Cats have been a fixture in New York City’s bodegas for decades, but technically they’re illegal.
The fact that they’re so widespread, and owners of the small groceries/delis don’t try to hide them, underscores the absurdity of the situation. The fine for keeping a cat in a bodega in New York is $200 for the first offense, capping out at $300, but the fine for a rodent infestation starts at $300 and can rise to as much as $2,000 for repeat offenses. That’s in addition to the cost of bringing in pest control to get rid of the rats, which can easily add hundreds or more to an expensive problem.
So given the option between a maximum $300 fine with a clean, rodent-free shop, and potentially crippling fines — plus infestation — for rodents, thousands of bodega owners opt for the former. It’s a no-brainer.
The cats are also favorites of customers, and bodega owners don’t hesitate to talk to media when their cats go missing, nor do they turn down Dan Rimada, who runs the extremely popular @bodegacatsofnewyork Instagram page.
Now Rimada is the man behind a petition that seeks to eliminate fines for the store-dwelling felines, establish a voluntary shop cat certification, and help bodega owners get veterinary care for their little helpers.
Rimada proposes soliciting seed money from city government as well as deep-pocketed donors in the pet food industry — “think Purina, Chewy, PetCo” — to establish a veterinary care fund for the city’s working cats.
“Through years of hands-on experience, I’ve witnessed both the charm of well-cared-for bodega cats and the harsh reality of neglect when standards aren’t met,” Rimada wrote in the petition, which has almost 5,000 signatures as of Feb. 28. “In conversations with rescue organizations and experts in public policy, business, and technology, we’ve designed a realistic, community-driven solution.”
The fund would help cover the costs of care, with additional “micro-loans” available for emergencies.
Rimada envisions it as a triple win for the shop owners, rescuers who will be compensated for their time, and most importantly, the cats. If city leaders are willing to engage, Rimada says he hopes to conduct a year-long pilot program to see what works and what would need tweaks, with input from rescuers, veterinarians and the people who care for the cats.
The petition and resulting plan was inspired by cases like that of Kobe, a Hell’s Kitchen bodega cat who almost died of a urinary infection when the owners of the bodega balked at paying veterinary bills.
Pain In The Bud 
Thank you. I signed it, even if I am in California. I shared it on X, which is by far my largest audience. I
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Good idea to make this legal! I signed the petition, but it does try to get you into Facebook posting through them, I found it sort of cumbersome. I think I’ll just share the link to this article!
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I wonder if bodega owners reach out to rescue groups to help fix cats. That is what i remember the old days of some owners did. There was no way they could afford services. We used to take cats and bring them on ASPCA medical van nearby. The good old days in my neighborhood. I still see cat i fixed at bodega in store two blocks away. I offered to fix cat for free and said yes. In those days it was less than $50 and group payed for it. Keep forgetting name of cat. Muslim name for cat. Owners still remember me after nearly 15 years.
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What a great idea! I love seeing cats in stores.
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Considering that NYC is absolutely overflowing with rats – the New York Times seems to have a story about this every other year or so – someone should have come up with idea years ago.
It’s great that someone finally did.
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The rat problem has become a major sore point in New York and became a political issue in the previous election cycle when Eric Adams — who famously hates rats — ran against Curtis Sliwa, a cat rescuer who wanted to have city-sanctioned, managed cat colonies as a natural check on the rodent population. The Mamdani-Cuomo storyline overshadowed everything this time around, but it’s still a major problem and Mamndani will need to deal with it whether he likes it or not.
Speaking anecdotally, I’ve seen rats completely unbothered by human presence emerge in broad daylight and go about their business.
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