To wonder who would complain about this??

[Rebeccaslicker]

Wonder if social media pressure will make them reverse the decision.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-dorset-42873743

Ewww, I’d definitely complain if there were rats or mice. Environmental Health.

Surely it calls for a boycatt ?

Should try Rome - loads of stores have a store cat there. It was practically normal.

I like cats, but I think I'd draw the line on cat hair and worse on my food, thanks. Bleugh.

Love the idea this is an uptight Britishism those right-thinking sophisticates in Europe wouldn't dream of, though. You want to hear my French friend's mother on the subject of the revolting ways British people let their dogs and cats lick their hands ...

Aw where's the poor cat going to go now? He wasn't doing anyone any harm. I hope karma catches up with the sour bitch that complained.

Probably great for keeping mice and rats away, but I'd have to avoid.

I'm allergic to cats and asthmatic. I become very ill when I'm near cats. I was hospitalised years ago after being bitten by cat fleas after looking around a potential new home.

I was okay with them until my late teens, but even back then I was grossed out after visiting my sister who allowed her cat to walk over worktops and then prepped food on them without cleaning first. Her excuse was that she never knew when the cat had been up there so why bother!

Out of curiosity, anyone here become allergic to more and more things as they get older? I started with cats and grass in my teens and now have a LOT of allergies, including candles, air freshener and scented liners and pads (can't go down those aisles at the supermarket without having difficulties breathing and I have to ask friends not to use candles before I visit).

I probably sound a bit precious and it took me years to get GP to send for testing, but once confirmed I've been taken seriously - thankfully.

I would tend to assume that a store with a resident cat had a mouse/rat problem. It wouldn’t encourage me to shop there.

I wonder how many of the posters saying it’s unhygienic feel the same about parents putting their children in supermarket trolleys with their shoes on? That pisses me off more, as the children could have stepped in anything, then I’m putting my shopping on top of it. Before you start, yes I know there are birds and rats running all over them (not really, but people like to say that).

There used to be a lovely wee cat that sat outside a local Tesco, and even the local dogs left in alone.

We have a cat that regularly comes in to my work place. At first it was funny and customers loved it. However, it has started to become a nuisance. It tried to bite me a few weeks ago when I was stroking it and it has scratched someone else on the face. It scratches to get in the staff room at lunch time and makes itself a nuisance with customers by climbing all over the desks when they are trying to work. We have also had some people complain that they have had to leave as they have severe cat allergies. I would be quite happy to ban it. By the way I am an animal lover and at first I loved it coming in but it's getting on my nerves now.

Positively I have never allowed my children to sit in the trolley. It’s dangerous as well as unhygienic.

I hope karma catches up with the sour bitch that complained.

Huge assumption that a) the complaint didn't come from someone with good reason and b) a woman.

What if someone had gone in to buy something and they have an allergy to cats? What if they then had some sort of reaction due to the allergy? What if that person was also unable to get to another shop due to illness/disability and so this was the only shop they could use?

Would they still be a "sour bitch" if they made a complaint about the cat under those conditions? Or would they be justified?

I have a cat phobia! I'd die if I walked up to that shelf and a cat was looking back at me!

Itsalldyingout - Definitely. I am very allergic to cats, horses, dust and some dogs, but provided I don't actually stroke them it's easy enough to avoid the hairs, so I didn't have too much trouble.

Then, for no reason at all, hayfever descended like a thunderbolt in my mid 30's, and now makes me plain miserable from June - August. You can avoid horses. You can't avoid utterly bloody pollen. It's everywhere! The dr basically said that once your body has decided it's allergic to something, that's it

We've just moved away from London and I'm really hoping the different pollens a few hundred miles away will make this year different 🤞🏻

I hope karma catches up with the sour bitch that complained

How lovely And I'm wondering how you know that the complainer is a woman. Or "sour"

I wouldn't complain, but I would stop using a shop with a cat in. Partly hygiene (I'd wonder what else I was supposed to think wasn't "doing any harm"), partly because I'm allergic, partly because I don't like cats

I'd certainly be mighty pissed off to buy that blanket he's shown lying on, only to get it home to find it makes me ill

The article does say it was a woman who complained

pos - yep, that's dangerous and unhygienic too. I haven't actually seen anyone do it for yonks, though - I think it went out with the 'stuff all the kids in the boot and get them to cling on round the corners' brigade.

There's something weirdly mawkish about the outpouring of sadness for the cat. It is cat. If you like them that much, and you can afford it, nip down the local rescue and take one in. Feed strays if you feel like it. Donate to Battersea.

DM can’t go in the same room as a cat. There’s are different strengths and types of allergies. You seem very unable to see outside your own bubble OP.

@melj1213 and @BitOutOfPractice, if you read the article it clearly states "One WOMAN recently changed his life forever by complaining to our head office"

I agree, cats can only improve a place.

I did find this notice touching and amusing though.

When I was younger the local coop used to have a cat that used to go in and curl up. The staff kept removing it but it would wait outside and when the automatic doors opened it would shoot in and hide for a little bit before emerging and curling back up in it's usual spot. Everyone in the village used to laugh about it cause it was so sneaky. I doubt it's still alive now but it was very cute and friendly and very cheeky haha

Poor Max just wants to read up on the history of the Suez Canal.

Oh sorry. No need to call her a bitch though.

I hate these misogynistic insults

Don't think shelves/warehouses/baskets/trolleys are clean or that rodents haven't been around them somewhere in the distribution chain.

Don't presume they haven't been on the floor or that all the people that have touched them have clean hands etc.

I'd choose a cat over all of the above.

Sorry, I missed that sentence in the article, but the rest of my point still stands.

Sometimes people make complaints that are just petty and sometimes they are petty but have a perfectly valid reason behind making it, that doesnt make them sour bitches.

Well - can you, Middle?

Say your DM can't go in one shop (and if she's so genuinely allergic that something like a cat in a shop would set her allergies off, she must be seriously bad - I can tell you within about 15 mins if there's been a cat in the room, but that would be more from things like sitting on chairs with cat hair, not just walking around an open space!), but there are plenty of other shops as it's a town centre. Say many more customers actively enjoy the cat being there, which is clearly the case here. Should your mother stop everyone else's pleasure? Or should she just shop elsewhere?

Your bubble ain't that transparent either!

Oh and i never said they should reverse the decision. I was interested in people's thoughts for and against it!