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December 21, 2007
NYC Cat Policy Suggests Dark Ages Could Be Making a Comeback
Cats were originally domesticated because of their usefulness in holding off the rats and mice that spread disease while helping themselves to our food. The superstitious persecution of cats in the Dark Ages led to the Black Death, which was spread by the rats that cats are needed to control. To this day, cats still perform this crucial function better than any poison or trap — when bureaucrats let them.
The owner's of New York City's countless bodegas and corner grocery stores face fines of $2,000 and more for using cats to keep rodents at bay.
Proclaims Robert M. Corrigan, research bureauweenie for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
Any animal around food presents a food contamination threat. And so that means anything from animal pieces and parts to hair and excrement could end up in food, and that alone, of course, is a violation of the health code.
That is, cats are forbidden because unlike the giant rats that crawl forth in slimy hordes from the city's sewers, they might contaminate the food.
But store owners keep the cats despite the fines, because they also get fined if city inspectors find rat droppings. Since they'll be punished no matter what they do, they may as well keep their stores clean.
The cost of the fines has to be passed along to customers — provided the stores can stay in business. Bureauweenies can come back to collect more fines any time they please. As always, Big Government wins, and the rest of us lose.
On a tip from Byron.
Posted by Van Helsing at December 21, 2007 5:27 PM
Comments
"Animal pieces and parts"??? What, are these zombie cats who shed body parts as they shamble around?
As any cat owner knows, cats don't shit in food, and know where they're allowed to be. As you say, cats have been doing environmentally friendly rodent control for thousands of years. I am a lover of cats and, now, an even greater hate of bureauweenies.
Posted by: Ian from the EUSSR at December 21, 2007 6:03 PM
"What, are these zombie cats who shed body parts as they shamble around?"
LOL...Ian, you must be a Resident Evil fan.
This bit about proprietors being fined for both cats and rat poop is rich; leave it to foolish, self-serving "Liberal" tin-pots to concoct something like this.
Posted by: Toa at December 21, 2007 6:22 PM
Not to belittle cats, but what about dogs? Put a couple terriers in that KFC and problem solved. And since the dogs are providing a "service" (much like guide dogs), what could the bureauweenies say about that?
Posted by: Todd at December 22, 2007 5:58 AM
great idea, todd!
cats are nocturnal and would hunt at night - so let them roam - all the food SHOULD be protected from animals.
Posted by: nanc at December 22, 2007 6:26 AM
Wait...wha? Does anyone in the NYC dept of health actually own a cat? They are the cleanest beings on earth. They are much more fanatically clean than people. They spend half their day cleaning themselves, over and over. I have 2, and haven't seen a mouse or rodent in the house since the day they moved in. When I read a year or two ago about the huge rats infesting NY, the first thought in my head was "get some cats".
Posted by: mega at December 22, 2007 10:55 AM
I'd much rather find some cat hair in my sandwich then some infected rat's dropping. I'd be even more worried about buying food from a place that pays for poison to kill the rats that as the article said will just cause the rats to rot under the fridge and in the walls.
Posted by: Eric at December 22, 2007 7:10 PM
"How many fingers am I holding up?" said the jailer to in 1984, as he held up four fingers, but demanded the answer be "three" fingers. The goal is control, not cleanliness.
The attitude driving the irrational prohibition of cats is summed up with a story about encountering the state told by a man who moved from New York to Virginia. On the night he left New York, he double parked his car to the last item from the front door of his apartment building. When he returned to his car, a parasitic bureaucrat was writing a ticket and said, "As soon as you leave your car, it's mine." A few weeks later, while driving in Virgina, he was pulled over by a policeman for driving with a broken taillight. During the conversation with the police officer, our fellow realized he had an extra light in his glove compartment. The officer helped him change the light and explained how he could fill out the form to avoid paying the fine. The lesson: MOVE OUT OF NEW YORK. JUST LEAVE!!! (emphasis by him).
Posted by: d at December 22, 2007 11:37 PM
d, don't kid yourself about Virginia, my home town. Thomas Jefferson has long since left the building. They are giving out $2,000 tickets for driving 8 mph over the speed limit and then using the windfall for various local govt projects, after having blatantly admitted it was a "revenue enhancement program". I kid you not, nor am I exaggerating about the $2,000. Virginia is becoming NY.
Posted by: mega at December 23, 2007 11:29 AM
Amen Mega...as a fellow Virginian I can second what you wrote.
Well after all, our Governor IS Cain...er...Kaine.
Posted by: fellowes at December 24, 2007 11:50 AM
