CALLED TO ORDURE
THE House of Lords, debating the Renters’ Rights Bill, discussed whether or not tenants in rented housing should have the right to keep a pet.
Things started sanely enough when Lord Black of Brentwood (Con), keeper of a cat, laid out the case for pet owners to be treated more leniently. At present only 7 percent of private landlords listed properties as “pet-friendly”. The law should reduce “pet homelessness” as this would save the NHS a fortune; people would be happier, ergo less likely to need mental-health treatment.
A drift to dottiness began when Lord Lexden (Con) disclosed that he and Black had worked together in the Conservative research department and once sent the party’s candidates a briefing note as to what they needed to do to win animals’ support “if these marvellous creatures had the vote”. This triggered the Earl of Caithness (Con), who cried: “Cats are killers!” Felines killed “between 160m and 270m animals every year, a quarter of those being birds”. The earl cited, approvingly, a law in some parts of Germany where cats have to be kept indoors during summer months. For you, pussy, ze summer is over.