Cats in Rome

By way of Fr. Z, an article about the cats in Rome and the battle over them:

They also have a successful but modest adoption program, and for the many cats that don’t have the temperament, good health or conventionally good looks to find a loving, responsible home, they provide a permanent home for them in the sanctuary. A distance adoption program allows people all over the world to “adopt” one of these permanent residents by sending a monthly donation. In return they get pictures and updates about their long distance kitty.

Volunteers clean the cages and feed and see to the medical needs of the animals starting every morning, seven days a week, at 8:00 AM. Because the space is so small, disease can spread like wildfire. To prevent this from happening, the volunteers are obsessive about cleaning. I don’t mean just wiping stuff down. I mean full-on sterilization of every litter scoop between every use, of every surface daily. Read the volunteer manual (pdf) to see what kind of standards they employ. I can’t even look my cat in the eye after reading that.

There’s just one problem: this whole thing is technically illegal. They’re squatters. The sanctuary was built without a permit and on an ancient monument. Even though it’s been in operation almost 20 years, for some reason this year government officials have cottoned onto it as a political issue and the refuge is now being threatened with eviction. Authorities, who clearly have not read the volunteer manual, say it’s a health hazard and that it compromises ancient remains. They say this as they build a new tram line right over those ancient remains, which might seem to some like a rather glaring hypocrisy.

RTWT, as usual.  And, once again, we see the results of a bunch of control freaks attempting to thwart a good cause for no reason than sheer bloody-mindedness.  Not that this has anything to do with that whole 'liberty' thing...