Cat fanciers’ claws have come out after a Polish environmental conservation group declared the animals an “invasive alien species.”
The Polish Institute of Nature Conversation’s latest addition to its database of some 1,800 such creatures was due in part to the fact that cats aren’t native to the Eastern European country.
“…Felis catus, was domesticated probably around 10,000 years ago in the cradle of the great civilizations of the ancient Near East, stretching from the Nile Valley to southern Mesopotamia. Therefore, from a purely scientific perspective, in Europe, and therefore also in Poland, it should be considered an alien species,” the group declared.
Also at issue is the fact that domestic cats can prey on birds and other animals — some 140 million feathered friends a year, in fact — making for a “negative influence…on native biodiversity.”
That said, the group didn’t list kitties as a “threat” to the country at large, so it didn’t recommend any action be taken against them.
That was cold comfort to cat fans, however, who cried foul over the decision, leading Wojciech Solarz, the lead scientist on the panel, to tell the Associated Press that the decision wasn’t personal.
“I have a dog, but I don’t have anything against cats,” he said.