Police, and Animal Control, say they have had it with an infestation of Feral Cats around the city's Vietnamese cafes, and restaurants, Little Saigon's worst-kept secret.
The Garden Grove City Council will consider creating a city ordinance concerning specific regulations to finally get a handle on the problem.
The ordinance targets cafes & restaurants that are among the most popular in Little Saigon, where waitresses are dressed in bikinis or lingerie and high heels. These establishments, which are spread around Garden Grove, Westminster and parts of Santa Ana, do not serve alcohol, but mostly coffee, smoothies and tea...not to the Cats, mind you, but to their customers, customers who leave treats, and little paper plates of dry, and wet, food, for the many stray cats hanging out around the diners.
Police Chief Kevin Raney was at great pains to stress that, in the Vietnamese Year of the Cat, this law enforcement effort is NOT out of concern that some Vietnamese restaurants, and cafes, may secretly have Cat on the menu, or encourage their customers to take a stray home for dinner (Eating Pussy is technically illegal, these days in Vietnam, and Cats are adored as pets, more, and more, there.), a rumor that has been going around Orange County for as long as Little Saigon has existed, and says the amendment to the old cafe ordinance is "meant to tighten regulations and ensure that these establishments do not turn into Kitty Cat Clubs."
"There are some cafes, and restaurants, where the Cats are, for example, actually fed where people are eating, and food is prepared, and this is a health hazard, and against regulations," he said. "That's why there is a clause in the ordinance that says this must be stopped for health reasons, to discourage the Cats from hanging around."
According to the staff report, there are 37 restaurants, and cafes, that are a particular problem, just in Garden Grove. Raney said they have become notorious for the number of Cats loitering about, and breeding.
In March, eight police departments teamed up, with city,and county, Animal Control, to target the streets, and alleys, around these places & conduct a Trap, Neuter, & Return (TNR) campaign, which netted more than 300 Cats, in Garden Grove alone. Those efforts resulted in 23 people being arrested on various misdemeanor charges, as well, officials said.
The Cats are a big draw for the cafes, and restaurants but, recently, things have just completely gotten out of hand.
Raney says education will hopefully help get a handle on what, to non-Vietnamese, is a serious problem.
"That's why we're asking that restaurants, and cafes, to join us in educating their employees, and customers, and work with us in working on the Feral Cat problem, through TNR, as such Cats are not adoption candidates at shelters despite the friendliness they display around these restaurants," he said.
The ordinance will also prohibit the placing of Vietnamese language signs, in windows, that celebrate the Year of the Cat in ways that sublty let passer-by know that Cats hang out there, and whose placement prevents police officers from seeing in from outside.
Haht Fe Line, who owns Café Miss Saucepot on Harbor, said Cats are a big hit among patrons in her establishment, which has operated for nine years.
Line said eradicating the Cats would hurt her business.
A number of the businesses also offer Year of the Cat themed gifts, cards, and t-shirts with the restaruant name, for patrons to buy.
She said the Cats who frequent her cafe are extremely popular. In fact, the cafe's website has a photo gallery of the Cats and even a calendar featuring Kittens, in honor of 2011 being The Year of the Cat.
Line said she does not see anything wrong with the Cats, or the way her customers treat them.
"The Little Tigers are adorable, and friendly, and provide happiness, and a sense of peace, to our customers as they begin, or end, their work day, or are just taking a midday break," she said.
For more of this story, and the raging controversy that will have the Garden Grove City Council meeting packed, please read this OC Register report by Deepa Bharath. ;-D
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