Reasons
for closure of FAB Boarding Cattery
Listing Scheme
At
the FAB AGM on 16th October 2010,
the Chairman announced that the charity
trustee directors had made a strategic
decision to close the Boarding Cattery
Listing Scheme. The board had been
discussing this as part of a strategic
review of the charity, taking a fresh
look at their activities, the economic
environment, new developments and
opportunities, risk assessment and,
of course, finances.
The
Listing Scheme had been labour intensive
and the charity has been funding it
for many years. More sophisticated
accounting mechanisms have enabled
the charity to look at apportioning
costs etc in a much more realistic
way.
Getting
the message of choosing a good cattery
out as widely as possible to cat owners
and providing information for those
wishing to start a boarding cattery
will continue. The charity will now
focus on raising awareness of needs
of cats in boarding catteries, reach
a wider audience of both catteries
and cat owners and to influence cattery
licensing legislation in order to
increase the number of cats we help
in this way. We will continue to provide
advice, information and support but
use the limited resources in the office
to take these other issues forward
by:
- Promoting
best practice - especially in relation
to management and cat care boarding
catteries
- Working
with other organisations to update
CIEH/BVA/LGA Guidelines to raise
standards for all catteries by influencing
those who grant licences
- Developing
cat owners' ability to choose better
catteries
- Building
on the knowledge and expertise of
the listed catteries
- Developing
education and reference materials
for cattery owners and their staff
- Adding
more information on cat care and
management to an updated boarding
manual as this is where our expertise
lies. This will help all cattery
proprietors coming new to the job
- Developing
distance learning courses to be
launched 2011/12. There will
be one for boarding catteries -
we are currently running courses
with veterinary nurses on feline
friendly practice and it is making
a great difference to what they
do on a daily basis - they can also
study in their own time
The
List of catteries will continue on
the website until 2014 although any
current listed catteries that change
hands will be removed as there will
be no future inspections. However,
those who are listed are now self-certified.
We still encourage cattery clients
to send in their feedback.
Claire
Bessant
Chief
Executive |
