Four Train Cars of Cats Were Brought to Save the Food Supplies

It might seem like they were meant as food but when cats were shipped by train to be sent to Leningrad it was not as a means for food. The cats were meant to save the little food that the city had. The besieged city had one substantial problem (of many) in 1942 that was making survival hard and that was rats. With the number of dead bodies in the streets (the ground was frozen during the winter and they could not be buried or people were too weak to dig graves) rats were flourishing. There were several attempts to catch and kill the rats, but reports credit the roving gangs of rats as “organized, intelligent and brutal.” Nothing worked and the rats often found their way to the mill to eat the small bit of food that was found there.

By this time starvation through the winter meant that most citizens had eaten their cats (families would trade cats so as not to have to eat their own pet) so there were no cats to control the rats. Once the blockade was broken in 1944 the gangs of rats had to be dealt with before they ate all the food that was now being delivered to the starved city. Four train cars of cats were sent to Leningrad. Some of the cats were just released onto the streets, others were given to residents. The beloved creatures were in such high demand after the suffering of the siege that some were willing to pay 50 rubles for one or give up some of their precious bread for a kitten.

The cats were a success and quickly dispatched of the rodent problem. Today there are even statues in Saint Petersburg (formally Leningrad) that honor the cats that helped to bring the city back from the brink of death and destruction.