Friday, December 19, 2014

Cat at Vladivostok airport deli runs up one thousand dollar bill



In the deli at Vladivostok airport a stray cat managed to sneak under a gourmet fish counter and begin nibbling on the delicacies.

After being pawed over by the cat, the scallops, squid, dried octopus and tuna are no longer delicacies and must go in the trash can or perhaps to the local animal rescue facility. The total bill facing the feline would be about $1,000 dollars according to the BBC or 660 UK pounds, or 60,000 Russian roubles. Another UK source Metro upped the value to one thousand UK pounds in its headline.

 The appended video shows the fish-filching feline happily stuffing its face. The cat apparently is a stray that frequently wanders into the airport to search for edibles. The video of the cat has gone viral with the cat now having its own fan-base. The owner of the shop, Irina Kuzmina, told PrimaMedia news(Russian):‘Our staff practically can’t work because of the flow of fans. From the arrival hall, people come directly to us with questions about the cat. But they don’t buy anything, they only ask questions.’ The cat has not been seen since the incident. Some fans are worried about the fate of the feline.

There is no mention of whether insurance covered the loss. I expect that there will be an exclusion clause in any contract for damage considered by the company to be related to feline terrorism.

 Many of the comments on Reddit about the incident were concerned less about the actual event than the description of it by the BBC and other issues. The BBC headline was: "Russia: Stray cat enjoys $1,000 fish feast." Readers objected strenuously, pointing out that the cat could hardly eat that much. In response, another reader noted that if the critic had read the whole article it was clear the one thousand was the total damage caused, not the amount eaten. Others still found the title misleading. Some took umbrage at the cat being described as gorging on the delicacies. One reader claimed cats don't gorge on food. This brought a deluge of replies from cat owners who begged to disagree. Finally some readers were skeptical that a fish deli would be in an airport. In response a reader pointed out that Vladivostok was a seaport and fish were a staple of the local diet.

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