July 5, 2026

White City Stadium Had a Cat for the Rats

Minnie, a highly effective mouser.

Between 1927 and 1933, a tabby cat named Minnie worked at White City Stadium in London and reportedly killed 12,480 rats. That works out to about 5.7 rats a day, every day, for 6 years. Guinness World Records later called her the greatest ratter on record.

White City Stadium had plenty going on during Minnie's time there. Built for the 1908 Summer Olympics, the enormous London venue later hosted athletics, boxing, speedway, show jumping, concerts, greyhound racing and a match during the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

From 1927, it also had Minnie.

There is very little left about the cat herself, but her work was recorded with unusual precision. According to the 1975 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, the female tabby killed 12,480 rats at the stadium over a 6-year period from 1927 to 1933. That is an average of roughly 5.7 rats a day.

White City had become a major greyhound racing venue in 1927, the same year Minnie's record began, and a stadium of that size, with crowds, food and constant activity, gave a good mouser plenty to do. Minnie appears to have been particularly busy.

Guinness also listed another tabby named Mickey as the greatest mouser on record after he reportedly killed more than 22,000 mice during 23 years with a company in Lancashire.

So Minnie was the greatest ratter, Mickey was the greatest mouser, and apparently nobody at Guinness found the names suspicious.

White City Stadium was demolished in 1985, after a long history that included the Olympics, the World Cup, and decades of greyhound racing. And somewhere in that history is also a tabby cat averaging nearly 6 rats a day. A highly effective mouser.

Animals with jobs

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