Animal Cafés have started to appear in London over the last couple of years and have proved a huge hit as people across the capital are flocking to cat, dog and even bird cafés and going crazy for this new trend. Enjoying delicious food, tea and coffee with a cat on your lap sounds perfect for the busy working Londoner – What’s not to love?
Animal cafés aren’t a new idea. The first animal café in the world was established in 1998 in Taiwan and called Cat Flower Garden. The trend has caught on properly in Japan over the last decade, where the densely populated cities mean most people live in apartment blocks and are unable to own a pet. The most common animal cafés in Tokyo are cats, but they also have rabbits, dogs, reptiles (which are kept in large tanks), all types of birds from parakeets to falcons, and even goats!
The owner of one such café, Norimasa Hanada, attributes their popularity to the fact that “Most Japanese rental apartments prohibit pets. This means that young workers in their 20’s and 30’s can’t even think about getting a pet, despite the fact that they’re stressed out and are seeking comfort and companionship”. Hanada says people get mentally drained and stressed from work, and that for many even just looking at the cats is comforting after a long day.
This reflects some interesting new research that suggests pets can help people with mental health conditions as they provide companionship and looking after a pet can give people a sense of purpose or achievement in life. The mental health foundation says, “Pets can … have calming effects on their owner. Just by stroking, sitting next to or playing with a pet can give owners a chance to relax and calm their minds.”
However, unlike Japan, pet ownership in the UK is much higher, where 46% of households have a pet, with dogs and cats being the most popular at 24% and 18% respectively. Our pet obsession is at an all-time high, but this hasn’t stopped animal cafés arriving in the UK and proving a big hit.
London’s first such café, called Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, opened last year and was instantly met with cries of joy from cat lovers across the capital. A year later and the café is still in huge demand, with its success kick-starting the animal café craze in England. There are a tone of pop-up cafes planned for this year, from a restaurant which serves gourmet 5-course meals for dogs to micro-pig picnics and everything in between.
There is growing concern, however, about the welfare of such animals. Lady Dinah’s has strict rules in place in order to keep the cats happy, such as not waking a cat if it’s sleeping and a ban on flash photography saying they “don’t make any attempts to alter their behaviour.”
Others however do not have such a reputation for care. A pop-up ‘owl bar’ in Soho called Annie the Owl has faced backlash from animal rights activists who have dubbed it a ‘hipster gimmick’ with petitions started to stop it going ahead. Even though the bar was open at night to
accommodate the owls nocturnal behaviour, campaigners said the loud and busy atmosphere would be distressing to the birds. As a result the organisers were forced to find a more spacious venue in a less busy part of London, change cocktails for smoothies and have lost the support of their named charity, The Barn Owl Centre.
Regardless of controversies surrounding them, animal cafés only look set to become more and more popular as the hype continues to grow. For people who are unable to keep pets at home it’s a great alternative, and even for those of us who can it’s still a great experience.
Erica Wilson
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, so as soon as I found out you could do a degree in Creative Writing I knew it was perfect for me. Having just graduated I can say I’ve had such a great experience!
I’m grateful for my amazing tutors who encouraged me to constantly challenge and push myself.
I’m especially proud of my dissertation, a dystopian post-apocalypse story, being on the editorial team for Brunel’s student newspaper and passing my extra-
curricular Japanese class. Also having my article featured in Vivid, a perfect way to end my academic studies.
I hope to spend the new few years teaching English abroad because languages are another one of my passions. I also play video games and long-term I’d love to write scripts or storylines for games.
