Mice Plague Dogs UK's Parliament

British lawmakers have been forced to debate ways of tackling a "significant rodent problem" amid a boom in numbers of mice plaguing the UK's Houses of Parliament.



MPs used to recently discussing matters of war and economic gloom debated whether to employ a rescue cat to deal with rodents running amok in the historic building.



Lawmaker Anne McIntosh said Thursday: "It is a matter of fact that the mice population is spiraling out of control, particularly in areas where food is being prepared -- it clearly poses a health hazard."



 McIntosh asked for an earlier decision not to accept the offer of a rescue cat from a charity to be reversed.



She suggested: "To keep the mice population under control, we should consider having a rescue cat released in the evenings.



"If mice can be close to sources of food and pose a health hazard, one would think it be perfectly sensible to introduce a cat, to keep the mice population down."



However, the House of Commons Commission represented by John Thurso said that bringing in a cat had "clear practical and technical difficulties" and a decision to use pest control had been taken instead.



Thurso said: "Given the scale and size of the estate it would be necessary to have a great number of cats to make any real impact and having a herd of cats on the parliamentary estate would present a number of difficulties."



"I'm advised by my own chief whip that herding cats is quite difficult," he joked. 



The prime minister's residence, 10 Downing Street, has a rescue cat called Larry from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Greater London