DEFRA gave themselves the opportunity to rewrite our regulations, but got confused and ended up introducing the worst rating system ever devised or implemented by any government department instead.
The objective of the entire regulatory framework was supposed to be focussed on improving animal welfare but in most cases DEFRA created nonsensical and arbitrary double standards solely to justify the rating system - and this irrelavent and unworkable lunacy reduced the intended aim of improving animal welfare to a sideshow.
Sooner or later DEFRA are going to have to take responsibility for failing this industry and the longer they prevaracate, the more damage will be done to this industry by inept local authorities.
- At what point did DEFRA decide that creating a rating system would resolve any known or perceived problems in this industry?
- What precisely were those problems and did any part of the legislation meet that goal?
- At what point did DEFRA decide that imposing a rating system was going to have any effect on improving any animal welfare?
- At what point did creating arbitrary double standards for every regulation become the primary focus of DEFRA's legislation?
- There is only one best practice in all welfare situations and the invention of two for every regulation is by definition a compromise of animal welfare for the lower standard, so why was this inept nonsense passed into law?
- If the brief was to improve welfare standards, why aren't DEFRA's regulations designed so that any boarding establishment can gain a higher rating just by adopting better welfare practices?
- Why did DEFRA write legislation that was intended to improve animal welfare downrate many boarding establishments for absolutely immaterial regulations and doesn't allow anyone to move from a lower standard without reducing time spent on caring for the animals and imposing significant personal financial losses?
- Why did DEFRA remove all incentives to improve a rating without knowing that a lower rating makes it impossible to make the money required to reinvest?
- Why did DEFRA write regulations that penalise catteries that might have the best animal welfare policies and the most experience to be downgraded by 2 stars because a sleeping compartment was a cm too short?
- Why did no one at DEFRA know that cats do not come in a standard size, they like caves and many prefer to sleep in a cardboard box half their volume?
- Cattery building regs are only applied at the time of the build. No one in the building trade is clairvoyant so exactly why was this nonsense applied in retrospect?
The bottom line here is that DEFRA can't address any legitimate question without exposing the entire team's incompetence, inate stupidity and lack of due diligence, so they protect themselves by doing nothing.