The author and his partner have been working in this industry for decades in different areas of animal welfare and in different countries - We have been in the UK running our own cattery for more than 10 years by putting the cats first and without any significant government interference.
In 2019, this all changed. All hell broke loose as local authroities recieved a small novella of regulations that they were not able or qualified to apply with any accuracy or consistency.
In 2020 it was confirmed that DEFRA wrote these contradictory and absurd rules and regulations without consulting anyone in our sector - since then no Minister has been held to account and no one on the writing team has been fired and none of the worthless regulations were withdrawn.
In 2021 DEFRA finally decided to open a dilaogue, but when immediate action was required DEFRA have done nothing constructive and are pretending that everything is someone else's fault to avoid having to admit just how much negligence and lack of due diligence was required to make so many basic mistakes.
By 2022, a third of the country's boarding capacity had been lost and our sector were furnished with a direct line to a specialist team of solicitors just to deal with legal challenges caused by local authority misinterpretations and licensing officer lunacy.
In 2023 we are calling for an end to the DEFRA clown show and the dismissal of everyone invoved, simply because DEFRA give us no choice.
We aim to write our own regulations and conduct inspections in a non-confrontational manner offering universal advice to prevent closures and encourage best practice throughout the industry.