That was no so far from truth...
People in Vicenza (a very nice town close to Venezia) are known all over in the region (and in Italy as well) as "magna gati" (cat eaters) because of a traditional dish you won't be able to find in any restaurant any more: cat's meat seems like the rabbit's one.
Cats lovers should meet in Rome, where it has been stated that feline population dwellings in the Forum area (Colosseo, Fori Imperiali, Torre Argentina) is "a bioethical patrimony of the city of Rome"; cats are feeded, cured and attended by volunteers with a city subvention.
Let's leave Venice to pigeons (for which a population control - read authorized killing/poisoning- had been set some time ago)