Following the announcement yesterday from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, cat lovers will be able to extend the lives of sick pets by buying them kidney transplants.

The £8000 procedure is already allowed in America, but critics argue that the operations raise important ethical questions - not least because the donor cat cannot give its consent.

Forum Response: British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection

Wendy Higgins, campaigns director for BUAV, told ePolitix.com: "The current debate surrounding organ transplants for pets has raised the sort of ethical questions that animal advocates such as the BUAV have been raising regarding animal experiments for decades.

"It is ironic that the public and the veterinary profession have been engaged in an ethical debate about the morality of taking organs from potentially stray dogs and cats because the 'donor' animals cannot give their consent, when many in society refuse to engage in the wider ethical debate about experimenting on nearly three million animals every year in laboratories without their consent and not for their benefit.

"The 731 cats and 5554 dogs recorded as having endured painful experiments in the UK for 2001 (up by 19 per cent and 17 per cent respectively) have exactly the same capacity to suffer as stray and ex-pet cats and dogs, and yet they are not lucky enough to receive a similar level of national hand-wringing and ethical discussion before going under the knife.

"Having been experimented on without their consent, nor are they lucky enough to be re-homed; in the main they will simply be killed. Stray animals are already the unfortunate victims of a society that has a wholly schizophrenic attitude towards animals and their welfare. Having been betrayed once by society, they are already deserving of a new and loving home.

"It is our duty as a responsible society to ameliorate the stray pet crisis in a suitably responsible way, without bartering for animals' lives with the currency of organ donation. If society truly is concerned about "using" animals without their consent, then it is not sufficient to simply ring-fence our compassion for companion animals in our homes."

Forum Response: NAVS and Animal Defenders

Jan Creamer, chief executive for NAVS and Animal Defenders, told ePolitix.com: "The NAVS and Animal Defenders disagree entirely with the principle of taking kidneys from healthy cats for transplants.

"Although everyone can understand the distress involved for owners of cats with kidney failure, it is wrong for healthy cats to be taken for transplants, as they cannot give their permission. The rights of the healthy animal should be upheld."