His name is Jonathan Tan Wei-De (aka Jonathan Tan). He opened a cat café in Singapore called ‘Cuddles Cat Café’. He broke several animal welfare laws and regulations in Singapore during the short tenure of ownership of his business and as a consequence he was convicted and fined $3,500 in lieu of a two week jail sentence. Seven out of the twenty cats died before the café opened. The business was closed in December 2014.
Subsequently he opened a new cat café is nearby Thailand, in the capital Bangkok. Now he is in trouble again. Clearly he is unsuited to being involved in the management of animals. Licensing should be required for wannabe cat cafe owners in order to ensure that they are of sufficient quality. Cat cafés are a very specialist and unusual sort of business as cats are being used to make money in the middle of cities and towns. This presents certain complications and and animal welfare issues which are allegedly being ignored by this individual.
You’d have thought that the Thai authorities would have checked him out before allowing him to set up his cafe. If would not have taken much to have discovered Tan Wei-De’s failure in cat café management in Singapore.
Tan’s new establishment is called ‘Kitties and Bears’. Apparently similar animal welfare issues are present as before.
We are told that Tan also ‘cares’ for dogs and seven have died in his ownership in a month due to illness. He does not attend veterinary clinics sufficiently frequently despite being advised to do so. He allows sick and healthy animals to mingle. On one occasion a kitten died because of over-handling. These are the allegations. His track record encourage us to believe them.
I believe that a man called: Itsarachai Beerleo Niyomrad is the whistleblower and perhaps an employee at Kitties and Bears. He appears to be truthful in saying:
“I am posting this as I feel very sorry for how the poor animals are being treated there and demand to see a change,” the Thai man wrote.
“I am not falsely accusing the owner and I have proof for every accusation I have made above”.
Tan presents a well run cafe on his Facebook page. Let’s hope the police investigate as soon as possible. I suspect that the Thai police and enforcement agencies are less effective than those in Singapore.
Sources: coconuts.co and todayonline.com and Google images.
They eat tortured pets in that part of the world. That may be the basis for Mr. Tan’s behavior: no regard for animals as sentient beings.
Wow. Here is an aspect of cat cafe ownership that the general public does not often think about. Jonathan Tan is unqualified to open a cafe, or even own an animal for that matter. Thank you to the person who alerted the authorities to the plight of the animals in this cafe. I feel horrible for these poor cats. I hope that the Thai police close down this business and rescue these cats, but it sounds questionable whether anything will be done. This saddens and angers me to no end.