Never let it be said that the fat cats on Wall Street don't care about the stray kittens living in their gutters.
Indeed, Goldman Sachs GS-N wants the world to know that it did not abandon unfortunate felines after reports suggested the world's most influential and profitable investment bank skipped out on a $2,000-ish veterinarian bill for five black kittens found on the construction site of its New York headquarters.
“We want to make this very clear,” a Goldman representative said Thursday. “All of the kittens have been adopted and we paid the bills. We are very happy they have found homes.”
Underscoring the bank's commitment to all things adorable, the company called back minutes later after making the statement to elaborate: “I would also like to add that we would never abandon kittens. Thank you.”
The rapid spread of the story, through a newspaper report and the Internet, points to a more serious image problem at Goldman: No matter what it does, critics and conspiracy theorists are quick to seize on any story that casts the bank as a symbol of Wall Street excess and greed.
The kitten saga started in August, when Rich Brotman found them near Goldman's nearly finished $2-billion (U.S.) head office.
Mr. Brotman, who runs a rescue service called City Critters, approached the bank about paying for any associated medical costs, and took the kittens home to get them used to humans.
Mr. Brotman convinced Goldman to canvass its employees to see if any would open their homes to the kittens, which were nicknamed BlackBerries because of their dark fur.
And that's where things started to get a little hairy. An editorial in a weekly Manhattan newspaper suggested Goldman had not delivered the promised veterinary cheque as of the end of October, months after the kittens were rescued. Worse, the paper alleged the bank hadn't bothered to help to find loving homes for the hapless strays.
The blogosphere ignited with indignity – how could a bank that posted a $3.18-billion quarterly profit refuse to help? Maybe its critics were right, and it really was a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,” as a Rolling Stone profile characterized it in a recent issue.
Except it was all a misunderstanding, the bank said Thursday: The bills have been paid, and all of the animals have found homes (though Mr. Brotman said it's always more difficult to find homes for black cats). Two went to a family who read about their plight in the Downtown Express paper, two more went to the friend of a Goldman lawyer, and the final one found a home with a woman who lives in a condo near the construction site.
“We have a great community down here,” Mr. Brotman told the Downtown Express last week as he handed off the final feline.
“This is a pretty happy ending.”
