a dog they believed was a stray.
- In England, the person must have believed the dog was a stray, taken all reasonable steps to comply with section 150(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (delivering a stray dog to its owner or a local authority officer), and not detained the dog for more than 96 hours, disregarding any period in which it was kept under section 150(2)(a) of that Act.
- In Northern Ireland, the person must have found the dog in accordance with Article 24(1) of the Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1983, given the notice required by Article 24(2) and taken all reasonable steps to comply with arrangements for collecting the dog under Article 24(3).
For each defence the Act says a person is taken to have shown the fact if enough evidence is produced to raise the issue and the contrary is not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Penalties
A person convicted on indictment of either offence is liable to imprisonment for up to five years, a fine, or both. On summary conviction in England and Wales the maximum is the general limit in a magistrates’ court, or a fine, or both, and in Northern Ireland it is up to 12 months, or a fine up to the statutory maximum, or both.
Other pets and commencement
Section 3 lets the Secretary of State for England, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for Northern Ireland, amend the Act by regulations to apply similar offences to other species. The power may be used only if the authority considers the species is commonly kept as a pet and there is evidence that unlawful takings are significant or increasing significantly, and the regulations cannot vary the penalties. The offences in sections 1 and 2 came into force on 24 August 2024, for England and Wales by section 6(1) and for Northern Ireland by a statutory rule. The Government’s announcement adds that microchipping of cats in England became compulsory from 10 June 2024, which makes it easier to reunite lost, stray or stolen pets with their owners.
The bottom line
The Pet Abduction Act 2024 makes taking a dog or cat, and detaining a dog, a specific offence with a five-year maximum where the person and animal are in England or Northern Ireland, with defences for lawful authority, reasonable excuse and genuine strays and an exception for separating couples. Scotland and Wales are not covered by these offences, so the location of the incident matters.