'Lower House cat' takes social media by storm

AMMAN — The fate of a cat that interrupted a Lower House evening session on Sunday was a topic of conversation among social media users.

Some objected to the cat's “maltreatment” as a Parliament employee carried it by its tail to take it outside the chamber, while others criticised the “big fuss” made about the cat, as if lawmakers have “nothing else to do”.

“What about the 6 million cats? Does anybody care about them?” Ahmad Rawashdeh posted on Facebook, referring to the estimated number of Jordanians in the Kingdom.

“This is a message from the public,” one Facebook user said, while another wrote: “The poor cat wanted to express an opinion.” 

“If they don't know how to deal with cats, how are they supposed to deal with humans?” Anood Shdefat exclaimed.

Ali Fayyad said the cat should not be carried as if it were a “bomb”. “At least the cat did not steal the country,” he posted.

Other social media users took a humorous angle.

"A cat barged into Parliament today, with eye witnesses confirming that it was the only living creature that entered without wasta [favouritism]," tweeted Razan A. Abualfoul ‏ (@razan_rezoo).

Areen alQadi ‏(@areenalqadi89) tweeted that "a cat accidentally enters the Lower House, and then leaves in a case of corruption and money laundering."

Some users circulated news about Parliament guards killing the cat, but the guard who removed the cat from the building told khaberni.com the reports were baseless.

Commenting on the issue, Al Ghad journalist Nadine Nimri posted on Facebook that the penalty for killing an animal or pet is a three-month prison term or a fine, demanding the enforcement of the law.

With the spread of rumours that the cat was killed, some social media users criticised those who turned the news into a joke.

"If our great people are busy laughing and making jokes about 'the Lower House cat' that was found dead, then such people — in my humble opinion — deserve such MPs," Sajidah Al Shamayleh ‏(@Sajidah33) wrote on Twitter in Arabic.

Hani Jahshan (@HaniJahshan) called for taking legal action against those involved in harming the cat, in accordance with the Penal Code.