We, the undersigned, wish to object to the opening of any “Cat Café” in Coventry, specifically at time of writing, “The Cat Lounge”, due to open in Market Way, Coventry City Centre.
Section 9 of the 2006 Animal Welfare Act places a duty of care on people to ensure they take reasonable steps in all circumstances to meet the welfare needs of their animals. In particular they must provide for the five welfare needs, which are:
need for a suitable environment
need for a suitable diet
need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns
need to be housed with, or apart, from other animals
need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
The confined space of a busy cafe environment with a continually changing group of unfamiliar people does not meet these needs. It is very likely that some or all of the cats involved will become stressed as a result.
Furthermore, if the intention is to home cats from the café, this would create a 'rolling' population of rescue cats – in a café, this would create even more stress and further compromise feline welfare. Rescue cats need as stable an environment as possible to reduce the possibility of stress-related and infectious diseases such as over-grooming, urine spraying and cat ’flu.
There have been recent cases of the feline parvovirus (also known as feline infectious enteritis (FIE) and feline panleukopenia) in Coventry. This virus can cause severe disease in cats, particularly kittens and can be fatal. FPV can survive in the environment for up to a year and a specialised disinfectant is required to kill it. Most cats contract FPV from a contaminated environment via infected faeces, rather than from direct contact with infected cats. If present in the café, it is possible the virus could be spread beyond the café environment, into customer’s homes.
In addition, there are other points to consider, such as food hygiene. Usually only service dogs are permitted to enter establishments serving food – how safe is the food served in a Cat Café?
There is also the possibility of members of the public being harmed – frightened cats will bite and scratch. This could affect children in particular, who are less likely to understand how to handle an animal.
Overall, these places are an unsuitable environment for animals and they should not be exploited for the purposes of selling food. The Cat Lounge should not be permitted to open in Coventry, nor any other cat café.