Saudi Prince Who Painted Nude Statues Now Collects Stray Cats

MIAMI —  Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed Fassi, who upset his former Bevery Hills neighbors by painting the nude statues on his lawn, has returned to Florida with a new mission--plucking unwanted cats from animal shelters and giving them a home fit for a king.

“I have strict orders from His Royal Highness to put aside $2.5 million for cats,” Victor Talaat, personal adviser to Fassi, said today. “We are going to send Asians through the United States to hunt the cats. We are going to recruit people to do this, but they have to be Muslims, they have to have good hearts.”

The cat home will start with 60 to 70 felines from the Dade County Animal Services and the Humane Society. Talaat picked up the first 25 cats Tuesday night and said he planned to get more from the shelters today.

The notion of saving the cats was born at a prayer meeting Monday night, when the Saudi Arabian prince learned that cats were put to sleep in the United States, Talaat said. He ordered them saved.

Talaat said the cats, which will be named after “famous people,” will have a private veterinarian, nurses and a nine-member staff to feed and bathe them. They will have seven rooms of their own until their quarters are built on 1.2 acres on a five-acre estate.