This endearing YouTube video sings the praises of the Bodega Cat, an animal which is practically an institution in New York City. Bodega cats patrol the aisles of bodegas, small independently owned neighborhood grocery stores.
As the video itself points out, bodega owners can get a fine for having a cat in their store, if the health department finds out. But they can also be fined if they get rats or mice in their stores. And a lot more customers are driven away by rats and mice than they are by cats! From the bodega owner's perspective, the cats are a much better deal.
Certainly a small percentage of the population, those who are very allergic to cats, is not a big fan of these feline store patrols. But in a city like New York, with such a thriving population of vermin, the promise of a mouse-free and rat-free store probably draws in enough non-allergic customers to make it worthwhile. Plus, surely enough cat lovers are drawn to the bodega cats to make up the difference!
Bodega cats are not just furry ambassadors for their stores. They are also a sort of four-legged signage; a promise that "this store is rodent-free." The cats are essentially advertising their own services!
The relationship between cats and bodegas is relatively recent, but the relationship between cats and shop owners is ancient. Cats have been earning their keep by killing mice for thousands of years. Cats have been associated with humans at least since Neolithic times. (In 2004 a 9,500 year-old Neolithic grave was excavated; inside, archaeologists found the skeletons of a human and a cat, laid closely together.) But their domestication (such as it is) really took off in the Fertile Crescent during the rise of agriculture.
Cats were spread throughout the world during the Age of Discovery, as they were brought on board ships to kill mice. Without ships' cats, the sailors would have lost untold amounts of food to rodents, and many people would have died before their journeys were complete.
New York City's Health Department wants to ban cats in bodegas as a health hazard. But they would do well to remember that the Black Death, which killed 1 in every 3 people in the world at the time, was spread partly by an explosion in the rat population which was brought about by the medieval fad for slaughtering cats because of their supposed connection to witchcraft.
Bodega cats: the world's only free-range, organic mouse traps!
As the video itself points out, bodega owners can get a fine for having a cat in their store, if the health department finds out. But they can also be fined if they get rats or mice in their stores. And a lot more customers are driven away by rats and mice than they are by cats! From the bodega owner's perspective, the cats are a much better deal.
Certainly a small percentage of the population, those who are very allergic to cats, is not a big fan of these feline store patrols. But in a city like New York, with such a thriving population of vermin, the promise of a mouse-free and rat-free store probably draws in enough non-allergic customers to make it worthwhile. Plus, surely enough cat lovers are drawn to the bodega cats to make up the difference!
Bodega cats are not just furry ambassadors for their stores. They are also a sort of four-legged signage; a promise that "this store is rodent-free." The cats are essentially advertising their own services!
The relationship between cats and bodegas is relatively recent, but the relationship between cats and shop owners is ancient. Cats have been earning their keep by killing mice for thousands of years. Cats have been associated with humans at least since Neolithic times. (In 2004 a 9,500 year-old Neolithic grave was excavated; inside, archaeologists found the skeletons of a human and a cat, laid closely together.) But their domestication (such as it is) really took off in the Fertile Crescent during the rise of agriculture.
Cats were spread throughout the world during the Age of Discovery, as they were brought on board ships to kill mice. Without ships' cats, the sailors would have lost untold amounts of food to rodents, and many people would have died before their journeys were complete.
New York City's Health Department wants to ban cats in bodegas as a health hazard. But they would do well to remember that the Black Death, which killed 1 in every 3 people in the world at the time, was spread partly by an explosion in the rat population which was brought about by the medieval fad for slaughtering cats because of their supposed connection to witchcraft.
Bodega cats: the world's only free-range, organic mouse traps!