A revered Polish scientific institute has labeled home cats as an “invasive alien species”, citing the harm they trigger to birds and different wildlife.
Some cat lovers have reacted emotionally to the choice and put the important thing scientist behind it on the defensive.
Wojciech Solarz, a biologist on the state-run Polish Academy of Sciences, wasn't ready for the disapproving public response when he entered “Felis catus”, the scientific title for the frequent home cat, right into a nationwide alien species database run by the academy's Institute of Nature Conservation.
The database already had 1,786 different species listed with no objections, Solarz advised AP on Tuesday. The uproar over invasive alien species No. 1,787, he mentioned, could have resulted from some media stories that created the misunderstanding his institute was calling for feral and different cats to be euthanised.
Solarz described the rising scientific consensus that home cats have a dangerous impression on biodiversity given the variety of birds and mammals they hunt and kill.
The standards for together with the cat amongst alien invasive species “are 100% met by the cat,” he mentioned.
In a tv section aired by impartial broadcaster TVN, the biologist confronted off final week towards a veterinarian who challenged Solarz's conclusion on the risks cats pose to wildlife.
Dorota Suminska, the writer of a guide known as 'The Blissful Cat', pointed to different causes of shrinking biodiversity, together with a polluted surroundings and city constructing facades that may kill birds in flight.
“Ask if man is on the checklist of non-invasive alien species,” Suminska mentioned, arguing that cats have been unfairly assigned an excessive amount of blame.
Solarz pushed again, arguing that cats kill about 140 million birds in Poland every year.
Earlier this month, the Polish Academy institute printed a put up on its web site citing the "controversy” and in search of to make clear its place.
The institute pressured that it was “against any cruelty in the direction of animals.” It additionally argued that its classification was consistent with European Union pointers.
So far as categorising cats as “alien”, the institute famous that Felis catus was domesticated in all probability round 10,000 years in the past within the cradle of the good civilisations of the traditional Center East, making the species alien to Europe from a strictly scientific standpoint.
The institute additionally pressured that each one it was recommending was for cat house owners to restrict the time their pets spend open air throughout chook breeding season.
“I've a canine, however I haven't got something towards cats,” Solarz mentioned.
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