This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Reclassify dogs from chattels to living sentient beings.
The time has come to reform the law and reclassify dogs from chattels to sentient living beings. Dog theft is a huge issue in the UK and the laws surrounding dog ownership are outdated and unacceptable.
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Because dogs aren’t pieces of property, they’re members of our family and the time has come to reclassify them in line with our neighbours in France.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
We can't publish petitions when the request is something that's already happening or something that has been announced since you started your petition.
We think your petition is covered by Government or Parliament action already. If you'd like something else, you could start a new petition clearly explaining what it is.
The Government is already passing legislation to formally recognise animals as sentient beings. This is called the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. You can find out more about the Bill here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/animals-to-be-formally-recognised-as-sentient-beings-in-domestic-law
And you can follow progress of the Bill here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2867
If you want the Government to make specific changes to the rights of dogs in law, we may be able to accept a petition requesting this, but you'd need to be clear what additional rights you want dogs to have.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.