Cat seized by North Wales Police traumatised - Wildcat Haven

A cat seized by police has prompted a legal complaint by a wildlife rescue group which said the animal suffered mental trauma.

Wildcat Haven wrote to North Wales Police after it took Finlay the cat.

It was seized by the force after it received a report the organisation was keeping an unlicensed Scottish wildcat.

The animal was returned after four months when police said tests showed Finlay was a common tabby. The force has declined to comment.

Wildcat Haven, based in St Asaph, Denbighshire, has said he suffered "physiological and psychological trauma", and has made a number of claims about police actions.

Wildcat Haven's lawyer, Joseph Morgan, said the group found the animal dehydrated, soaking wet and close to death as a three-week-old kitten in the Scottish Highlands.

Believing he was a Scottish wildcat, he was taken to an enclosure in Conwy for rehabilitation before eventual release.

Plans to release Finlay in spring 2022 were derailed on Valentine's Day in February that year, when officers took him from the farm claiming he was being held without a licence.

Wildcat Haven claimed no licence was required to rehabilitate Finlay.

Mr Morgan said: "North Wales Police acted excessively in seizing Finlay from Wildcat Haven's care and holding on to him for over four months.

"In doing so, they undermined months of hard work that went into rehabilitating Finlay for release into the wild, meaning that Wildcat Haven has had to start from square one in their journey to see Finlay in the wild again."

Wildcat Haven is also unhappy police do not believe Finlay is a wildcat, but a domestic tabby with some wildcat genes.

The assessment could pose problems for the group if it does release Finlay into the wild, as it could be committing an offence under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

Finlay was not returned until 28 June 2022, allegedly in a "very poor state". Wildcat Haven said it took more than six months to bring him back to good health.

Its director Emily O'Donoghue said: "Finlay was wrongly seized as no licence is required for the rehabilitation and release of a Scottish wildcat."

She claimed that he was kept "in a quarantine cage for four-and-a-half months", and on his return he was "emaciated".

"The police returned him because they said he was a domestic tabby cat, even though an assessment of him arranged by the police gave him a score which should have identified him as a Scottish wildcat, according to the scientific literature," Ms O'Donoghue said.

The police, she claimed, caused Finlay to "suffer unnecessarily" and delayed his release.

"We will continue to fight for his freedom," she said.

While North Wales Police has declined to comment on Wildcat Haven's claims, it has previously said it kept Finlay at a special facility where it had regular visits and vet assessments.

It said there was no evidence of disease and Finlay displayed traits of domestic cat behaviour.