The relationship between cats and the law extends thousands of years.  In accordance with the ancient Egyptian laws of the 5th and 6th Dynasties, the cat, or “mau,” was regarded as a sacred animal (usually in the form of the cat goddess Bast or Bastet), and therefore protected from harm by humans.  Capital punishment was the traditional sentence for anyone found guilty of killing a cat (Herodotus, Histories Book II).  Even as recently as the 1st century B.C., the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus reported the killing of a Roman soldier who had been accused of causing the death of a cat.

"Whoever kills a cat in Egypt is condemmed to death, whether he committed this crime deliberately or not. The people gather and kill him. An unfortunate Roman, who had accidentally killed a cat, could not be saved, either by King Ptolemy of Egypt or by the fear which Rome inspired."

Cambyses I, the first ruler of the 26th Dynasty and leader of the Persian army, provides further evidence of the status accorded cats in ancient Egypt during his siege of Pelusium in 500 B.C. However, it should be noted that although the species was believed sacred, not all cats were deified.  The ancient Egyptians are also credited as being the first civilization to domesticate the cat over 3,000 years ago.  Realizing its value, the Egyptians put the cat to work protecting harvested crops from rodents and other animals. 

Throughout the centuries the domestic cat continued to be the subject of, and in some cases, subjected to various laws.   In 10th Century Wales the Laws of Hywel Dda provided many references to the domestic cat.   The three welsh codes, Venedotian, Dimetian, and Gwentian, derived from the Laws of Hywel Dda, even went as far as to assign a monetary value to the cat.  The respectable legal status accorded the cat in early welsh law did not last for long.

In the Middle Ages the cat, in the words of the Supreme Court of Kansas, “fell to the lowest depths of superstitious disrepute.” Pope Gregory IX’s declaration of the cat as a diabolical creature created the perception that cats were the embodiment of the devil and a symbol of heresy. The legal standing of the cat in Elizabethan England was no better. Persons who kept cats were suspected of “wickedness” and were often put to death along with their cats under the authority of the Witchcraft Act, 1563, 5 Eliz. c.16 (Eng.). Agnes Waterhouse, who owned a cat with the unfortunate name of ‘Sathan,’ was the first to be tried and executed as a witch under this law at the Chelmsford Assizes in July of 1566.

Today’s laws no longer reflect the deification or superstition of cats; however they do provide some measure of protection for the animal, and increasingly they stress the rights and responsibilities of the cat owner. Modern legal literature, both in hard copy and online, provides a wealth of material for researchers locating the law related to cats.