Advertisement

USDA wants Hemingway cats licensed

Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

KEY WEST, Fla., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is demanding The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Fla., get a license for its fabled herd of cats.

Nearly 50 of the 6-toed cats freely roam the author's mansion, and are said to be descendants of a cat Hemingway received from a ship captain in the 1930s.

Advertisement

However, the Agriculture Department says the museum is violating the Animal Welfare Act and subject to a daily fine of $200 per cat, or nearly $10,000 a day, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.

To be in compliance, the museum would also have to confine the cats.

Museum Chief Executive Officer Mike Morawski disagrees, saying the law doesn't cover these particular cats.

"They're not on exhibit there. They live there," Morawski told the newspaper.

Cara Higgins, the museum's lawyer, said she found it amazing there was an issue at all.

"This is the same agency that quit researching mad-cow disease because of money, yet they have no problem investigating the activities of the Hemingway cats," Higgins said.

Latest Headlines