Part 8 - DEFRA's Regulations
8.0 Animal handling and interactions
8.2 The animals must be kept separately or in suitable compatible social groups appropriate to the species and individual animals. No animals from a social species may be isolated or separated from others of their species for any longer than is necessary.
These morons wrote regulations that put catteries out of businesses because they couldn’t afford to rebuild their pens with solid or opaque walls. DEFRA mandated visual deprivation and mandated that cats could not interact with any of their own species for their entire stay … while writing regulations demanding the opposite.
Another OMG!
Cats from different households must never share a unit. If cats from the same household share a unit, the owner must have given written consent. The cats must also be monitored. Consent from the owner must include authority to separate cats, if there are any problems.
You’re overstepping your bounds and interfering in the essential management of every cattery and inserting yourself into every private contract with owners - Consent is not required to separate any cats - and once again DEFRA are so out of touch that it didn’t cross their inexperienced minds that owners do not want to pay for two rooms and are often dishonest about the dynamics to save money - and when we’re full during half the year, no one has a spare room to satisfy these stupid ideas.
Anti-torture regulations:
9.0 Protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease
Scrapping section 9.0 and writing it with reality in mind would require just this flow chart:
- If you suspect that a cat is ill, remove to isolation room immediately.
- Treat every situation as an emergency.
- Contact the cat’s vet.
- If they are not your nearest vet, have their record forwarded and attend the earliest appointment at your nearest vet.
Emergency situations:
10.0 Emergencies
Like all the other sections this isn’t a regulation they’re advisories that can't be policed by local authorities.
A basic awareness of health and safety and a plan to deal with emergencies when the majority of catteries are run by one or two people is all that’s required.
Higher standards & competence ...
10.4 Required higher standard for emergencies A competent person must be on site at all times.
DEFRA imposed on our sector ‘standards’ that they themselves or any of their ‘advisors’ could ever abide by.
A competent person must be on site at all times is another egregious component written with no interest or understanding of the consequences.
It prevents any single person run cattery from being awarded 5 stars and it prevents any husband & wife run catteries from ever going out together without paying for cover.
This is an unaffordable stealth tax on business owners and is clearly grounds for a human rights abuse case - because the effect of enforced social isolation on mental and physical health was known long before Covid.
Out of all the rules that don’t apply to any of the sectors DEFRA took “advice” from, this is the one that is indefensible and undermines the credibility of everyone involved.
This one mind-numbingly stupid addition means that every cattery in the UK awarded 5 stars for reaching 100% of the higher standards and 50% of the optional standards, the owners and not the local authority get to decide their own rating.
On one hand DEFRA are claiming that animal welfare can only be maintained at a 5 star rating by compelling a business owner to stay on site permanently and on the other hand a 3 star cattery leave the premises unattended whenever they like and it doesn’t have any significant impact on animal welfare, but restricts the maximumm rating of a cattery meeting every other higher and lower standards to 3 stars.
If we needed to define the word ‘competent’ it would in almost every small cattery rule out everyone except the owner.
Vets are not required to maintain 24 hour cover when their looking after ill animals and no other business owner in this sector or any other is compelled to stay on site when they are not open for business.
Demanding 24 hour cover for one cattery and no restrictions for another is so extreme that it's clearly grounds for an inquiry into the mental competence of everyone involved.
Neither of these absolutes is defensible or policeable and it runs so contrary to the entire objective that that it renders the entire licensing, rating, inspections and animal welfare regulations pointless.
DEFRA had no business or power to impose house arrest on anyone … but whoever was responsible for this inclusion is a liability and while the civil service can act as a bulwark against the illegal wishes and activities of any rogue minister, individual officials who refuse to carry out thier duty to serve the public imterest should be held to account and be made an example of.
This discussion of DEFRA's regulation fiasco is covered in ten short articles:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
Part 5,
Part 6,
Part 7,
Part 8,
Part 9,
Part 10