Over the past three years, so much has happened, been reported, discussed and written - yet nothing's been done and no one's responsible for any decision they made.
- Discovering that there was no representation of our sector on the CFSG advisory board and that they passed off blatantly ignorant, indefensible and dire opinions as genuine knowledge is disqualifying.
- DEFRA's unparalleled arrogance culminated in the imposition of a pointless rating system, universal regulations that don't apply to everyone and an absurd number of absolutes, contradictions and optional levels of animal welfare standards.
- Local authorities have conducted inspections of the private sector businesses in an unhelpful, threatening and adversarial fashion - and this was carried out by uneducated, unqualified and semi-literate licensing officers who have invented, misinterpreted and misapplied DEFRA's regulations with absolute inconsistency and indemnity for the repercussions.
It's incredible that even after surviving the fall-out from Brexit and the post code lottery of Covid payments and the 2022 economic mismanagement anyone survived.
And it's just as incredible that throughout every crisis, our sector's decline has been hastened, orchestrated and overseen by DEFRA officials' reckless dereliction of duty, perpetual inaction and self-serving evasions of responsibility.
In 2019 DEFRA imposed regulations on our sector that don't apply to any industry represented by the CSFG. Regulations that were poorly researched, badly written and failed to meet any professional standards or objectives - and while anyone with a brain was asking how people known for regulating food and rural affairs were given the opportunity to write regulations for suburban cat hotels is beyond any reasonable excuse or rationale.
But we know that DEFRA were ill-advised by an unrepresentative group of charity lobbyists none of whom had any relavent knowledege or experience of our sector - and we know that through the entire procedure not a single misinformed and disorganised official thought to consult with anyone in our industry.
But ever since DEFRA was forced to interact with us they were presented with numerous issues and multiple examples of contradictory, unworkable and impractical rules - and DEFRA's only response has been minor ammendments to wording, disingenuous smiles and a mile high artifice of puerile bureaucratic inaction.
In 2019, DEFRA's malfeasance took this form: DEFRA officials refused to talk to anyone from this industry so nothing could be fixed - Then they refused to admit their mistakes so that nothing could be fixed - and now they are refusing to recognise their mistakes to avoid fixing anything. And the only reasonable explanation for doing nothing is that DEFRA already know that their regulations and their refusal to communicate with our industry has lead to a loss of a third of the UK's boarding capacity - and if they do thier job now, they will attract potential legal action and their incompetence and inaction would be subject to wideranging disciplinary hearings.
So we have the ludicrous situation where no matter how many unforeseen consequences are brought to DEFRA's attention, DEFRA treats all anecdotal evidence as immaterial.
Even when the cause is entirely obvious, DEFRA can't make any substantive changes to their regulations without implicating themselves and facing the consequences:
- So they are sacrificing animal welfare accross the country one business after another to protect themselves.
- While being aware that none of the regulations as written were fit for purpose or objective.
- While knowing that local authorities have threatened and constructively forced businesses to close using DEFRA's regulations.
- And while knowing that our sector is being replaced by unlicensed, unregulated and untrained cat-sitters and dog-walkers all of whom are operating with public patronage without having any financial overheads, star-ratings or local authority oversight.