Hercules was found in Fitzroy Road, Primrose Hill

A GRIEVING cat owner has called for tougher penalties for drivers who kill pets and flee the scene after her cherished “purrbag” was killed in a hit-and-run.

Luisa Motta has been left “devastated and heartbroken” after her Hercules was fatally wounded in Fitzroy Road, Primrose Hill.

The 56-year-old said she saw two cars with hazard lights on next to the dying cat, but they both drove away. Ms Motta, who lives in the Oldfield estate, said: “Maybe, he could have been saved? I would have stopped. They must have heard the bang, he wasn’t a small cat.

“I hit a cat many years ago and I remember the bump. I remember thinking I had to make sure the cat was ok otherwise I couldn’t live with myself. But this person just ran off. It’s awful. It has killed me.”

She added:  “He was my family, my baby – he was called King Hercules.”

Recalling the traumatic experience, she said: “I went to do the recycling and I saw two cars there with safety lights on flashing. I thought ‘what’s going on?’ I could see something on the floor. It was orange and I thought it was a fox. But as I got closer I realised it was not a fox it was my baby.”

Luisa Motta with Hercules

She added: “I actually saw my world flash by when I saw him. He had a blue collar, it was lying next to him. I screamed his name: Hercules!”

Ms Motta called out for the drivers to wait as she rushed to get her neighbour who is a nurse, but by the time she came back they had driven away. Ms Motta rushed the cat to the vet but he was already dead.

“I got him ten years ago as a rescue cat and I loved him like he was my baby,” she said. “Everyone in the estate where I live knew him. He became like a mascot for the Oldfield estate.”

She said the Persian cat “loved sunbathing and he followed me like he was a dog”, adding: “He liked to run up to the top of the trees. He was big and almighty, very suited to his name.”

Hercules

But Ms Motta added: “Now I cannot bear to stay at home, because I live alone. When I open the door he used to greet me. I cannot stay at home. I miss him terribly.”

In 2019, London Assembly Member Sian Berry also moved a motion calling on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to make it mandatory for dead cats to be scanned for microchips.

Ms Berry said at the time: “Effectively cats have no more status than squirrels as far as most councils are concerned.” In 2023, a debate in Parliament was triggered after an earlier parliamentary petition reached more than 100,000 signatures.

But the government said: “The Government has no plans to make it an offence to drive off after hitting a cat. A focus for this government is to make roads safer for all users, which will in turn reduce the risk to all animals.”

The organiser of the petition shared by Ms Motta said that their cat had been hit by a car that did not stop, and the driver had left “our fur baby alone and lifeless on the side of the road”.