Mo's Legacy Laws for Paws

Jillian was just 8 years old when the family cat Sooky was tragically run over in 1981. Having witnessed the incident take place, it has haunted Jillian ever since.

Sooky was from the cat and dog home in Edinburgh and was a very much-loved family cat. She was such an affectionate girl, and she used to eat crusts of the toast! On the day she died, Jillian had been at school. She went out for a little cycle when she arrived home and was just putting her bicycle in the house when she turned round to see Sooky coming towards her, running across the road. Jillian headed out to meet her when suddenly a car just came and run her over, right in front of Jillian. She remembers screaming, crying and her mum came running and put her arms around her and guided her in the house. Her mum then went and picked Sooky up off the road. Sooky had been killed instantly but the driver never slowed down or attempted to stop. The family didn’t even live on a busy road.

Jill couldn't understand why the driver didn't stop to check on Sooky, even though she was standing at the side of the road, just a child. All the family were devastated, and Jillian’s mum and dad were especially angry at the driver for not stopping. They waited until Jillian’s brother and sister were home that day to bury her.

When Jillian returned to school, some of the other children were concerned and asked if she was ok, but other one's thought it was funny and used to shout cruel things at Jillian, such as ‘flat cat’ and make noises of a car and go splat. Understandably, Jillian got very upset and cried. Although this was back in the 80’s, the school never addressed the issues back then, which made Jillian sad and confused as she couldn't understand why they were being so cruel, and it seemed no one cared or took it seriously. Jillian tried to bury the memory but it's always there, even now. Although she feels sorry for the bullies in a way as they made her vow, she would never treat anyone the way she had been treated, and she is grateful for that. She credits the empathy she has carried through her life to today to those bullies. It took Jillian until reaching almost 50 to reveal this to the world. She was afraid of ridicule and humiliation again but, after years of picking cats off the roads and trying to find the owners to give them closure, and those owners being so grateful for being able to have closure and knowing their pet was treated with dignity and respect, she has decided now is the time to speak out about her experience.

5 years ago, Jillian’s cat Mo went out one day and just never came home. Mo was microchipped and the family did all they possibly could physically do, but he just seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth. They did not know if he was killed or still out there somewhere, but Mo’s disappearance drove Jillian to set up a lost and found page. Jillian felt that, if she could help at least one person get their cat home then that's one family not having to endure the pain she did. In her group, when cats are microchipped and scanned, they have been fortunate that owners’ details have been kept up to date and they have been contacted. It is so much easier to locate the owner when the cat is microchipped, and the details are kept up to date. Jillian want’s the Scottish Government to follow England’s lead and introduce mandatory microchipping, you can sign the petition HERE.

Recently on Jillian’s lost and found page, a man had been looking for his cat and, as it turned out, his cat had sadly been hit on the road and just left. One of the kind people on her group had posted they had found a cat and picked it up, it was his cat. The man sadly searching for his missing cat was elderly, and this incident led her to create a petition and campaign along with other cat groups in aiming to get the Road Traffic Act changed to include cats, which you can sign HERE. Although it’s been over 40 years since Jillian saw Sooky get run over outside her house, the driver not stopping then is still happening now, nothing has changed in all those years. Jill, like so many, knows the law is outdated and feels that now, along with it being made compulsory to microchip cats and the sentient being laws. Her local councillors and SNP are backing her.

Once Jillian’s petition is complete, she will hand it over to her MSP along with her dossier. She wants them to know that the heartache of losing a pet on the road’s causes, and how it hurts to feel that the cat's life doesn't matter, that they can just be discarded like rubbish when they are not rubbish, they are living breathing animals with a family desperately looking for them. Jillian’s cats’ matter to her, all cats matter to their family and it's about time the law was changed.

Along with her two petitions, Jillian has created an official campaign group, Mo's Legacy - Laws for Paws. Her campaign aims to keep the public informed that cats are family, even if someone doesn't like a cat there is no need to just disregard a sentient being, especially when a vet will not charge for an animal getting taken in if they are injured or deceased. Mo’s Legacy aims to make people just take a second and think that animal is someone's beloved pet. Whether it’s a little 8-year-old child or an elderly man that are searching for their loved one, that pet could be the only being that matters to someone, and a driver’s actions could be the last memory someone has. It's not a pothole they have just hit, it was a living breathing animal.

West Lothian council have also agreed to work with Mo's legacy. People can support Mo’s Legacy, Laws for Paws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook