Internationally, the Grenfell Tower inferno has been widely publicised. The consequences have been dramatic. They go far beyond the loss of at least 79 lives (I am sure the number is much higher). I’m also sure that some pets were lost in the fire but the wider consequence is that at least one local authority, Camden Council, is moving en masse more than 3000 residents from an estate in Swiss Cottage. This is because of fire safety fears thrown up by the Grenfell Tower fire.
Tower blocks in Camden have been deemed to be unsafe. Fire safety experts cannot guarantee the lives of residents living in these blocks. The leader of the council, Georgia Gould, decided that they must leave immediately and I can understand that.
A lot of these people are going to have pets and some of those pets are going to be cats. The problem is this: despite the fact that the council say that they can make the blocks safe within several weeks, it is far more likely that it’ll take at least several months and more.
This leaves people living in hotels or with relatives and under these circumstances cats are unwelcome at the least. Even if cats are allowed they have to acclimatise to new places under difficult circumstances which is far from ideal and likely to be detrimental to the health of these cats. You can’t really leave a cat in a boarding cattery for several months.
I think that it is important to recognise that it is not only people who have suffered as a result of alleged negligence from politicians and alleged criminal behaviour from building material suppliers and contractors which allegedly caused the Grenfell Tower fire.
