Sammy or Pepper

ANGUS, Ont. — At a government compound in rural Ontario, there are stockpiles of tree seeds, billions of them, all catalogued and tested and waiting to be planted. The threat inherent for this factory and its pine cones, acorns, fruit and seed is the vermin. So the provincial government has employed two cats. Pepper and Sammy are paid by the taxpayers of Ontario in room, board and veterinary care. These “mice-control technicians,” as one bureaucrat called them, are the reason there is no rodent problem at the Ontario Tree Seed Plant in Angus, Ont., about 120 kilometres north of Toronto. The cats are soon to be fired, however. The government will shutter the plant next September.