KEY WEST, Fla., Oct. 19, 2007
Hemingway's Cats, Pampered By Uncle Sam
The Six-Toed Felines Of Key West Get Special Treatment -- With Your Tax Dollars
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Dispute Over Hemingway's Cats
After Ernest Hemingway died, his famous cats stuck around as his Key West home opened for tours. Now the USDA is spending tax dollars fighting for jurisdiction over the cats. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
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With the dispute entering its fifth year, the cats remain oblivious. (CBS)
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For a decade, Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote at his Key West home. His six-toed cats kept him company. (CBS)
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And things were pretty much the way for about 40 years - until a complaint from a disgruntled volunteer brought in the federal government, and investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture who insisted they have jurisdiction over the cats, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
The complaint was about some of the cats, now numbering nearly four dozen, roaming off the property, which it turns out they were entitled to do since Key West has no leash law.
But once USDA got involved, it argued Hemingway cats were "exhibits" and needed the special protection of the same federal laws governing a zoo or circus.
Cara Higgins is an attorney for the Hemingway House and its feline population.
“They’re not sold, they're not transferred, they’re not moved, they’re not disrupted, they’re not eaten,” Higgins said. “I can’t imagine why the USDA, why the federal government, would have an interest in a handful of local cats.”
First, USDA wanted the cats rounded up nightly and caged, according to the Hemingway House's CEO, Mike Morawski.
“Our vet who comes on the property weekly thought that was extremely traumatic for any of our cats, much less the cats that have lived on this property the last 10 to 15 years of their life,” Morawski said.
He said he made one change after another, but the USDA demands kept coming.
CBS News tried to scratch out exactly how many of your tax dollars are being spent on the whole cat fight, but USDA wouldn’t provide the documentation or agree to an interview.
So Attkisson sifted through the litter and came up with this:
USDA agents even went so far as to go undercover.
“They pose as tourists and get pictures and surreptitiously tape the cats,” Higgins said.
Has this all been a little silly on their part?
“It’s been a lot silly,” Morawski said.
Recently, the USDA hired its own cat expert. Even she made the Hemingway cats sound like some of the luckiest felines on the planet saying they're, “well cared for, healthy and content."
With the dispute entering its fifth year, the Key West sunset is unchanged and the cats oblivious.
But if they cared about the antics of humans, they might be amused by how much of your tax money is being spent trying to improve their charmed lives.
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did a good job. i give them an A. cpu could
be an acronym for many things. crime prevention
unit. communist prevention unit. capitalist prevention unit. how many derivatives of the
acronym cpu, can you devise? jeopardy question?
on tv now are old films of proving grounds for
weapons of mass destruction. the anti-anti-anti-anti missile. the anti-anti-anti-anti communists.
or the anti-anti-anti-anti capitalists all live
somewhere near each other. i was there at age 8
with folks, at key west. it was too bright for
me. i was just along for the ride. 1959. the
hemingway beard contests down there are legendary.
The only candidate that will pamper all ******* equally
This is news ?
Justt have Hillary Clinton give each cat a box of "Fancy Feast" and $5,000.00 and be done with it.
into presidential office. it was a most close
election in u.s. history. charges of arm twisting
in chicago. richard nixon barely lost. some
blamed it on the first televised tv debate.
what if nixon had been inaugurated instead.
curse period mr. nixon. bumper stickers that
said noxin. an upside down richard. but king
richard returned after evil prince john, tried
to embezzle the funds to free king richard.
and so as the old tale of robin hood continues.
jfk''s favorite author was ian fleming, to ernst''s
dismay not hemingway. it must have crushed him
to find that out. my favorite, was ''big blonde'',
who commits suicide like marilyn monroe allegedly
did. they''re both still alive and live on a us
nuclear submarine circumnavigating the globe.
marilyn is 81, jack turned 90 this year.
doing well i hear. gyp, trick and fool.
PS Check out the meaty paw!?! :o
sounds like a far better use of our tax dollars than the billions being spent over in Iraq
Also, check the article for grammatical errors. There are at least two obvious ones. :-)
If you read beyond the headline, you''ll see that "Uncle Sam" is pointlessly harassing a private business, and wasting money trying to force the owners to regulate the cats as if they were show animals.
They''re wasting a ton of our money - and I think the "6 trips to SUNNY Key West" is why - it''s a stupid junket for low level USDA employees. This should never have passed the laugh test of any of the USDA managers.
It was codenamed Operation Pink Panther.
Theodore Roosevelt''s ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person''s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn''t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
Where is the list of cat stuff the USDA has spent money on? Lawyers, inspectors, veterinarians and fourteen field trips don''t do squat for those cats.
And yes, I''ve seen them. They''re wonderful. They are definitely pampered but not by Uncle Sam.
CBS, you ought to be ashamed. This wasn''t one of your more honest headlines.
Time to find a new director of the USDA.
www.vegantunes.com
Are you on the wrong page or what?
- Posted by hypnotoad72 at 08:17 PM : Oct 19, 2007
I get it:
"The Six-Toed Felines"
That"s an example of improper subordinate "claws."
Remember, though, that felines are Nature"s purest carnivores, and regardless of what PETA says, they cannot be put on a vegetarian diet, or they"ll soon go blind.
Vegetariansim is good for humans but bad for cats.
- Posted by poopusbuttus at 08:53 PM : Oct 19, 2007
That comment makes me madder than a bee-stung cat.
- Posted by poopusbuttus at 09:01 PM : Oct 19, 2007
Cats can be smart.
I was amazed how quickly my two cats picked up on the connection between the remote and the Video DVD eject across the room, something they find fascinating.
When I touch that remote, all eyes are on that DVD eject.
And no, I not kidding! How is it that I see these so called low income people with RAZR cell phones and big screen TV''s in their house? At least a cat cant go out and rob a gas station. Billions spent on inner city trash, now thats a WASTE of taxpayer dollars!
- Posted by sblake63 at 09:24 PM : Oct 19, 2007
You never heard of cat burglars ?
Posted by poopusbuttus at 08:53 PM : Oct 19, 2007
And I''m sure you have enough to go around.
Barbara Dear yer right..fix them so no more kittens .
Posted by maedean at 12:05 AM : Oct 20, 2007
I guess you didn''t/couldn''t read the story. The cats are not having taxpayer money spent on them. Taxpayer money is being thrown away on unnecessary spying visits by government employees. The cats don''t benefit from it. And, if they did, I''d be glad. I''m sick and tired of paying for other people''s kids to be educated, given health care, etc. at my expense. And I''m sick and tired of being told what we can watch, say, do and think, based on how it might affect some kid, somewhere. Bottom line, fu(k the kids and their goody-two shoes parents who want the rest of us to spend all our time and money looking after them.
Long live The Hemingway Cats!
Ha Haaaaaaaa
I like the part where they were "undercover" too. Undercover how? Drinking Margaritas by the side of the pool? "Spying" on the cats from the golf course? Did they bring their spouses and kids too? You know - to really complete the disguise?
What a fraud our government has become!!
If we cut and run from them now, the terrorists have won.
Long Live the Hemingway Cats.