Sitting in Coffee Cats in Lincoln is a slightly surreal experience.
Here, as you drink your coffee, rescue cats are curling, purring and strolling everywhere. One lies in a seat opposite me; another chases a string toy; a third purrs, moving from customer to customer in search of strokes.
Cat cafes – in which you can enjoy a drink surrounded by felines – have become a well-loved sight on British high streets, and Stephen Brown, the owner of this one, says the business is all about “giving the cats a better life”.
Yet they may mask a worrying new trend: cats are being abandoned in the UK in huge numbers.
Cases of such abandonment have risen by 71 per cent in the last three years according to Cats Protection with the cost-of-living crisis and landlords not allowing tenants to have pets among the possible reasons why. Very often the animals abandoned are kittens.
Michele Franks, who is cat coordinator at the Lincs Ark animal welfare charity, said: “A big reason to why a lot of cats get abandoned is the problems with landlords not allowing people to have pets.
“Landlords need to allow people to take their cats with them when they move.”
Indeed, according to a 2024 Cats Protection, report “over half a million households who would like a cat can’t have one due to landlords”.
Michele believes there is an “age old idea that cats are going to wreck the house” but “children can make just as much damage”.
She added: “If people are able to rent with their children, then they should be allowed to rent with their animals.”
Cats not being neutered is another big reason for the rise of abandonments, some experts say, with an estimated 1.4 million cats not undergoing this procedure in the UK last year – something that can inevitably lead to unwanted kittens.
Michele, who currently has nine cats at home, said: “If cat owners were able to get their cats neutered [for free] that would be a great help.”
The rise of cats being dumped means more pressure – and more financial burden – on organisations like Lincs Ark, which was founded 23 years ago and which takes in rescue cats and seeks to rehome them with appropriate owners.
“We couldn’t do what we do without the public,” said Michele.
Back at Coffee Cats, in The Strait, Stephen Brown hopes he is part of the solution.
The cafe’s cats are adopted from shelters, while customers are provided with information about adopting their own rescued felines instead of buying from a pet shop.
Both he and Michele hope this tide of abandonment will soon be reversed.
