Parliament Hill cat colony

Cats were brought into Parliament in 1924 to deal with a "mild plague of rats and mice in the basement of the then brand-new Centre Block.

"[1]: 336  The numbers of rodents soon fell, but when the unneutered cats began to multiply, they were banished to the outdoors in the same year.

[1]: 337  Cats were employed in the Parliament Building to control the rodent population until 1955 when they were replaced by chemicals.

[2] Mrs. Mabbs was one of several char ladies (cleaners) who brought bags of food for the cats and birds as early as the 1930s.

[3] The cats received free inoculations and care from the local Alta Vista Animal Hospital.

[2] The cats were spayed or neutered in the last ten to fifteen years of the sanctuary's operation, and the population slowly tapered off.

[10] Journalists arrived, some from as far away as Venezuela, "and television crews turn up to record the political cat phenomenon, if not for posterity, at least for a few fleeting moments on the tube".

Artist Gwendolyn Best created a number of paintings of the cats, which were exhibited at Ottawa's Orange Art Gallery in 2013.