UK: Immigrant allowed to stay because of pet cat

All I could think of is...wha? You have got to be kidding me.

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that sending the Bolivian man back to his homeland would breach his human rights because he was entitled to a "private and family life", and joint ownership of a pet was evidence that he was fully settled in this country.

Continues here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6360116/Immigrant-allowed-to-stay-because-of-pet-cat.html

All I could think of is...wha? You have got to be kidding me.
Continues here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6360116/Immigrant-allowed-to-stay-because-of-pet-cat.html

That's pretty silly.  So, should I include the fact that DH and I adopted a cat on my ILR application? 

That's pretty silly.  So, should I include the fact that DH and I adopted a cat on my ILR application? 

Couldn't hurt...

I couldn't find the article that I read about this originally from the Daily Mail and it pretty much had left out that the actual appeal was granted for other reasons and the cat was just sort of an 'accessory' to the proof that the claimant had met the requirement of residence for the ILR as a UP. I was fuming when I read that one, but at least this one was pretty balaced and stated the 'rest of the story' so to speak.

I read an article on this the other day I think it was on the BBC website, or maybe the Guardian. Anyway it was made very clear the cat was not the motivating factor behind the dedcision, it was his family ties here. The judge only mentioned the cat as a joke!!!! I will see if I can find the article.

Found it, it was the Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/owning-a-cat-helped-immigrant-avoid-deportation-1805460.html

Here's the original article that I read yesterday (took a while to find it) as you can see it's not quite as balanced as the Telegraph article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221353/Youve-got-cat-OK-stay-Britain-officials-tell-Bolivian-immigrant.html.

Ha, I'd expect no less from the Daily Mail. Did you notice they quote Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch in the article but the picture beside it is of Damien Green?