"It hurts": the city of Stuttgart bans cats in the cat café
Created: 01/13/2023 09:58
By: Sina Alonso Garcia
Scenes that are now a thing of the past: The namesakes of the café are now prohibited in the Happy Cats Café.
© Happy Cats Café & Trattoria/Sina Alonso Garcia/BW24 (photomontage BW24)
It has been apparent for a long time, now it is bitter reality for the operators of the cat café in the west of Stuttgart: The veterinary office bans the cats from the café and leaves the owners sad.
Stuttgart – When the first cat café in Stuttgart opened at the end of 2021, owner Daniel Di Stefano was still full of energy.
The café on Arndtstraße in the west of Stuttgart was to be something very special – a place where animals and people feel comfortable.
Visitors could spend a pleasant time with bubble tea, cake, coffee or tarte flambée and pet the fluffy furry friends.
Ahead of the opening, Di Stefano and his wife featured twelve furry family members on their website.
However, only two of these stayed in the café due to the strict hygiene requirements, as a visit by BW24 to “Happy Cats” showed.
Now Blue – a mix of Maine Coon and Persian cat – and Siamese cat Spooky have had to leave the cat café, as
BW24
summarizes.
"It is with regret that we have to inform you that due to official requirements from the Stuttgart Veterinary Office, our permission to keep cats in the café has been withdrawn until further notice," the operators write on their website.
From the start, attempts were made to counteract the "overly tough" regulations to have more than two cats in the café.
Therefore, the “sometimes very petty rules” were violated several times.
"Happy Cats" cat café has to do without fur noses: the veterinary office gives reasons
As reported by the
Stuttgarter Zeitung
, Di Stefano and his wife had increased the number of cats to four and once to six on their own.
However, they only had the welfare of the animals in mind.
According to the café owners, the companionship with other cats could have increased the well-being of the "company cats".
"It hurts to stand in a café without the furry friends coming towards you to cuddle," says Daniel Di Stefano.
The owners plan to appeal the regulatory decision.
For the Stuttgart veterinary office, however, the situation is clear.
Decisive for the withdrawal of the approval is "the lack of reliability of the person responsible to adhere to the agreed and issued conditions".
The city informed and advised the owners several times on how to operate the cat café and coordinated the conditions with them.
An official veterinarian explained that the premises were only suitable for keeping "a maximum of two mutually compatible and very human-oriented cats".
Katzencafé in Stuttgart falls out of favor with the veterinary office - because of "poor" hygiene
As the veterinary office reported to the
Stuttgarter Zeitung
, more than the two approved cats strayed through the café during six controls.
Another negative aspect was that the animals shared drinking and feeding bowls and a toilet.
The office also found the daily cleaning of the bowls and the cat toilet to be inadequate.
In addition, the operators did not comply with the regulation not to keep cats with torturous breeding characteristics and no wildcat hybrids in the café.
Persian cats, exotic short-haired cats or white cats are forbidden.
Even after a written request, the Di Stefanos did not follow the rules, according to the veterinary office.
However, the operator sees it very differently.
The cats are used to sharing their food and are generally very relaxed.
By letting more than the two allowed cats run around in the café from time to time, he only relieved the other animals.
"We don't think it's fair to let two cats do all the work," he says.
His concern is simply to bring cats and their different breeds closer to people who cannot keep pets.
Katzencafé in Stuttgart: owner devastated – "it was our dream"
Particularly bitter for the "Happy Cats" owner: In Stuttgart, the rules are comparatively strict.
In the Munich cat temple there are six fur noses in use, in Leipzig even eight - and with significantly less minimum square meters per animal.
"We are sorry for all the guests who were happy to come to us," write the Di Stefanos on their website.
"It was our dream to create special moments of peace and serenity for everyone in the café together with our cats."
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Although the café will now continue to operate without the popular four-legged friends, Daniel and Miya Di Stefano do not want to continue there.
"If you know a place or someone who owns a café, restaurant or commercial property and wants to rent it out - but of course not in Stuttgart - please let us know by email," they write on their website (contact: daniel@happycatscafe. en).
Stuttgart cat café wants to relocate – fans are angry: "It's unbelievable"
Fans and regular visitors to the Happy Cats Café are concerned on social networks.
"I could write a novel about what our offices in Stuttgart should be more concerned about," said a follower on Facebook.
“Why do the authorities always work 110 percent where it might not be necessary?
It's just another business less that creates jobs and pays taxes. ”Other cat fans also express their sympathy.
"It's unbelievable", "why is it first allowed and then forbidden?", "that can't be serious," says the comment.
Despite everything, the fans wish their beloved café luck in finding a location.
For the time being, there will only be an orphaned cat café in Stuttgart and soon there may not be one at all.