'Blue Collar Cats' enlisted to fight off rodents in Washington, D.C.
Shelter places non-adoptable felines with people facing pest problems
It’s a warm summer afternoon and the owners of a small flower shop in Washington, D.C., are eagerly waiting outside as their two new employees arrive - Ina and Montgomery.
But the newly hired pair are not quite like the other staff - they’re cats.
The Humane Rescue Alliance’s ‘Blue Collar Cats’ program pairs homeowners and shops with felines who aren’t suited to be pets and prefer to be outdoors, thus making them handy as a form of pest control.
“A few weeks ago, I was in the shop and a rat ran in,” laughs Holly Simmons, the owner of ‘She Loves Me Not’ flower shop.
She said she added her name to the list after hearing about the program from another shop owner.
“We have a lot of anecdotal responses from people who have cats that have said 'I have seen an immediate reduction over a few weeks. I don’t see rats anymore,'” Erin Robinson, HRA’s community cat program manager, told ABC News.
“It seems like it’s working really well for people,” she added.