Prior to 2019, this industry had no shared experience, no representation and no defence against the conduct of local authority licensing officers - which meant that some catteries and kennels were hounded out of business because they were isolated, had no one to turn to and had no support - Even now there is no appeals process and nothing to prevent local authorities from threatening the choice between immediate investment & immediate closures based on any real or imagined interpretation of the regulations. The unqualified ignorance and inept handling of inspections has become a cause célèbre within this industry as anecdotes abound. With one licensing officer being accused of sexual predation during inspections of establishments run by single women which as a tabloid headline would read "sex for stars". While other LO's have been caught making up regulations to entertain their own fantasies and in some cases demanding massive investments to meet regulations that shouldn't have been or were not applicable in the first place.
No country thinks that a Ministry for Consequences is necessary because no government wants to know if the long-term outcome of their plans are going to have negative consequences.
Which leads government to believe that the only purpose of a plan is to announce a plan to indicate that someone is doing something.
Which leads most politicians to think that announcing a plan is the same as getting it done.
Which leads most bureaucrats think that putting a tick in a box means that it was done correctly.
So it's no surprise that no one involved could imagine that writing legislation within this context for the commercial boarding industry would result in worse animal welfare and a worse outcome for the industry.
It's no surprise that the plan didn't work and no surprise that bureaucrats failed to understand that the closure of a single licensed cattery represents an irreplaceable loss of experience.
And it's no surprise that the bureaucrats have no plan to deal with the increasing number of unregulated, uninsured and unlicensed startups who are advertising on facebook to fill the void that they all created.
-- Cat Whisperer