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Short Paws: New Laws in South Korea and UK Senior Cat Rescues · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

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Welcome to Paws Between Us, your regular dose of positive pet news.
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Every other week, we bring you a short, uplifting episode packed with the latest
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feel-good stories and research from the world of pets. So take a moment
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to tune out from all the negative news dominating our headlines and help us shine
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a light on the good, celebrating the joy pets bring to our lives and showing
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inspiring changes making their lives better too. So settle
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in for a short pause and let's spread some positivity together.
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Hello, Sasha. Hello, Natalie. Oh, you called me Sasha.
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That was very formal. And I just said Natalie.
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You echoed it back. I did. I did. How are you doing?
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I'm all right. I'm all right. I've got a few days off work. I've been
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out and about doing some nice things. I've been in hot tubs. I've been to
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wildlife centres. Yes, indeed. Tell us about the wildlife
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centre. Oh, it's so good. I was saying a little bit earlier that
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I've been sort of burnt by experiences of bad zoos. Yes. And I've been putting
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off going into wildlife, any wildlife centres and any zoos
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for a while because I just didn't wanna get upset 'cause I'm very sensitive.
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But took a punt, did a little bit of reading, took a punt and went
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to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park up north in Doncaster.
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And it was amazing. It was so great. It's such a huge,
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it's got such a huge footstep. It's just, footstep? Huge footprint.
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Footprint. That's the word. It's got a huge footprint,
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masses and masses of land, acres and acres. So, all the animals live
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in quite a lovely bit of space. With lots of enrichment,
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natural environment. And it's like the job I wanted to do when I was a
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kid. I was like, love to design enclosures for animals that was like,
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had all their natural environments and the enrichment that they need. So, I was just,
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I was in my element walking around loving it. And they all looked so relaxed.
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They were all, the lions were playing. It was so cute.
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It was such a nice day. So, yeah, I had a really great time.
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Thank you. Oh, sounds amazing. I didn't realise you wanted to
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do that when you were younger. I know, yeah, it was a bit of a
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random thing. It was the only thing I could link to animals that wouldn't make
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me upset. Oh yeah, all the positive stuff. Would you still do
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it? Yeah. Wouldn't you go and work in a zoo? Oh wait, in a
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wildlife park? Yeah, I was like, I'd love to work here, even if I was
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just like sweeping up poop. It would be so cute. It just, they just bring,
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they just make you happy, don't they, animals? We've been saying for months and weeks
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and days, they just make you happy when you're around them, 'cause they're just adorable
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and they're just sort of like, you know, they don't ask of anything from you.
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They're just who they are and— I know, that's, yeah, I mean, That's the purpose
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of this podcast, isn't it really? But yeah, I mean, it's lovely.
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Just sort of on that topic, I saw this morning a neighbour who's
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a dog walker and she had a couple of dogs and we stopped and chatted
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and they were so friendly. And I actually just sat on the floor,
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sat on the ground, on the path. And I
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didn't really care if my jeans got dirty, but just to give them some love
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and affection because they were just so happy to see me and enjoying all
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the cuddles. And I thought, yeah, just unconditional. Well, they didn't really know me,
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unconditional love, but it was kind of like just Yeah, unconditional friendliness.
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Yeah, just being like who they are and just being happy in the moment
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with you. Yeah. Oh, that sounds really nice.
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You went to a cemetery, didn't you? 'Cause it's on our socials. Tell us a
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little bit about that visit. Yeah, so I did a cemetery tour here
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in North London, and I always take visitors that come to see
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me to the, to the tour because it's just steeped in so
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much history. And my sister was visiting and loves that
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kind of thing. And yeah, it just really captures I
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guess, a celebration of people's lives because they're,
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they're sort of the memorials and the headstones and things
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are just all so very different. And yeah, there's so much there,
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like so many stories about the people that lived in London in
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days gone by. It was an old Victorian cemetery,
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but yeah. And the things that they, they did or that
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they contributed to in London and the things that they, yeah, just,
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it's just really interesting because there's clearly lots of animal lovers as well.
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Amongst us in the cemetery. And that's nice to know.
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Yeah, really nice to see that there was also a tribute
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to those animals on their headstones. So yeah, just,
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there was one of a guy in Victorian times who, who's actually
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a boxer. And yeah, I popped this on our socials. He had a
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Mastiff dog called Lion. So, a bit of a link there.
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Fitting. Huge, great dog, because the monument that's on
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his headstone is life-size, and it was, yeah, it was really big.
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And apparently, yeah, the dog Lion attended his funeral and was
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part of the procession. Aww.
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And yeah, so that was just really nice to see. I don't know much about
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the relationship between the guy and the lion, and the lion, and the dog,
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which he called Lion. But yeah, it was, he was clearly very
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fond of it. Of course. Yeah. There isn't a pet cemetery though within
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that cemetery. So, that is somewhere I would like
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to go and visit at some point.
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Yeah, I wouldn't mind learning a bit more about pet cemeteries.
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There's a few in Nottinghamshire, but I don't think there's loads I don't
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think they're very common, but I remember when I was in my early
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20s, I used to work for a particular organisation,
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and one of the things was to review a pet cemetery.
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But they had, I dunno if I've mentioned this before, they had pets
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that had achieved things or given to human lives
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during the war effort. They'd been like sniffer dogs who'd been searching
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out for bombs and all that kind of like, they were sort of,
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they'd contributed to something, they'd achieved something.
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So, it was really interesting because they wanted to kind of build upon the land
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that they had and develop it and provide more grave space and
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recognition for some of these animals that dedicated their lives to human endeavours.
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So, it's quite nice. It's really good to see that recognition there.
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But yeah, the normal pet cemeteries, I'd like to do a bit more looking into,
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finding out what people think and feel about them and see
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what some of the memorials are there. That would be nice. Yeah,
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because of course, when you say the word pet cemetery, I'm just,
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automatically thinking of the book that
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was written. Horror film. Yeah, a horror, yeah.
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A book that was like a horror and then it turned into a film,
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wasn't it, called Pet Sematary? And so, actually Pet
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Sematary is the complete opposite of that. So,
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space for reflection and memory and recognition. Yes, and celebration and recognition
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rather than evil and bad. Fitting for Halloween
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just passed. Indeed, indeed.
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So, yeah, we're moving on to the happy stories from the
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last couple of weeks. Have you got any news or shall I jump in with
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mine first? You jump in with yours because I've actually,
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I'm, I'm like, I'm, I haven't seen as much positive news out there recently.
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I've seen like all the negative news and I want to hear some positive stuff.
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So, I don't know why, but it'd be good to understand like what you found
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because I'm not seeing it out there at the moment. Yeah, agree.
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It has become a bit more tricky, whether it's like winding down for the year
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or whether we've had lots of good things happen and actually it's just those settling
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in now. I don't know, but maybe, I hope so.
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I hope so. Yeah. But I did find a couple of good, interesting things.
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So one of them is actually based in South Korea. So it's a development
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of South Korea's Animal Protection Act. So I came across this, it's quite good.
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The changes actually came into place on the 28th. Oh no,
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sorry. The changes will come into place on the 28th of October next
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year. So it takes a little while for laws to change, obviously, but they kind
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of, I'll read through them and then I'll explain how they kind of mirror
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or reflect on what the UK is doing in sort of very
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light touch. But so in South Korea, what they're looking to do, bring in,
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is protecting animals to stop cruelty before it happens,
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rather than only acting once the animal has been hurt,
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injured, or unfortunately dies. So one of the things is to stop
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repeated abuses. So if someone is convicted of a serious animal cruelty, such as killing,
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then the court could stop them from owning and keeping animals for up to 5
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years. There's arguments here as to whether 5 years is enough. In my opinion,
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no. But at least it's kind of moving.
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It's moving in a way and putting more protections in. People fined or given a
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tougher sentence for cruelty will not be able to adopt animals from local authorities
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for 5 years after their sentence ends. Those injuring
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and killing, and then those with cruelty under their sentencing.
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So it covers all of those different types of abuse.
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And if an owner is charged with abuse, the animal can stay in protective care
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until the court case is finished. So it's taking the animal out of that home
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life and removing removing it from the abuser, even though they haven't been convicted
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yet, but to protect the animal, which is great, I think, a great movement and
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recognition of that animal's own rights.
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Then they're also making neglect clearer. So if someone leaves a pet
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in a pet hotel or clinic and doesn't come back for it, that's classed as
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abandonment. And owners can be fined for an animal if it's harmed, if they've failed
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to meet the basic care needs. For example, and it gives some specific
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examples, which where the difference comes in. Using a lead shorter than 2 metres,
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or not giving an animal somewhere safe to rest during extreme heat or cold.
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So it kind of gives some very specific examples of what they think harm and
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basic care needs are, which is great. Then they're also looking to tighten rules
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for breeders and pet sellers. So pet breeders will have to renew their licence
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every 5 years, and at each renewal, the inspectors will go and
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check out their premises and make sure that they're meeting standards. So they'll actually go
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out and do that. Businesses will not be allowed to pretend to be animal shelters
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if they're selling pets. So they have to make a very clear distinction in what
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they're actually doing so people don't get confused that they're a rescue, that they're actually
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making money from this. So they're just sort of tightening all of that up,
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which is great, being very specific about stuff, because I think that's where loopholes come
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in. And the final thing is helping more animals in need.
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So local authorities will be able to rescue and care for more animals,
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including those left alone after disasters or
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after their owner dies or disappears. So that includes strays and lost pets and animals
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who have been abused. So hopefully that in turn means
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that they can actually, you know, bring them in under their care and not leave
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them roaming the streets and actually have a responsibility to take care of them.
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And the law also creates support for working dogs,
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including military, search and rescue, and detection dogs,
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and may include help for owners and support centres after the dogs, when they retire.
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So they're just like, it's really great, like a big movement
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to just tighten everything and make it clearer. And the difference, I suppose, if you
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want to think about what they do in the UK, so we already have quite
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a lot of this in place. Place, but a lot of it is
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kind of discretionary, or there's not a separate,
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like, an automatic rule. Like, for example, with the adoption thing, South Korea is putting
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on a clear 5-year restriction, where ours is a bit more like the discretion of
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the courts and who's involved. So it's not kind of set in stone.
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There's just more explicit rules around, like, what care
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is and what offences are included.
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But there's things around— we already have a licensing around breeders,
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But we don't do the actual going out
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and checking the welfare standards, whereas South Korea is taking it a bit further.
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So there's just those little bits. England's doing it very well, and we
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should be very proud of ourselves. But the main lessons from South Korea is the
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clarity and consistency, just making it very explicitly clear about what
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is within the standards and what isn't. Which is really interesting. So well
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done, South Korea, for moving in the right direction. Maybe we could learn from other
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countries and develop our own systems to be even better than they are now.
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Indeed, yeah, paws up to them. And it is good to know that many of
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those things are in place here in the UK, even if there is a little
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bit more vagueness around some
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of the rules or the conditions. But yeah, so,
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I wonder, are they cat or dog people there? Does there, like, a big
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sort of population of both? I wonder how many, what sort of
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pet parenting looks like. Yeah, what the stats are there. Be interesting to
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know. That is a really good question, Jo. I'm going to have a quick look
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and see whether it says anything. Again, like here, pet ownership has increased and dogs
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are the most common animal. Okay. Yeah. Cats and goldfish. Oh,
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nice. I used to have goldfish. I loved my goldfish. But again,
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looking back when I was younger, I probably didn't
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really look into like how to best take care of goldfish.
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Yeah. I know. We had a goldfish. We won at the fair, the flipping
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classic in a bag situation. But I know that goldfish
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grow to the size of the tank. So, even if you get a bigger tank,
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they'll grow to the size, but you still feel like they're in a very small
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space. I did anyway. Mine lived a very long time. You could even
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hold mine. You could like cup it and it would swim into your hand.
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That was very sweet. But yeah, I went to a fish place,
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like a, I didn't, I never think before I go sometimes. And I walked into
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this like fish selling place, like as in for pets. Like an aquatic
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centre. That's the word I'm looking for. An aquarium. It wouldn't be a fishmonger.
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It'd be an aquatic centre. Yeah, that's the word.
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I don't think there's many of them about anymore. I don't really see them.
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Well, no, they're in garden centres, but I don't know. I found myself getting a
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bit upset again because they're like so many fish in a tiny
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tank with no enrichment in it. Like it's just literally
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maybe one plant. And I'm like, this is really bad. So anyway, I won't
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be going in them again. No, it'd be really good to get some pet parents
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who have fish to talk us through fish care. I think that would be really
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nice. That would be nice. Yeah. Every animal deserves—
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Well, every animal deserves like a good quality of life, doesn't it? Regardless of whether
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they think it's got no intelligence. They think it's got no intelligence.
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Anyway. Well said. Let's move on to other positive pet
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news, shall we? So the other one I found, which I've been aware of for
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some time and always been very impressed and inspired
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by, is the Shropshire Cat Rescue in Shrewsbury. And they
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provide food and vet care for homeless stray and abandoned cats and
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kittens. And they do rehoming. And they also help with feral cats. They do a
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lot of like educational stuff. But they, the one thing I wanted to touch on
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or showcase was their retirement village for cats. Oh my
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God. Oh. Treatment Village is for like,
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obviously older cats who are in their twilight years, as they call them, or those
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that are a little poorly and need extra treatment and vet care.
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And they have like this enclosure, which is
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like a little gated area. Within this gated space,
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there's maybe 4, 5 little wooden chalets, like pretty
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little kind of garden summer houses, you'd imagine. And they've got like heated
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blankets in there, heated beds, food space, litter trays.
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It's all like kitted out with climbing stuff and little different levels of sleeping
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spaces. And it's like they're all in this area and they could just
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come and go and mooch around and swap into chalets and go where they like.
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And it's just a lovely little welcoming warm space
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that's a nice space for just all of those cats to live together. And it's
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just beautiful. And like, looks, this would be sort of the thing that I'd want
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if I had to, if I wanted to sort of rescue some cats, I'd want
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to put them in a space where they could kind of come and go freely,
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but they also had like warmth and safety within their little chalets.
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But yeah, check them out. They're on socials, they're on TikTok. TikTok,
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Instagram, Facebook, X, and if you want to sort of support
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them, you can sponsor them. But it's a way to sort of give vulnerable cats
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a loving little space for the rest of their lives, and it's so gorgeous.
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That's lovely. They've done so well. Yeah. I love the idea of a little chalet,
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a cat chalet. I know. That sounds amazing.
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It's so nice. It's just like, it's what I would want
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a cat rescue to look like. You know, I always think about these quite small
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pens that are maybe like, I don't know, what,
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10 metres by 5 or something. Whereas this is a huge,
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quite a huge, well, a substantial space with
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an out— it's got a garden. It's outside as well as inside. Yeah. They've done
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well. Yeah. I think that's the thing, isn't it? I'm sure the challenge is,
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is trying to support as many cats or dogs as
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possible within the space that you have.
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So, do you give less cats more space
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or do you try and help more? I'm sure they're always trying to work out
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like that, the sort of space requirements. Yeah. And the ratio.
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But yeah, I like that idea. They're very obviously very lucky to
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have the space and the money to build that because yeah,
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I think providing any kind of temporary home or
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long-term home for a stray or injured animal or cat is
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admirable. Like if you're doing that and you're putting all your time to do that,
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they're just very lucky to have this retirement village space for them.
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Where they can kind of get, they can get checked regularly and
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get the vet needs seen to. And yeah, they're very cute.
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It's very nice. It'd be nice to explore actually care for senior pets. I don't
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think that's a topic we've talked about yet, is it, on this podcast?
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No, I think we've mentioned it a few times we were going to do,
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weren't we? Yeah, because, you know, I'm supporting a senior doggy and Weaver and
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Murray, I guess at some point will, will come to their twilight years as you
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described it. So, it'd be nice just to think about, yeah, how we can support
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our pets when they get older. One thing I did read today
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while I was doing a bit of research was some encouragement for
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people to think about adopting older pets,
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because obviously kittens are usually frantic.
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They're learning behaviours still, they're learning routines,
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they're full of energy, could be clawing up stuff, and they're
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settling down. Like toddlers and young people, they're still kind of like
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learning the ropes. Whereas like, you know, if you adopt an older cat
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or dog or rabbit or whatever, they tend already trained.
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They've got the behaviours already in, they know their personalities, so you can judge how
17:47
they're gonna sort of fit with you a bit more. They're obviously a bit more
17:49
steady. So, you know, if you've got a steady lifestyle, they'll fit in well with
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you. So there's lots of benefits to adopting an older animal,
17:56
an older pet. So think about that too. Yeah, I agree.
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I definitely think all those things are right. I suppose some people are a little
18:02
bit guarded because they're trying to prevent heartbreak.
18:07
That's true. Which is totally understandable. We did a,
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um, Well, we recorded a podcast, didn't we, recently about
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bereavement, which I think we are due to publish next week.
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Next week, yeah. Yep, so keep your eyes out
18:24
for that one, 'cause yeah, it is a hard time when pets get older
18:27
and become more frail and yeah, and then eventually
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pass away. But that is no reason to stop you from adopting
18:36
an older pet, because there's still lots of, lots of joy that you
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can gain from that and lots of love that they have to give. Yeah.
18:44
Yeah. Kind of getting close to a lovely little pet and then
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thinking about them getting older is a little bit of a nervousness,
18:51
but yeah, the years of joy they bring is well worth it.
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But the other good positive thing around that was one of the things I did
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read is if you have got an older pet and you're adopting an older pet,
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sometimes there is extra support there in terms of,
19:05
because one of the other things I think is thinking about their medical needs or
19:08
health needs. So I think some of the charities and adoption centres offer a little
19:12
bit of support around that. So maybe check that out as well, or ask the
19:15
questions if you're looking to get an older animal. But yeah. Yeah,
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very true. Yeah, there's often support, isn't there, with vet bills and things like that.
19:23
So great. So yeah, so that's all the, the positive
19:27
news I've come across this week. I mean, I'm sure there's loads of other stuff
19:30
out there. This is just what we found this week, and we look forward to
19:33
having more positive news coming in the following weeks on our short pause.
19:37
So listen up for that. And if you've come across something, share it with us
19:39
so we can tell other people. Um, but then look forward
19:42
to next week's episode where we've got Amanda from Kitty City.
19:45
She's very kindly offered to come back and see us again,
19:49
talk about a little bit of my Sasha message. Sasha mentioned
19:52
there, I need to put my teeth in today. It's all right.
19:56
Sasha mentioned there an episode on pet loss.
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Um, so we'll be talking about the things you can think about, how to help
20:04
yourself, and how to be prepared, best prepared for when the inevitable comes.
20:08
But Amanda's got lots of personal experience around this.
20:11
She's been through it enough times, and so have we. So, it'd be good to
20:15
share some of those helpful insights with you. So,
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check that out next week. Indeed, yeah, do. I think
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it's great that you can kind of hear her personal story, but also get some
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of those practical tips on how to sort of deal with the
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time when it comes and the things you need to think about.
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Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that, Nat. Like you say,
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let's hope there is, there continues to be lots of positive pet news out
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there that we can, we can talk about, but do send in anything that
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you've, you've heard about or want to share. Mm. Yes. Get in touch.
20:48
Thank you. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Ash. Thanks, Nat. See you
20:52
soon.