A few points to take home and reflect on:
1. That Japanese people, living in small apartments, do not even have the luxury of keeping pets.
2. That there are such “cat cafes” in Japan to let the people de-stress.
3. That their animal welfare organisations would even ensure that the cats are not “overworked”, which amounts to possible unfair treatment on animals.
“Overworked” here refers to too many people patting them and playing with them and denying them of sufficient rest. This is something like Australian zoos letting visitors pat the koalas. Apparently, it creates much stress for them. Stress which can even kill. Or patting the pandas, photography sessions with the orang utan, etc.
On one end of the spectrum, we have people and organisations that care very much for the animals, on other end of the spectrum, we have the total opposite. We also have the in-between.
The greatest wisdom, I am told, is the wisdom of unconditional love, whose practice can be summarised in the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The only problem is – animals cannot speak and tell us what makes them happy. We have to gauge that for ourselves, and we really hope we make the right decisions, sometimes.
Comments
One response to “Future uncertain for cat cafe feline workers in Japan”
I’m haven’t been to a cat cafe in Japan, but I’ve been to Cat’s Livin, it’s a pet store with a large ‘living area’ at the back portion of the store that let’s people in (for a small fee) to spend time with the many cats in there. It serves the same purpose as cat cafes I think, just without the food for the humans.
The cats in Cat’s Livin have a pretty enjoyable life though, they are laid back and most can see enjoys the attention they get. When they don’t want to be disturbed, they just jump up to tall areas where humans can’t reach them. The huge russian blue I was petting can actually sleep when I am petting him! They also built a lot of play areas for cats in the space, platforms on walls, huge cat trees, even provide feathered sticks and other toys for people to use to play with the cats. When cats misbehave/fight, (this I witnessed when I was there) they confine them into ‘aquariums’ (kind of like those display units in pet shops) for a certain amount of time.
I guess it all depends on whether they are doing it for the love for animals, or for the love of money. The cats I saw in Cat’s Livin are enjoying their life. The employees there seem to love the cats as well. The place opens from 9am-5pm, so I guess there is still plenty of time for the cats to sleep/rest if they want to.