Results tagged “mice”

The animals scored another point against the humans at JFK this past Sunday. Reportedly a mouse (eek!) was running rampant around a Delta aircraft waiting to depart for London. Upon being spotted, the captain refused to operate the flight, "fearing the rodent might gnaw through some critical wiring and put the entire aircraft at risk high over the Atlantic." And now we have a new reason to fear flying.

This weekend Sunnyside, Queens residents stood up for their local feline friends. NY1 reports that "Anita DiSarli organized a rally Saturday to alert the public to what she calls a problem of animal abuse by some area store managers. She says they house cats, but intentionally keep food away from them so they will be more eager to catch mice." The 99-cent store and National Liquidators on Queens Boulevard are allegedly slowly killing the cats via this neglect--some have been rescued and diagnosed with eye problems, jaundice and other ailments. Mickey, one of the rescued cats, has "doubled in weight, going from six to 12 pounds in just under a month," his new owner saying he's "Friendly as hell, sleeps next to my leg, climbs on my chest. He's been so starved for attention." [via Queens Crap]

The earlier reports of the city’s sudden shutdown of Veniero’s pastry café have been followed up with some rather revolting details, sent to Eater by a tipster at the Department of Health. The beloved East Village institution, founded in 1894 by Antonio Veniero, had posted a sign on the door next to the DOH sticker blaming the shut-down on a “pest problem” caused by “a large Capital Improvement Project.” Pest problem, indeed:

Veniero’s Café was closed on Tuesday, May 6 following an inspection that found a vermin and rodent infestation. Over 300 mice droppings were found in six separate areas of the café. Two dead mice were found, live roaches were observed, and mice droppings were found in a 10 lb box of chocolate... Other conditions contributing to the closing were substantial amounts of food that were in uncovered containers, garbage accumulation, and six holes in walls that would allow rodents to enter.

The last Health Department inspection was in August last year, but inspectors reported no signs of any vermin. Veniero’s will remain closed until the “Capital Improvement” separates the chocolate from the scat.

For the second time in as many years, the famous Stage Deli in Manhattan was shuttered by the Dept. of Health after inspections found the restaurant infested with vermin. The Times Square institution was last closed in mid-2006 after it accrued too many points during a health inspection (points are for violations and a score above 28 is a failure.) As reported in The New York Times, the DOH inspected the Stage last Wednesday and assigned it a failing score. The deli was allowed to remain open while it corrected major violations, but a subsequent inspection 48 hours later still resulted in insufficient cleanliness.

The mice at The Mermaid Inn’s East Village location picked a mischievous moment to scurry out into the dining room a few nights ago – as luck would have it a writer for Time Out New York was there waiting for a table! The immodest mice must have been looking for their 15 minutes of fame, because they timed their appearance perfectly with TONY staffer Jordana Rothman’s emergence from the bathroom.

Cats in delis: they are ubiquitous, loved, objected to, necessary, and illegal. City inspectors are constantly on the prowl to ferret out deli felines, but deli owners say they are necessary fixtures to keep their businesses free of pests like mice, rats, and roaches. The New York Times has a story today on the ongoing battle between the city and the cats that are the sentinels of its delis--feline samurai who serve their masters in return for food, shelter, and the occasional scratch behind the ears.

To store owners, the services of cats are indispensable in a city where the rodent problem is serious enough to be documented in a still popular two-minute video clip on YouTube from late February (youtube.com/watch?v=su0U37w2tws) of rats running amok in a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village. Store-dwelling cats are so common that there is a Web site, workingclasscats.com, dedicated to telling their tales.