Ignorance of the costs and effects on financial viability is no defence.
There was no consideration of the vast range of income levels - If you're earning £5 an hour, you cannot afford to pay people £30 an hour to carry out any unnecessary remodelling.
Many catteries operate seasonally or provide a supplementary income during the Summer and then lurch through the winter with a Christmas period that has to cover four months with virtually no money coming in - We have to budget for maintenance, not upgrades or expensive alterations.
No one involved in imposing expensive and unnecessary retrospective alterations foresaw that demanding investments was going to drive people out of this industry.
No one at DEFRA foresaw that local authorities would use these regulations to close experienced long-standing successful and necessary community based businesses and that no one would be able to afford to step in to replace the loss.
Everyone in this industry knows that being wholly dependent on running a cattery is not a profitable venture and being forced to invest any capital without the option to expand to pay for the investment would lead to closure.
Any investment in any cattery after the initial sum will take decades to recoup and in the short-term, the necessary rate hikes to pay for anything would price the business out of the market and lead to closure.
An older cattery is often priced significantly cheaper than a new cattery because there is no pressure to recoup any of the initial set-up investments - but the lower income of an older cattery targeted by DEFRA's regulations were less able to afford the changes and so were forced to choose between borrowing money, investing any retirement fund or closing down harming the local community.
