Katie Price has been come under fire for the treatment of her pets over the years and a petition calling for her to be banned from keeping animals has gained thousands of signatures

(Image: @katieprice/Instagram)

Glamour model Katie Price has come under fire numerous times over tragedies surrounding her pets – with the former glamour model a subject of a petition to stop her from owning more animals.

Eight of the reality star’s animals have sadly died in recent years, sparking more than 37,000 critics to sign a petition to ban her from adding more animals to her home. Meanwhile, animal welfare organisation PETA wrote to Katie with an open letter last year, offering her £5,000 if she agrees to a contract preventing her from getting another pet. PETA has even branded her a “serial killer” over the deaths of at least eight of her pets.

However, the petition and open letter hasn’t seemed to put Katie off of owning more pets – as she still has four Chihuahuas: Captain, Buddy, Colin and Batman and five Sphynx cats. The glamour model has recently come under fire for letting one of the £2,000 pets get sunburnt in the recent heatwave.

Katie Price with sunburnt cat Kevin

She shared a video of one of her cats named Kevin. In the clip, as she stokes the pet, she says: “Oh Kevin you have been in the sun today, you have got sun burnt despite us putting sun cream on you… look at his little face.” The caption accompanying the video said: “Trying to keep the cats out of the sun is hard work.”

Here we take a look at all the pets who have faced tragedies under Katie’s care…

Katie’s bad luck with German Shepherds

In June 2023, her German Shepherd Blade was hit on the congested A24, near her East Sussex residence.

“Words can’t express the lost of my best friend my protector my absolutely everything who had sadly passed away today,” the celebrity posted on Instagram. “I have no words to say how I’m feeling but numb and shocked rip Blade.”

Following her trauma, Katie revealed to followers that she suspects her guard dog was deliberately targeted in a ‘sick’ assault on her. Katie’s heartache over Blade’s death came just six months after her Pomeranian Sharon was reportedly killed in a dreadful accident on the same road.

The year before, Katie’s German Shepherd Queenie, gifted by her ex Kieran Hayler, was allegedly struck by a pizza delivery driver. Taking to social media, the devastated star shared: “I’m absolutely devastated,” and continued, “…she was killed by a heartless delivery driver who ran into our dog seeing her struggle and drove off without telling and left her to die.”

Katie’s pooch Blade sadly died in a traffic accident(Image: @katieprice/Instagram)

In 2020, another of Katie’s dogs named Sparkle met a tragic end on the A24, and back in 2017, one of her horses also died on the same road after escaping from a field.

Princess’ puppy Rolo meets tragic end

Tragedy struck again in July 2020 when Katie’s French bulldog Rolo died in what she described as a ‘freak accident’, getting trapped under an electric armchair. The dog had been a birthday gift for her daughter Princess’s 13th birthday, and Katie called the incident heartbreaking, especially since Princess wasn’t home at the time.

Despite Katie’s desperate attempts to save Rolo, including performing CPR and dashing him to the vet, it was too late. She recounted on YouTube: “There was nothing they could do, but they did say he wouldn’t have died in pain, it was quick,” explaining that she had been packing for a holiday in another room while her daughter Bunny was playing with Rolo in the presence of other adults.

Katie bought her daughter Princess a pup called Rolo, which also met a tragic end(Image: Instagram)

Katie clarified the circumstances surrounding the accident, saying: “Basically I was in the other room because we’re going on holiday, packing their suitcases,” and added, “There was five people in the other room, so people saying the puppy was left, it wasn’t left at all. And it just got stuck under one of the chairs.”

In her candid memoir This Is Me, Katie hints that Princess might have played a part in another heartbreaking incident.

She penned: “The breeder we had bought the dog from had given us CBD oil to give this dog and I don’t know if Princess had given it too much or what,” adding, “…that day it had gone under the reclining chair to sleep and no-one had realised and it had been crushed.”

Giving away pets

In other news from September 2021, Katie reportedly handed over her French Bulldog Precious to a crew member on her Channel 4 programme Mucky Mansion, less than a year after the pup joined the household.

Precious was a present from Katie’s former fiancé Carl Woods to mark their half-year milestone. It was Princess who picked out the name, with Katie affectionately dubbing the pup ‘our new baby together’ at the time.

As of January this year, there were claims that Katie had also parted ways with her puppy Tank, opting instead for a Sphynx kitten. A mate disclosed to The Sun that the motive was Tank’s diminished ‘cute’ factor on Instagram.

Previously, in April 2019, Katie found a new home for her £1,000 German Shepherd puppy Bear because he kept breaking free. After multiple escapes, including one where a police officer found him near the A24 and brought him back, she decided to rehome him.

Mystery over cats

Katie also previously owned more Sphynx cats named Dobby and Hagrid, but in 2017 she announced plans to sell them for £1,300 each due to a clash with her dogs. Despite this, she continued sharing snaps of the felines on Instagram until 2021, leaving fans puzzled over whether she actually parted with them.

In a more controversial incident, animal rights organisation PETA slammed Katie for allegedly ‘slapping’ her puppy Tank off-camera during a live TikTok session in 2023. Audiences reported hearing a smack sound while Katie told her pet, “Get off! You’re sitting on my jumpers, my jumpers that I love”.

PETA’s Founder Ingrid Newkirk condemned the action, stating: “There is almost nothing more Katie Price could do to cement the fact that she is an unfit dog guardian and an irresponsible person.”

The Mirror reached out to Katie’s representatives for a statement at the time.

Junior’s chameleon dies

Adding to her pet woes, Katie’s son Junior’s chameleon Marvin passed away in November 2018. The Sun reported that Katie attributed Marvin’s death to heartbreak following Junior’s move to his father Peter Andre’s home during the summer, although she later admitted that her mansion’s lack of adequate heating was likely the real cause for the reptile’s demise.

In another heartbreaking episode, Katie’s pet cat Frog had to be euthanised at just five months old after succumbing to an untreatable neurological condition. She detailed the sad turn of events in her memoir, writing: “A few weeks after writing this chapter, we noticed that Frog stopped jumping on the side of the kitchen. Then he couldn’t jump on the sofa. Then he couldn’t jump up on the bed. There was something wrong with him so I took him to the vets.

“He had a neurological disease. There was absolutely nothing I could do. Within days it had spread through his body right to the point that he couldn’t even go to the toilet on his own. So I cuddled him in my arms and he had to be put to sleep. He was only five months old.”

Katie was reportedly left heartbroken following a petition demanding she be banned from keeping pets, which attracted thousands of signatures. Her representatives insisted at the time that claims she doesn’t care for animals were “incorrect”.

“Katie is aware of this petition,” her spokesperson told The Sun.

“It comes as a devastating blow as it is wholly biased, based on hearsay not actual fact. Katie loves her animals and to say otherwise is incorrect, unjust and unkind. It couldn’t be further from the truth.”