Stray cats and their Tel Aviv strut
A group of IDC students parody sexy cats in support of the trap-neuter-return policy
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Cats. They’ve got fans and foes in this country, but one group of media communication students from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya is looking out for this particular stray population. As part of their viral advertising class, the students created a pro-cat video promoting TNR, Trap Neuter Return in Tel Aviv, a method endorsed by the ASPCA for controlling feral cat societies.
With photos and lyrics parodying “I’m sexy and I know it,” the song from American electropop duo LMFAO, the idea was to create an “original production” about Tel Aviv’s stray cats, said Yuna Klimenko, one of the IDC students.
“We thought that cats are people’s favorite pets,” said Klimenko.
Not exactly, but it depends who you ask. Local folklore has it that the British are to blame for Israel’s stray cat population, having brought cats in during the period of the Mandate in order to get rid of rats.
Yet the problem could have been created long before that: Geneticists from the National Cancer Institute study established that the world’s 600 million cats are descended from five wildcat matriarchs, including at least one from deserts of Israel, so it may be that the British are not entirely to blame.
The Times of Israel Community.