Miami Herald: Feds, Key West stage catfight over Hemingway House

[seafan]

Feds, Key West stage catfight over Hemingway House


Source

BY CAMMY CLARK
July 9, 2007


The city voted to allow 47 cats to remain at the Hemingway home. But the fight with the feds is not over.

.....

Archie and the other 46 ''Hemingway cats,'' pitched by tour guides as descendants of the legendary author's six-toed kitty Snowball, appeared quite content and oblivious to the four-year catfight waged by the federal government over their welfare.
The tale involves clandestine videotaping, undercover agents, Ivan the tomcat, a misting system, thousands of pages of documents and your tax dollars.

Soon, it will also include a cat behaviorist. .....

The museum, with the polydactyl cats, opened in 1964.

But it was not until 2003, that the U.S. Department of Agriculture began investigating the museum, concluding that the popular Key West tourist attraction is in violation of the Animal Welfare Act for not obtaining a license to exhibit the cats.
''It's just insanity the time and money that has been spent on this,'' said museum attorney Cara Higgins. ``These are local, domestic cats who are born here, live here and die here. They are not lions and tigers and bears that are being transported from state to state, like a traveling circus.''

Gwen Hawtof, former president of the Florida Keys Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, agreed the catfight is overblown -- and it was her organization that made the original complaint to the feds.
''These are living little beings that they are making millions off of,'' Hawtof said.
``We just wanted to step up to the plate and do what's right. What bothers me is the amount of money they have spent on lawyers instead of their cats.'' .....
Hawtof said she only called for help from the big guns when her local society was prohibited from helping two cats that appeared neglected, including Mark Twain, who had open sores from cancer.

The museum staff said the cats are treated like royalty, and receive weekly veterinarian visits.

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Museum general manager Jacque Sands said the USDA first appeared at the house four years ago, shortly after SPCA vice president Debra Schultz, who lives half a block away, was told to return her museum gate key.
Hawtof said Schultz had been asked by the museum to help spay and neuter all the cats, but when upper management got word, it became irate that no cats would be left to carry on the Hemingway line -- even though it's difficult to prove any of the cats are Snowball descendants.

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The 1966 Animal Welfare Act requires a license for zoos, circuses and magicians or anyone who uses animals in their acts or advertisements. All investigators had to do was look on the museum website, with pictures of Emily Dickinson, Spencer Tracy, Simone De Beauvoir and many other felines.
But the Hemingway cats don't perform, unless you count Alice meowing on cue when tour guide Diamond Dave calls out her name. Mostly, the cats sleep. .....
The museum took the agency to federal court in January, asking a judge to rule that the feds shouldn't have their paws on the case. But the judge ruled otherwise, saying the two sides should work it out.
The USDA and museum had a July date in court, but it was postponed to await the cat behaviorist's input.

.....

Sign seen in Key West: "We're all here... because we're not all there." ;-)

[ixion]

1. what a ridiculous lawsuit

those cats are treated better than 99% of the cats on the island, I guarantee it. But you don't hear anything about that. :eyes:

[MADem]

2. So much for GOP "smaller government" I guess. BushCo's USDA is determined

to stick their noses in THIS shit, but they can't keep our FOOD supply--or the food supply of our damned PETS--safe!

Incredible.