The Academy has come under fire from cat lovers and pet owners after declaring cats to be a predatory threat to the local biodiversity.
Domestic cats have been labelled as an “invasive alien species” by a Polish scientific organization.
The house cat (Felis catus), which was domesticated in the Middle East, has been classified as “foreign” by the Polish Academy of Sciences, which also described cats as “invasive” owing to their “bad impact on local biodiversity.”
Japanese knotweed, raccoons, clearwing moths, and mandarin ducks are just a few of the many creatures that the Academy considers “invasive alien species.”
They cite research suggesting that cats kill and consume between 8.9 and 135.7 million birds and between 48.1 and 583.4 million animals yearly in Poland to support their claim that these species constitute “an unknown risk to local biodiversity.”
The cat “completely meets” the requirements for inclusion as an alien invasive species, according to Wojciech Solarz, a biologist of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a government-run organization.
Concerned that the designation may encourage the abuse or maltreatment of domestic cats, cat owners and cat lovers have voiced displeasure over the classification.
According to AP, several media accounts gave the incorrect impression that the institution was advocating killing feral and other cats.
People call the Academy’s categorization “just foolish and damaging” in comments on its Facebook page, with one person calling the academy “you stink and are unworthy of your name.”
Wojciech Solarz, a biologist at the government-run Polish Academy of Sciences, told AP that he hadn’t anticipated the emotional reaction to the database entry of the Felis Catus and that no other entry had ever elicited it.
Due to the uproar, Solarz competed on national television against cat champion Dorota Suminska, who wrote the book “The Happy Cat.”
When speaking about the declining biodiversity, Suminska, a veterinarian, remarked, “Ask if a man is on the list of non-invasive alien species.” He said that too much responsibility was being unfairly placed on cats.
According to Solarz, the negative reaction can result from misunderstandings, where some believe the Academy is insinuating that people abuse their cats.
The Academy only advised cat owners to restrict their pets’ outside time during the mating season for birds.
The Academy stated that it is “opposed to any animal cruelty” in a Facebook post earlier this month in response to the designation and the subsequent criticism, adding that designating the domestic house cat as an invasive alien species does not excuse maltreatment toward them or the abandonment of cats.
Comment Template