Yelp Review About Bodega Cat Spurs Petition In Favor of Them

EAST VILLAGE, NY — A woman's Yelp review bashing an East Village bodega for having a cat that went viral with angry New Yorkers spurred an actual change.org petition supporting bodega cats. Because you don't mess with New York's bodega cats.

The prickly exchange all began when a woman under the username Diana D. wrote on Sept. 9 a Yelp review of SK Deli Market on Second Avenue that said:

I've ordered from SK before and the sandwiches are pretty good," Diana D. wrote in her Sept. 9 review. Today, however, I decided to stop in and grab a sandwich. To my dismay- there was a cat, perched upon some cases of Budweiser in the middle of the store!! Besides being allergic to cats, I wonder what the health code say about this?

Because the bodega cat is an irreplaceable part of Manhattan's history and culture, people lashed out at Diana D. How could she bring the health code into this? Everyone who is someone in New York knows cats frequent bodegas. It's something you don't question.

People were so infuriated with Diana's objection to the cat that someone started a change.org petition to push for the legality of bodega cats. The petition gathered more than 1,000 signatures in a few days. Here is the text of it:

Mr deblasio,
As a long time New Yorker i grew up seeing cats inside of bodegas. I would like to see it made legal to have cats in a bodega in New York city. Cats keep rodents out of food products and keep other pests at bay. You don't want to see fecel matter from rodents in a bodega right? I don't either. How can people find it acceptable to bring a dog into a restaurant where there is food that isn't wrapped being brought out and about.. Like.. Who wants dog dander and hair flying around their steak when they go to eat it? The fact that cats are not legal in bodegas but dogs are legal in restaurants is a complete joke. Allow cats in bodega and keep dogs out of restaurants.

We can only hope this inspires the mayor to make a pro-bodega cat statement in the near future, clarifying his stance on the emblem of good old-fashioned Manhattan culture. Patch took the important step of reaching out to the mayor's office, which wouldn't comment, and instead referred us to the city's Department of Agriculture and Markets. That department issued an email statement to Patch that said bodega cats are a "general deficiency, unless it could result in the contamination of product, at which point it would be a critical deficiency."

"This is New York. We have cats in bodegas. If you don't like it, go back to those square states in the middle," wrote a petition commenter. "The cats have been here longer than you."

Photo credit: Seth Werkheiser/Flickr/CC by 2.0