UK animal rescue centre advises Downing Street on cat fights

LONDON – The renowned Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is offering Britain’s government a bit of know-how to discourage cat fights on the doorstep of the national seat of power.

The animal rescue centre said Monday a feline welfare specialist has been in contact with Downing Street and the Foreign Office after No. 10’s resident mouser, Larry, was reportedly in a scrap with Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat.

Battersea’s Lindsey Quinlan says the cats were chosen “based on their sociable, bold and confident nature.”

But Quinlan says the “downside to these behaviour traits is that aggression can sometimes occur when the territories” of the cats overlap.

Battersea says it’s “advisable that Larry and Palmerston have temporary restrictions on their outside access to reduce the risk of them meeting in their early days.”