Latest / Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond / Short Paws: Paid Leave, Rising Breeding and Abandoned Pets

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Short Paws: Paid Leave, Rising Breeding and Abandoned Pets · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to a short pause. We're here to bring some news and updates on our
• 0:05
  lives and what's going on and give you some of the news that's happening currently.
• 0:09
  So I'm here with Sash. Hi Sash. Hi Nat. How are you? Are you good? Yeah, I'm all right,
• 0:15
  thank you. I think I say this every time because we're recording on a Friday but yeah,
• 0:20
  glad it's Friday. Happy Friday. It's the weekend. It is the weekend. Have you got
• 0:25
  anything nice planned at all? I'm going to see my mum this weekend and spend some time with
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  her doggies, Prince and King. She has two chihuahuas and also see my sister because
• 0:36
  it's her birthday soon and my niece and yeah, my sister's got a dog as well. So
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  taking Betty with me and yeah, be a doggy, a doggy and mum weekend. Doggy and girly weekend.
• 0:49
  A girly weekend. Yeah, that's a good way of saying it. Yeah, what about you?
• 0:52
  Nothing really planned this week. Weekend, maybe a bit of DIY because we're coming to see you
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  next week. Yes. Exciting. We'll tell everybody more about that at the end of the episode but
• 1:04
  yeah, me and Sash are going to be in person which will be ace. Yeah, that'll be fun, won't it? We
• 1:08
  can get together around my table, make some tea, have some cake and record a podcast. Have a giggle.
• 1:14
  Yeah, so yeah, we're here today to talk about some of the news stories. Should I go first,
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  Sash? Yeah, what have you seen in the news now? So there was a really interesting one which I thought
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  was pretty good actually, progressive. So it's about Italy actually. So again, news from around
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  the world. So in Italy, they allow employees to use paid leave for seriously ill pets which is
• 1:37
  amazing. So like treating them a bit like close family members. So there's stipulations around
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  this but it mainly comes from the fact that in 2017, they had a change in the law where people
• 1:50
  had to be legally responsible for any animal and that it wasn't in any grave suffering. So to allow
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  people to meet that duty, they obviously then had to provide extra allowances for people to take
• 2:02
  care of their pets and not allow them to suffer. This law has been around for a while but it's
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  kind of gained a little bit of momentum because they've clarified what's actually allowed within
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  the laws and what employers should be offering. But to qualify for it, people still need to show
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  that they've got a vet certificate to say that the animal was seriously poorly or needs urgent care
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  and it's not just a routine thing. And they have to go through the same kind of mechanisms of their
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  employees kind of leave policies and stuff. But to me, it just makes so much sense. I mean,
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  it obviously is supported by the fact that they've got this law in place to ensure that your pets
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  aren't suffering and it brings me back to something we talked about a couple of weeks ago
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  where it was about not leaving animals alone for more than 12 hours, I think it was. So you know,
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  obviously if that's the part of a legal requirement and then your business, your work requires you to
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  be at work in an office all day, there's got to be some work, there's got to be some wiggle room to
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  allow owners to support their pets in the best way. So this is great because we know we've been
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  through a loss of pets, we've had times where our animals have been quite poorly and it's a
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  distraction, you're worried, you also need to go to the vets and get an appointment. So I think this
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  is a, I think this is quite a lovely progressive way to bring pets into the family a bit more and
• 3:19
  recognise their importance. Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, I just wish something like that this was
• 3:27
  available in the UK. Because as you know, at the minute, I'm supporting Betty
• 3:32
  with some of the challenges that she's facing. And that does require a weekly trip to physio,
• 3:40
  which, you know, it takes time to get there, then you have the appointment. And then next week,
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  she's off to see a neurologist at the Royal Veterinary College. And that's just outside of
• 3:49
  London. And I have no annual leave left. And you know, I'm trying to figure out in the moment how
• 3:56
  I'm going to wangle that and how I'm going to do it. Because yeah, it's, I can't neglect her. And
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  I, you know, I have to take her. Because I could just say, I've not got enough time, or it's too
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  far away, but I'm not going to do that. I need to make sure that she gets the right care. And she
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  sees the right specialist. And I was thinking maybe I should email our HR director and just
• 4:19
  say, actually, could we consider this because people have time out when they have to take the
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  children's to hospital or to the doctors for pets, you know, and it is, it's a huge commitment.
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  And it, like you say, there's an emotional toll as well. So yeah, can be really draining. And I think
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  if your employer is quite demanding, and you can't take that time out, how are you going to do it?
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  Because most vets aren't open on an evening. And even my vet now closes on a Saturday and Sunday.
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  So all vet appointments have to be Monday to Friday, kind of nine to five.
• 4:48
  Yeah, yeah, I know. And it's interesting, because this Italian thing, it was animal
• 4:53
  welfare groups that pushed for like, the clarification around this. And I think
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  that could easily happen in other countries, because the recognition of the importance of
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  animals and the needs of animals and your animal companion, it's becoming more prevalent throughout
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  different countries. And, you know, so there does need to be some movement within other restrictions
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  on life, in terms of work and other things you've got to do, then it needs to budge a little bit as
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  well. Yeah, we need to, we need to budget here in the UK. I think we need to budge. That's the word
• 5:24
  of today. We need to move the dial. We need to be more progressive. Yeah, we let's start some
• 5:30
  movement now. Let's see what happens. Yeah, let's see what happens. The other story I was going to
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  tell you about was cat based. It's a bit more of a serious topic, but I'm not going to sort of preach
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  too much about it. But it's about kitten breeding in the UK, because it apparently is on a quite a
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  high at the moment. And a few months ago, I did a reading of the Cats Protection's stats report,
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  it's called Cats and their Stats Report from 2025. And they spoke to over 10,000 people,
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  obviously, they're not all registered with the Cats Protection, they're from various different
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  walks of life. But they noted that neutering rates are falling. And it's driven mainly by
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  younger affluent pedigree cat owners who want to have a litter of kittens. And that's all very
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  sweet and cute. And I always wanted a litter of kittens, but practical things never kind of worked
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  out for me. I just thought actually, I can't do it. Plus, I could never give them up. I could never
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  get rid of a litter of kittens. Oh, but so yeah, so sort of these more affluent younger people are
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  sort of having litters. I don't know for what reasons I'd love to look into that, actually.
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  But what's happening is that obviously, there's more kittens now not being adopted by other
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  people. So the RSPCA have said that they've seen a 72% increase in the care of cats in this last
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  year. So this is 1,400 at the end of the year, as opposed to only 800 in the last four years. So
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  it's almost doubled. And that's really concerning, because we talked last time about the adopt don't
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  shop. So, you know, it's lovely having a litter of kittens, but think about perhaps, you know,
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  where they're going to be homed and the fact that there's lots of them that don't have homes and
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  what happens to them. They don't want to be living in small pens in shelters. That's just not fair.
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  But just to help with people think about this, there's a lot of, I remember there's been an old
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  wives tale about breeding. And people used to say, well, they've got to have one litter, it's healthy
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  for them. And that's a myth. Spaying helps with things like infections, it cuts all kinds of
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  problems and helps with disease. And it also helps them remain calm and kind of keeps them with longer,
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  healthier lives. So it is a positive with animals to have them neutered and get them neutered quite
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  early on. Because I've been on socials recently, and I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding
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  of when to neuter and you can neuter them at quite a young age. I'm not sure of the technical details,
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  but cats can have litters at a very young age. So I'll leave people to think about that.
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  And just see how they feel about it. But it's something to bear in mind and just think about
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  kind of where your kittens are going. I mean, interestingly, people aren't, the general feeling
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  is that people aren't selling them. So it's not for money. It's, I think it's just because kittens
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  are cute, and they want their, you know, their cats to have a litter of kittens. I don't know.
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  Yeah, it's interesting. Actually, I once worked with a lady who had a cat who was due to give
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  birth and, you know, her view was, oh, I'd really love my cat to have the chance to be a mum
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  at least once. And I thought, I don't know, I just thought that was an interesting take. And I just
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  thought, is that more about you wanting to be a mum to some kittens? Because I can see why,
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  I'm not judging. I could definitely see why someone would feel like that. But yeah, interesting on the
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  age of neutering. If someone asked me for dogs or cats, I probably wouldn't know. So it is good
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  to know that you can do it a lot earlier in their lives. I've just had a look actually,
• 9:00
  just to kind of make sure we are accurate. It's around four months old. So you know,
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  I think a lot of people adopt or get a kitten quite young at maybe 13 weeks. So you know,
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  you're pretty much on the path to getting them neutered once you've got them in your care.
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  So do think about that. Yeah. So what about you, Sash? What about you? What news have you found?
• 9:22
  So there's a couple of things that have jumped out to me this week. Two quick doggy updates.
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  So this week in England and Wales, owners whose dogs attack or chase livestock could face an
• 9:34
  unlimited fine. So sounds like that's a positive step because I often see sort of dogs in fields
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  on countryside walks, just kind of running about and chasing stuff. And I always think, why is that
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  okay? So yeah, obviously you want your dog to be able to run around, but think about poor sheep
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  and other wildlife that's out there. Yeah, bless them. And then in Wales, the Parliament has voted
• 10:00
  to ban greyhound racing due to animal welfare concerns. So I read that. It's amazing news.
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  Seems like it's a long time coming. There's lots of old, retired greyhounds that again
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  need rehoming and we need to do better to take care of those animals. They're not just for our
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  pleasure. That's how I feel anyway. Yeah, no, I agree. So they were the two kind of things that
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  just jumped out as positive steps in terms of protecting animals. And then the main one really
• 10:35
  is about the war in the Middle East and some of the pets, particularly in Dubai, cats and dogs,
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  being left behind as many expats or yeah, many expats, many of them British expats are rapidly
• 10:51
  leaving. And yeah, I mean, I think the war in the Middle East just seems to dominate the headlines
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  at the moment. So reading about that is quite sad. Hard enough. Yeah. And as the Iran war escalates,
• 11:08
  I think, you know, there's lots of pets being abandoned and overwhelming local animal charities
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  in Dubai. So they are really becoming the hidden victims of the conflict, which you don't hear as
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  much about on the news, but there's definitely coverage to sort of say well-loved pets that
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  have been microchipped and have families are just left behind because the families have disappeared.
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  Well, that's heartbreaking. Exactly. It's reported it's really heartbreaking and frightening for the animals
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  left behind. And yeah, often animals are hidden casualties of war. I think even in this
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  country during sort of the world wars, there was abandoned pets. You know, well, as people
• 11:54
  got killed. Well, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because when the Ukraine war kicked
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  off, I mean, that affected me for various reasons. But I remember seeing people crossing borders with
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  cat carry cases and I was just like, oh, my God. It's gorgeous that they've taken them with them.
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  But the heartbreak of knowing of how many may be left behind. Yeah. And then there are charities
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  in Dubai that are trying to help. So there's Canine Friends, there's Dubai Street Kitties,
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  there's Six Hounds Sanctuary. But it's reported that they're all saying that they're already full.
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  So, yeah, apparently around 45,000 British nationals have left the Middle East since the
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  1st of March. And there have been evacuation flights. But there is an agreement with the UAE
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  and the UK that pets can return without quarantine. Okay. So that you can come back
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  with them. I guess you just have to then sort out the flights. And there's also in Dubai itself,
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  I think they've installed 12 AI powered feeding stations, is what it said across the city. So
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  just breaks my heart, the idea of there's lots of pets roaming around, dogs and cats.
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  I mean, flip me, like Dubai is rolling in cash. This is what annoys me, though. I'm going to go
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  on a little mini rant, everyone. Dubai is rolling in cash. They have got money coming out of their
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  ears and yet they can't take care of the, you know, the animals that are left behind during
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  times like this when there's money out there going around for sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's true,
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  actually, because, you know, the sort of the charities that I mentioned there, I mean,
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  there may be more, but it sounds like they are struggling to keep up because they're feeling
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  overloaded, underfunded and understaffed. Yeah. So yeah, I probably shouldn't go too deep into
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  that. No, no, because I don't want to get too, feel too sad. Too political and too sad, yeah.
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  I mean, I get it if you are living miles away and you need to come back to the UK,
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  it isn't that easy and flights probably aren't that cheap. Expensive, no. But yeah.
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  But it's good to know. Sorry, go on. No, I was going to say, what's good about it is that the
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  government have that agreement and that pets can go without quarantine so that that barrier is
• 14:18
  removed at least. Yeah, yeah, that's good. It wants me just to, I just want to hold on to
• 14:23
  Betty even tighter when I read stories like this because I'm like, I never want to be parted from
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  you, my little Betty. I take her everywhere with me as it is, even holiday now in the UK
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  so that she can come with us, which is great because I'm exploring lots of new places in the
• 14:41
  UK. But yeah. Yeah, it's funny because the more and more I've been talking about pets and the
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  more and more I've been doing stuff around with Murray and Weaver on socials, the more I'm becoming
• 14:52
  more and more attached to them. It's just, it's funny. They're just like, yeah, it's gorgeous.
• 14:57
  Just like that little bond grows because you talk to them more and you talk about them more. It's
• 15:01
  cute. I know I met someone the other day whose pet had passed away and they'd said, we'd even
• 15:08
  bought a camper van so that we could go on holiday with the dog, with our little dog.
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  When the dog sort of passed away very suddenly, it was about five, so they hadn't expected it. But
• 15:21
  yeah, they were like, we just want to spend all our time with our dog and we want to holiday with
• 15:24
  it. So we bought this camper van and they were really gutted. So yeah. Oh, bless.
• 15:30
  Well, some sad news, but there are some positive things that we've picked up on that are happening
• 15:36
  in the world. So that's great. It's not all rosy and it's worth acknowledging that there is some
• 15:40
  difficult times, but we try not to dwell on it too much. But you do need to be aware of these
• 15:45
  things. But yeah, but thank you. This is the, I think we're coming to the end of our short pause,
• 15:50
  but I wanted to say thank you to everybody that's been listening. We're getting a nice little
• 15:54
  following. And if you want to find out more from us, we're on social media, we're on TikTok
• 15:59
  and on Instagram. And if you want to join in and give us any feedback or get in touch about any
• 16:05
  ideas you have, you can do that through the socials or you can email us at pausebetweeners
• 16:10
  at gmail.com. And then we look forward to bringing you another episode next week when we said at the
• 16:16
  start, me and Sash are meeting in person. We're having a lovely girly weekend with all of our gang,
• 16:20
  our old gang from back in the day at school. We're having a little get together. But yeah,
• 16:26
  we'll be interviewing one of our friends. Sash, do you want to say a little bit about what we're
• 16:29
  going to be talking to Katie about? Yeah, so one of our dear friends,
• 16:33
  Katie, we've known for a long time. We want to have a chat to Katie about why she doesn't have
• 16:41
  pets and whether or not through having a chat with her, we could convince her to get one. So
• 16:49
  she has two young kids, but they're getting a little bit older now. So feels like it could be
• 16:54
  a good time to talk about introducing cats or a hamster or maybe even a dog.
• 17:01
  She was quite taken with Laura's episode. She messaged me saying she's almost tempted to get
• 17:05
  hamster. So hey, maybe that's our line of attack. Yeah. So we're going to try and persuade our
• 17:12
  friend Katie. Katie, if you're listening, you better be ready for next week because we're going
• 17:18
  to try and persuade you to think about getting a pet. And we want to know if by the end of our
• 17:25
  chat, we have kind of moved the dial. And yeah, we're intrigued. So yeah, we look forward to
• 17:34
  having a chat with Katie next week. And maybe if there's other people out there that are thinking
• 17:40
  about getting a pet and not sure, maybe they can listen in to and see if we can convince them.
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  That's the end of the short pause. Thank you for listening in. It's been great chatting to you.
• 17:50
  Hope you've enjoyed it. And we'll see you next time. Yeah, thank you. See you next time. Take
• 17:55
  care. See you soon, Fash. Bye. See you soon, Nat.