MSPS are to look into whether there are too many stray cats in Scotland’s cities and if there should be measures to control the population and avoid “environmental disaster.”.

A petition has been lodged at Holyrood claiming the cat population is growing at an alarming rate and that half of Scotland’s 800,000 cats is feral.

It could lead to cats having to be microchipped and neutered to control the population.

The petitioner said that more Scots leave their cat un-neutered than the rest of the UK and the population grows by around 10% every four years.

The petitioner, Ellie Stirling, said she wants to see a range of measures to prevent Scotland being overrun by feral cats.

In her petition she calls for all owned cats to be neutered, microchipped and registered and for feral cats to be identified by an ear tip at the time of neutering.

Ms Stirling said that the voluntary approach and advice from animal charities has failed to ensure enough cats are neutered.

She said in the petition: “The voluntary approach has gone as far as it can go. Shooting and other forms of killing cats has been practised for centuries but there are more cats than ever.

“A new approach is needed with immediate impact if a tipping point into environmental disaster is to be avoided.”

Currently there is no legal requirement for cats to be microchipped, neutered or registered.

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament Petitions Committee said they would consider the petition and write to animal welfare organisations for their views before taking further action.

Committee Convener, Johann Lamont, Glasgow Labour MSP, said it was worthy of consideration. She said: “There is a genuine argument to be made on both sides.

“Sometimes if there is a right or wrong you can identify it quite quickly.”

She said: “ It feels that we are more prescriptive in what we expect of dog owners than cat owners. I don’t know if that is something very controversial to say but do dogs not need to be chipped.” She said to her fellow committee members: “ My feeling is there is something here and it is interesting. It might be that the solution is not what the petitioner has asked.”

The committee agreed it would consider the issue further.