Cat Cafés


Why support cat cafés?

More than just a fun day out, cat cafés provide a new and exciting way for shelters to match cats with their "forever homes". The resident cats come from local animal shelters and are available for adoption - visitors to cat cafés can get to know animals in a friendly, relaxed environment to decide whether they would like to adopt in future.

Cake, coffee and open book on a wooden table

The history behind cat cafés

Cat cafés, while being a relatively new concept in many Western countries, have existed in countries such as Japan and Taiwan since the late 1990s and early 2000s. The world's first cat café ("Cat Flower Garden") opened in 1998 in Taipei, and soon grew to be an international tourist attraction.

Ensuring good animal welfare

Although cat cafés have great potential to improve the lives of rescue cats, cat cafés also have to balance their business aims with the welfare of their resident cats. A number of UK animal protection charities have expressed concern about the cat café trend, with a café in Leicester being shut down in 2015 due to serious hygiene issues. With an absence of regulation or guidelines, the onus must be on café owners and staff themselves to ensure that cats are well looked after. Some potential measures include:



This site was coded by Amy Brook, as part of the SheCodes Basic coding course.


This is a sample webpage, created as part of a coding course, and does not represent a real café or organisation. Any mentions of real life organisations or businesses do not represent endorsement.