Motorists can knock down cats and drive on but they have to call the police if they hit a dog

Environment Minister Mark H. Durkan revealed dead cats were not deemed sufficiently deserving of police attention by former legislators and acknowledged that there’s not enough time left for him to do anything about this during the current Assembly mandate.

Green MLA Steven Agnew raised this peculiar class of speciesism, which deems dogs more important than cats, at the Assembly.

Mr Durkan said: “I am assuming that the Member is in fact referring to the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981. Under Article 175 of that Order, a driver must stop and report an accident involving any animal - other than an animal in or on that vehicle or owned by the driver.

“For the purposes of this Article, ‘animal’ means any horse, cattle, ass, mule, hinny, sheep, pig, goat or dog.

“I have no plans to amend this legislation. Any review of current provision would require public consultation and the necessary work could not be completed in the current mandate.”