Within days, thousands have signed up to an online petition demanding that pets should be allowed in private rental properties.

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The petition started by Hannah Bennett is available on the Petition Parliament website and says: “I’d like the government to prevent discrimination of tenants and potential tenants with pets, including by preventing landlords from including a ‘no pets allowed’ clause in tenancy agreements. It is completely unfair that a person and/or family can be refused accommodation based on the fact they have a pet. Most of the time people only have a small dog or cat, and it can be incredibly difficult to find accommodation as it is let alone with this clause in place.”

The petition comes at the same time as Tory MP Andrew Rosindell is pushing his Dogs and Domestic Animals Accommodation and Protection Bill in the House of Commons.

The proposed Bill will have its first reading this week and the measure calls for a change to rental laws to allow dogs and other pets to be kept in rented ‘homes’, only if the owners can demonstrate that they properly care for their pets.

Rosindell told MPs: “What makes somewhere a home is something where special moments are created, living with a family, friends or companions. Moving into a new home is a normal part of life, but what if every time you moved, you faced the threat of being separated from someone you loved. Can a house or a flat ever really be a home if you have been forced to abandon a family member just to be able to move in?”

In the debate moving the Bill forward, Rosindell continued: “And you will know more than anyone, Mr Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle), as an animal-loving Speaker as you are, that animals are truly members of one’s family. And having owned two Staffordshire Bull terriers myself, Spike and Buster, I also know just how close the bonds can be between a dog and the owner and how devastating it can be when you lose them.”

His Bill will go forward to a second reading in the Commons towards the end of January only if it receives government backing.