The Cat Lovers Festival was designed to educate and entertain cat owners and lovers (humans) and not cats. Cat and visitor welfare is our number one priority and with around 20,000 visitors, it would not be safe to allow people to come along with their own feline friends.
If your cat is a certified assistance animal, it has ‘full public access rights’, which means you can be accompanied by your assistance animal anywhere members of the public are allowed to go. However, if your cat is not a certified assistance animal, your cat may not attend – and some of the main reasons why…
The festival is a unique opportunity to meet literally hundreds of beautiful felines and we work hard to ensure that this is under controlled conditions to ensure the safety and welfare of cats and people. We could never deliver this level of care to visitor cats, especially as we expect thousands of people to attend.
We would also need to test the behaviour of every cat prior to entry and review their vaccination certificates which would just not be possible. And, of course, there is also the issue of where they do their ‘business’ in an indoor venue, the smell/mess, how to clean it up and the queues and frustration this would all create.
As a family-friendly event, we welcome a lot of kids and as we all know, it is impossible to control the unpredictable nature of children (i.e. tail pulling and hug tackles!) so allowing visitor cats would be just too dangerous.
So, for these reasons and our love and respect for our beloved cats, we trust you understand our reasons behind the policy not to allow visitor fur-kids into the Festival. The event is all about educating, entertaining and inspiring cat lovers, not cats. Please never leave your cat in your car and if visitors do arrive with their cat, the only option will be to return home, drop your feline at home and return to the Festival.
Rest assured, there will be a large number of wonderful cats to meet at the Festival and your cat will love you even more for attending as you’ll return home packed with all the latest goodies to reward them as well as a greater understanding into what makes them happy and healthy!