Cat Fight Erupts at US Embassy in Kabul

Diplomats split over fate of semi-feral felines
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2011 3:21 AM CDT
Cat Fight Erupts in US Kabul Embassy
The US Embassy in Kabul is seen during 4th of July celebrations last year.   (USAID)

At the Duck and Cover bar at America's embassy in Kabul, cats are a contentious topic, the Washington Post finds. Some 30 semi-feral cats roam the embassy grounds and some staffers are fiercely resisting plans to exterminate them to prevent rabies. The embassy "cat committee" has been told that diplomats have 60 days to adopt and ship out cats they want before the grounds are cleared of felines.

"We basically can’t go out at all. We can’t walk across the street; we have to take a tunnel. There are no kids, no families, and basically what we have is the cats,” one member of the committee complains. “It’s as close as we come to normality." One committee member has found a shelter in California for "Afghan refugee cats," while another adopted guerrilla tactics: "Warning," a letter taped to the wall of Duck and Cover reads above a picture of two AK-47-toting cats. "We will break out our fellow comrades from your compound." (More US Embassy stories.)

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