Analysing specific regulatory consequences
“The most insane directives are based on the delusion that neither cats nor people need exercise. DEFRA legislated to keep both cats locked up 24/7 in solitary confinement and demanded that the owners never leave the premise unattended in exchange for a 5-star rating - and both these regulations are based on the fallacious belief that locking everyone up mitigates all risk - to steal a phrase from the UK's reactionary tabloids, DEFRA's regulations are health and safety gone mad!”
-- Cat Whisperer2020
Everyone knows the suffering that was caused during Covid when various sectors of society suffered from being psychologically and physically cut off and denied any access to social gatherings - and yet DEFRA determined that they could require all private business owners in this sector to live in permanent residence, permanent isolation and permanent lockdown if they want to operate as a 5-star cattery.
The permanent lockdown regulation was created by the CFSG. It can't be justified as anything more than an overreaching "because I said so" regulation. It's clearly unpoliceable. It's having a serious impact on the mental and physical health of people working in this sector. It's an obvious attack on civil liberties and almost certainly a violation of the 1999 human rights act. And it's an indefencible intrusion that forces all sole traders and partnerships to choose between being a three star cattery or never leaving their premesis or living a normal life.
-- Cat Whisperer 2022
And to illustrate just how overreaching, absurd and untenable DEFRA's position is, they wrote a second lower standard for three star catteries where there was no issue at all with animal welfare if the place was left unattended.
How does anyone deliberately and consciously impose a physically and mentally deleterious lifestyle on members of this industry and not know that they were intentionally and knowingly causing physical and mental harm?
And how could any department determine our terms and conditions without questioning their own lack of standing because as a victim of this lunacy, it appears that a total cognitive breakdown was required to impose a permanent lockdown when no other busineess in our sector is subjected to similar legislation?
-- Cat Whisperer
DEFRA wrote a single regulation that forces private businesses to choose thier own rating because they wrote terms and conditions that supercedes all others - which in real terms reduces a 5-star category cattery by two stars if the owner wanted to go shopping or have a meal out with their spouse. DEFRA have literally legislated away the right for anyone in this industry to spend time off from their job or leave their own premises. They have made going to the gym together or grabbing a meal out in the pub for a birthday a financial disadvantage by downrating a perfectly run cattery and add to that the costs of a baby-sitter.
DEFRA could not demonstrate the necessity for two standards for almost any regulation. And they didn't have the cognitive ability to understand that being asleep presents excactly the same risk as does being an acre away on your own land or going to the gym - when your business is not open to the public and secure, there is no valid reason or purpose for DEFRA to demand that someone has to be on the premesis 24/7.
DEFRA even forced all catteries to buy and store a pointless baby weighing machine.
DEFRA made a law up that meant any cat staying for three weeks has to be weighed regularly to monitor their weight - Why not for a week, or the same for everyone or for a month, why not have a vet present to confirm the numbers?
Everyone in this industry understands when a customer comes in and say Fatty Two-Breakfasts eats four large pouches a day, has all day grazing biscuits, a handful of Dreamies and a licky-lix for brunch knows that you tell the customer that he'll be locked up in a sedentry state and will only need half of that and none of the treats - Common sense, it's cheaper than a baby weighing machine and actually achieves the results.