# The cats of Athens

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The cats of Athens," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-cats-of-athens/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's explanation for why there are no rats in Athens — the enormous population of street cats that tourists feed at restaurant tables — offered as a contrast to Washington, where he says the rats are the size of small dogs.*

- **The claim:** No rats in Athens, because of the cats
- **Population estimate Kiriakou gives:** 150,000, or a million — "I don't know"
- **Tourist behaviour described:** Feeding them smelt or shrimp at restaurant tables
- **The contrast:** Washington, second only to New York for rats

The **cats of Athens** are the street cat population [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) credits with keeping the Greek capital free of rats — a point he had made on the show the previous week and was asked to repeat.

## The claim

*"There there are no rats in in Athens because there are, you know, 150,000 cats or whatever it is, a million cats, I don't know."*[1] He gives the figure loosely and twice, without settling it.

## What tourists do with them

*"And you know, tourists love the cats. They they'll come up to your to your table at a restaurant and you give them a little smelt or a shrimp or whatever and they purr and you know brush up against you. But as a result there are no rats in Greece."*[1][2]

## The contrast

What interests Kiriakou is the reversal of expectation for an American. *"It's just a completely alien thought to to you know think that oh you sit down at a restaurant you see a rat run across the uh the pavement."*[2]

He moved directly from there to his own city, which he ranks second only to New York — see [Washington, rat central](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/washington-rat-city).[2]

## See also

- [Washington Rat City](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/washington-rat-city)
- [The Parthenon-view condo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-parthenon-view-condo)
- [Kiriakou's Athens house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-athens-house)

## Sources

1. DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “France In Crisis” (2025-09-08), at 39:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDOspNoh9IA&t=2355s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-08-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-john-kiriakou-fra/
2. DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “France In Crisis” (2025-09-08), at 39:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDOspNoh9IA&t=2385s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-08-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-john-kiriakou-fra/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-cats-of-athens/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt