Taste’s Like Chicken?

As a frequent consumer of high school cafeteria food, I find this story to be particularly troubling.

District school officials canceled today's classes at Eaton Elementary School in Cleveland Park to give cleaning crews time to disinfect the building after hundreds of cats were sterilized and vaccinated in the cafeteria over the weekend.

School Principal Willie McElroy had assured parents on Sunday that the school would be open today. But the unexpectedly large number of cats that were treated and public outcry over the clinic delayed the work on the building, he said.

Parents protested the clinic and wondered how the city could allow the sterilizations in a school cafeteria.

"It probably was not the best place to carry out that service in hindsight," said Jim Collier, chief of the city Health Department's bureau of environmental quality.
More than 500 cats were treated during the two-day clinic, said Robin Buckley, a consultant for Alley Cat Allies, one of the sponsors of the event, along with the city Health Department and the Washington Animal Rescue League.

I’m all for spaying and neutering pets, but I would have to agree that a school cafeteria is NOT the place for such an event. There are questions of sanitation, allergies, and public reaction to the event.

Not to mention concerns about what is in the “mystery meat.”