Animal Cafes: Truly Cruel! Is It Legal to Open a Cat Cafe?

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The Origins of Cat Cafés

As early as the 1980s, the Japanese comic "What's Michael?" featured the concept of cat cafés. Various breeds of cats were envisioned as window displays, attracting many cat lovers to enjoy coffee while admiring cats, thus considered the initial concept of cat cafés.

In 1998, an owner in Taiwan brought the manga to reality by opening the first cat café in Taipei, which was also the world's first cat café. The original intention behind opening cat cafés was that the owner saw many stray cats homeless and unable to accommodate so many cats at home.

Thus came the idea of opening a coffee shop and keeping cats in the store. On one hand, this could provide these cats with a more stable home, and customers' consumption could also alleviate the pressure of raising them.

Kittens always feel fluffy, soft, and warm, and their purring sounds can heal and warm people. However, some people cannot keep kittens due to environmental constraints but desperately need the healing that kittens provide. Therefore, this cat café attracted many people to visit.

Expansion and Evolution of Animal Cafés

The concept of cat cafés and animal cafés quickly spread to other Asian countries. After 2010, various types of animal cafés became popular in other countries and regions. Besides the usual cats and dogs, there were also Call ducks, miniature pigs, rabbits, hedgehogs, alpacas, and more...

In countries without comprehensive wildlife management laws, keeping various wild animals in captivity became popular. Some of these wild animals are even protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), making them illegally obtained.

According to the "Japan Times," a recent study found that about 60% of animal cafés in Japan contain exotic species restricted by international trade laws, raising concerns that their popularity may not only threaten their conservation but also increase the risk of animal-borne diseases.

These cafés displayed 3,793 animals from 419 different species, including 9 species and 53 animals prohibited from trade under CITES due to their endangered status. These include gray parrots and slow lorises. In the CITES database, there are no trade records for these animals.

By species, birds account for 62% of the total, with owls making up 40%. Reptiles and mammals account for 21% and 15% respectively, while amphibians make up 2%. The most common animals are four-toed hedgehogs, found in 55 animal cafés across Japan with a total of 245 individuals, followed by barn owls and northern white-faced owls. These require export permits from their country of origin to be legally purchased.

However, according to trade records from various countries, not many wild animals are exported through legal channels. Recently, Japanese customs seized a batch of endangered primates, suggesting that some animals in cafés may have been smuggled through illegal wildlife trade.

Animal Welfare Concerns

Besides Japan, wildlife cafés are also very popular in South Korea and Thailand. In these establishments, customers can watch and touch various small animals. However, from an ecological perspective, such indoor environments have significant negative impacts on the animals themselves...

Due to long-term confinement in small spaces with minimal activity areas and no shelter, animals find it difficult to escape from pestering customers. Every day, they must endure "molestation" by various customers, even being forced to "work" during sleeping hours. Many animals suffer from serious physical and mental health issues, such as obesity, malnutrition, and sleep deprivation.

Some animals that originally lived in the wild, due to sudden captivity and inability to exercise, mostly develop depression and irritable emotional disorders, and may exhibit aggressive behavior toward all people and things. However, people attribute such phenomena to the animals' nature without paying attention to their psychological state, only blindly satisfying their own curiosity and profit motives.

As more and more animal cafés emerge, stray cats, dogs, and rare animals are commonly seen on the streets. Many South Korean and Japanese netizens report that spotting raccoons and owls in urban areas is abnormal, with sources pointing to various animal cafés.

Netizens express that these animals do not belong in coffee shops - this is undoubtedly a form of alternative animal abuse to satisfy human desires and entertainment. When coffee shops close down, these animals are abandoned and left to fend for themselves, with some perverted individuals even torturing them to death.

This not only shows irresponsibility toward the animals themselves but also toward the ecological environment and public health. These animals carry different viruses and bacteria. If they scratch people, the consequences could be unimaginable.

Regulatory Actions and Advocacy

For this reason, in the past two years, organizations in Japan and South Korea have started online petitions calling for the closure of all owl and other wildlife cafés, as well as strict management and regulations for common animal cafés. Currently, they have collected nearly 300,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, relevant organizations in various countries and regions are actively communicating with local zoos to ensure these wild animals can have stable and safe homes if these cafés close down.

Last year, South Korea's Ministry of Environment also announced in January that to uphold animal welfare (a principle that maintains the well-being of all animals, including farm animals, experimental animals, companion animals, working animals, entertainment animals, and wildlife), they would completely ban the display of wild animals outside of zoos, including private businesses like wildlife cafés that have recently become popular in South Korea.

If the relevant legislation is passed, these cafés will cease operations after a 3-4 year grace period, and the animals will be sent to South Korea's National Ecological Park, zoos, and other places for protection.

As of now, wildlife cafés in Japan have not received government attention. Although animal protection organizations or ordinary individuals can report misconduct to the government, and authorities can investigate cafés, the lack of animal welfare standards means that no matter how dire the animals' circumstances, the situation remains unchanged.

Besides the operators themselves having problems, shouldn't consumers also reflect on themselves? If people don't go, where would this market come from?

Image source: Internet

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