Cat missing 10 years found, but owner can’t get her back

By Filipa Gaspar

A cat that disappeared 10 years ago from his house has appeared 200 miles away — but her owner has been told he can't have her.

Distressed owner Warren Croft last saw his beloved puss Binky on April 14, 2016, when she suspiciously vanished from his house.

He believed the white Persian and Burmese cross had been stolen and put up posters around his town offering a £500 reward.

Warren lost hope of ever seeing her again, but to his surprise — 10 years later — he discovered Binky had been tracked down due to details on her microchip.

Binky, who used to live in Paignton, Devon, is still alive, but somehow living with someone else near London.

Warren, however, now faces a battle as GDPR rules are blocking his reunion.

He said: "She is our property. The story doesn't add up to us.

"I don't think we are ever going to get the truth as to how she ended up in West London.

"We want her back. She is ours and she was a much loved pet.

"To find her after 10 years, we know we can give her the best remainder of her life — she is 11 years old now.

"We can give her the best treatment and we don't know that this person that has her can offer her the same as we can."

Warren received an email from Identibase — which holds details of microchipped pets — stating that someone was trying to apply for keepership of his cat.

It was the London "owner" seeking to be registered as her official keeper.

However the cat's microchip records currently list Warren's wife as the registered owner.

While a microchip is strong evidence of keepership, it is not always decisive in legal disputes over ownership of pets.

He said: "We got the email saying that somebody had applied for a keepership, which we refused, and we reported it to the police and they are looking into the case at the moment.

"The police contacted me and said the person that seemed in position of possession of our cat came across the stray in 2019, three years after she went missing, and has had her as a family pet ever since.

"The person is claiming that they made every effort to try and find the owner and the microchip must have been misread. There is actually less than one per cent chance of that happening.

"So I don't believe the story. The person can't keep her.

"They [Identibase] couldn't give us any details because of GDPR law."

He added: "But what's the point of having these microchip laws if there police are going to up her to the law?

"It's not as if they've got to do much investigating because they know where she is."

Due to data protection regulations and uncertainty surrounding the legal ownership of the cat, the circumstances of how Binky disappeared a decade ago may never come to light.

But Warren believes his beloved Binky was stolen.

He said: "It's the only explanation for her to end up so far away from home. She is a striking looking cat.

"I can't think of any other way she would get to London unless she accidentally got into a delivery van, but she went missing between 6 o'clock in the evening and 10 o'clock in the evening.

"It is highly unlikely that she would have got into an Amazon delivery van or something like that and travel that far.

"There's so many questions that we haven't got answers for and I don't think we are ever going to get to the bottom of it but the bottom line is that we want her back.

"She is our property regardless of who stole her, how she ended up there.

"This person obviously knows that we want her back so the next step is to say that we want her back and if she refuses it then it's up to the police but I haven't got that much faith."

Warren wants to know how the current "owners" came into possession of Binky.

He has been informed that the keepership of Binky will automatically be transferred on May 5.

He said: "If we believed that this person had come across her completely innocently and she had made efforts to try and trace us and she settled in a new home being 11-years-old we would leave her there, but we just don't believe it."

Devon's Hector's House Cat Rescue is backing up Warren and posted on social media saying: "One thing I do know as a certainty is that Binky's owners, fully supported by us, will not accept this quietly.

"We will not accept that laws can be disregarded to suit.

"We will not accept that laws brought about to protect our beloved family members can be brushed aside.

"We will not rest until Binky is found and reunited with her distraught owners.

"For Binky, and the hundreds of much-loved pets stolen every year, we will fight for you every step of the way, and ensure that laws made by the Government are upheld."

Officers of Devon and Cornwall Police are now investigating whether a theft has occurred.

The Pet Abduction Act 2024 was introduced in response to a surge in pet thefts.

Under this act, anyone convicted of taking or detaining a dog or cat from their family without permission can face up to five years in prison and a substantial fine.

A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: "We are currently investigating reports of a theft of a cat and enquiries are currently ongoing into the incident."