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French MP calls for mice-hunting cats at presidential palace

A cat-loving MP is campaigning for felines to be allowed into the official residence of the President of France to deal with a mouse invasion.

French MP calls for mice-hunting cats at presidential palace
Photo:Bex Walton/Flickr

If you know Paris you’ll be well aware that rats are as much a part of the city as the Eiffel Tower or Le Moulin Rouge. 

Rodents are believed to easily outnumber Parisians and their numbers keep increasing, to the point where last December the French government welcomed cats into some of their prestigious ministries to ‘fix’ the infestation.

Now it seems that rats’ rodent cousins are at the gates of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential home, at least according to one French MP who’s calling for the ban on cats to be lifted from the Elysee Palace and the National Assembly.

Photo: Philippe Lopez/Flickr

“We need a cat at the Palais [de l'Elysée]”, thirty-one-year-old Aurore Bergé of Macron’s La République En Marche! party told Paris Match.

“A few of us are pushing for this to happen because there are far too many mice there and at the National Assembly.”

Photo: AFP

Bergé, who caused a stir in 2017 after wearing a revealing dress during a television appearance, isn’t just interested in getting cats into France’s two most important government buildings to fight the mice incursion.

The party spokesperson seems to be actively campaigning for pet cats to roam the presidential corridors for their therapeutic qualities, presumably as a way of helping politicians de-stress and relax.

A cat owner herself, Bergé advocates for animals to be used in hospitals for therapy and meditation.
 

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CATS

Kitten journeys from Norway to Denmark on underside of truck

A kitten became a reluctant stowaway on 450-kilometre-long journey from Norway to Denmark after hopping on to the undercarriage of a truck.

Kitten journeys from Norway to Denmark on underside of truck
Illustration photo: LeniKovaleva/Depositphotos

After being driven and making a ferry crossing from Egersund in Rogaland, southwestern Norway to Bronderslev in North Jutland, the truck was handed over to a mechanic in the Danish town.

The mechanic found the kitty on the vehicle’s chassis, Norway’s national broadcaster NRK reports.

The little cat is thought to have been on board the lorry throughout its international journey.

“That’s a long journey for a little kitten,” Gritt Mathiesen Hanghøj, head of animal welfare at nearby cat shelter Nordjyllands Hittekilling, told NRK.

Hanghøj was contacted by the workshop who discovered the travelling feline.

The cat most likely climbed onto the truck’s undercarriage seeking warmth before being taken on an unexpected long haul.

Although a large part of the journey was a ferry crossing, the cat stayed under the vehicle for a long road trip, Hanghøj told NRK.

“The lorry drove from Egersund to Stavanger before taking the ferry from Stavanger to Frederikshavn in Denmark. The driver then drove to the workshop in Bronderslev,” she said.

The trailer was delivered to the workshop directly after its arrival in Denmark, making it unlikely the cat hopped on board after the crossing.

The female kitten is currently being looked after following her ordeal.

“She is dehydrated, lethargic and in shock, but is being given fluids, food and love. She made it through the night and there’s a good chance she’ll survive,” Hanghøj said.

“I think she’s used up a couple of her nine lives,” the cat shelter leader told NRK.

Search is now underway for the kitten’s owner, who is yet to be identified.

A social media post on Wednesday by Nordjyllands Hittekilling has been shared over 1,700 times, but a further update on Thursday said that no owner had been found so far. Neither has any further information become available on identity of the truck or its driver.

READ ALSO: Danish kitten takes solo train trip to neighbouring town