There's been a significant rise in cat cafes opening across the UK – just over one a month in the last year – where you can enjoy a macchiato alongside a moggy.
While some see themselves as rehoming centres, there's been backlash from animal charities who are calling for stricter regulations, including making them illegal. James Fair takes a look at their history and why they're attracting controversy.
What is a cat cafe?
They are places usually selling hot and cold drinks and cakes in which cats are free to roam around. The idea is that the cats interact with customers, providing them with an unusual experience. With social media, photo opportunities are a big draw, and often there are rare breeds to add to the experience. Generally, you pay an entrance fee (for which you can stay for a certain length of time – for example £10 for a hour), as well as for any food or drink you buy, so they are relatively expensive to visit.
Are they a new idea?
Not especially. The first one is thought to have opened in Taipei, in Taiwan, in 1998, and from there the idea spread to Japan in the early 2000s – it’s been reported that 79 cat cafes opened across Japan between 2005 and 2010. The first one in New York began in 2014, and cat cafe was added to the online Oxford Dictionary in 2015.
Where do you find a cat cafe?
Where don’t you find them? There is at least one in most major cities in England, though they seem to open and close on a fairly regular basis, so it is difficult to know whether all the ones listed in online directories are still operating. According to a freedom of information request submitted by the RSPCA earlier this year, there are 30 cat cafes licensed in England, with none in Wales, and 44 per cent of these were licensed in the past year alone. BBC Wildlife could find three in Scotland, but there may be more. But because not all councils require cat cafes to have a licence, it may be we don’t know exactly how many there are.
What are the criticisms of cat cafes?
The RSPCA argues that the cafes are potentially cruel to cats. Its welfare expert, Alice Potter, says, “Having descended from solitary, territorial roaming wildcats, they’re likely to find the enforced proximity to other felines, as well as unfamiliar visitors wishing to stroke them, extremely stressful.” It has urged local authorities not to grant any more new licences or renew existing ones, while it says the UK and Welsh Governments should create regulations that make them illegal.
What are the arguments for cat cafes?
Cat cafe owners argue they are cat lovers, and this is a way of giving cats that could otherwise be homeless somewhere to live. Some point out that the cats that are kept in the same cafe have grown up together, so they like being together. Others say they exist only to rescue and rehome cats.
For example, the Bad Cat Cafe in North Tyneside says (in a petition posted on change.org) that it has rehomed 145 cats in more than two years. “We feel some recent criticism has unfairly lumped all cat cafes together,” says Bad Cat Cafe co-owner Tasmin Hirst, "[though] we do share these organisations concerns about cat cafes where the residents are long term.”
BBC Wildlife contacted five cat cafes to ask them what they think about the criticism they receive. The Andover Catfe was the only response we received, and they told us that the charities shouldn’t make such generalised claims about cats and their feelings.
“Cats – like people – have different personalities and ours are testament to how ones from different backgrounds can get along and enjoy the additional attention they get from different visitors,” they told us. “Our Catfe is laid out in such a way that there are plenty of places for our fur-babies to go if they don't want people disturbing them.” The “Catfe crew” consists of six cats, and though it started with the intention of rehoming, they are now permanent residents, they said.
Discover more about the world of cats
- How we domesticated the cat
- Why do cats play with their prey? And why do they then kill, but not eat their prey?
- How wild is your cat? The key behaviours that reveal the wild ancestry of your cat
- Savannah cats as pets: the alarming rise in popularity of keeping hybrid cats
Main image: a woman takes a picture of a cat at La Gatoria Cat Cafe in Medellin, Colombia, in 2024. Credit: Getty
