This week, the RSPCA and Cats Protection called for a phase-out of so-called “cat cafés” after revealing a remarkable 44% increase in licences granted for the cafés during the last financial year. According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, there are currently over 30 cat cafes within England and of those 30, 44% were granted in the last financial year. Their report suggests that there could be more cat cafes in operation without a licence, as they also claim that the current licencing regulations are not clear enough. Their main reason for the call to phase out cat cafes though is based on welfare concerns, with the main concern being that very few cats are actually suited to the cat café environment, namely being within a large group of other cats and also being around a lot of different people on a daily basis.
I have written on my opinion of cat cafes before, and my opinion still stands. I do believe that cat cafes can be run with high welfare in mind, and that is why I only go to cat cafes that do have this high level of welfare. The few that I do go to are rescue centres first and cat cafes second: Their priority is taking in abandoned cats, socialising them and rehoming them. The cat café just happens to be a great environment in which to facilitate the rehoming process. I am always trying to keep up to date with the research though, so if I do learn that certain practices are taking place that do not support cat welfare, I would no longer support the organisation.
I think the RSPCA and Cat Protection do raise some good points though. Whilst I do not think that cat cafes should just be banned completely, I do think that there needs to be tighter regulation and tighter laws in place to ensure that cat welfare is the main drive for the cat café and not commercial success. The sad reality is that every single rescue centre needs to make money in order to operate, and therefore running a café alongside the rescue centre can be an easy way to have guaranteed income each month and therefore allow them to continue their rescue activities. To shut down these organisations completely could arguably lead to even lower welfare standards for the cats as there are now even less organisations in operation to rescue the cats that have no where else to go. We already know how stretched rescue organisations are across the entirety of the UK, so to ban the cat cafes could potentially add even more strain to these already stretched organisations as they now need to fill the gap where the cat cafes once were.
The other issue is that, at the moment, the statements from the RSCPA and Cats Protection is just a statement and a call for action. There has been no indication from any local authorities that this is something that they will be considering moving forward, nor have I seen any government bodies come out to acknowledge this. It is still very early days with this campaign, and it will be interesting to see how local authorities and government departments react to this. I do hope that they listen, and that stricter regulations and laws are put in place to put the welfare of the cats above any monetary gain, but I also know that it will not be a quick fix.
Taylor Talks Vegan 