I went to the recently opened one in Manchester last week and enjoyed it, yet it made me worry. Are these lovely cats truly happy with thousands of random dicks like me coming in and stroking them? All the cats seemed happy, but not as happy as cats outside of a cat cafe.
There seems to be loads of them popping up around the country. The Manchester one certainly doesn’t seem as exploitative as others, and there’s a clear intention for the place to help with mental health problems, as they rent the place out free to people with depression, anxiety or other related illnesses. The place itself was devoid of gimmicks and seemed to be hugely accommodating to the cats. I dunno.
Totally depends on how it’s set out. I think most cat cafés allow cats to go through a flap or something to a space with no humans whenever they want, meaning that the cats who are in the café are there through choice. Plus, the cats will generally be from a rescue shelter, and it must be so much better for them to be given attention in a café than left quite lonely in a cage or w/e.
I know some people have said the cafés are evil because they’re objectifying/commodifying living beings but I don’t buy that at all. If you just like cats because they’re fluffy balls then fine, but most people like them because they great and joyful animals to be around.
Lost its charm i.e. its eccentricity. In Tokyo was a weird and wonderful experience watching some odd characters try to woo their pet friends, who had learned to play hard-to-get to encourage their suitors to buy them food and nice things. Now it’s just another one of those “unique” “experience” things that middle-class Londoners do to kill time ¯_(ツ)_/¯