Domestic cats were added to the database along with 1,786 other species already included. Domestic cats have been labeled as “alien invasive species” by a Polish scientific institute. He is referring to the growing scientific consensus that domestic cats cause harm to birds and other wildlife by the numbers they hunt and kill.

However, Wojciech Solarz, a biologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences, was unprepared for the backlash from some cat lovers after he entered Felis catus, the scientific name for the common house cat, into a nationally managed database. by the academy’s Nature Conservation Institute.

The database already had another 1,786 species listed without objection, Solarz added. Yet the 1,787th invasive alien species is such a beloved creature that it is often honored in cemeteries in Poland reserved for cats and dogs. Solarz said that the criteria for listing the cat among alien invasive species “are met 100% by the cat.”

In a television broadcast on tvN, the biologist clashed with the author of a book called The Happy Cat, who said that cats were unfairly blamed too much. The institute has stressed that it “opposes any cruelty to animals.” They added that the classification of domestic cats was in line with European Union guidelines.

The institute noted that Felis catus probably formed around 10,000 years ago at the center of the great civilizations of the ancient Middle East, making them foreign to Europe from a scientific point of view. The Polish institute has recommended cat owners to limit the time their pets spend outdoors during the bird-breeding season and declared them alien invasive species.

Dorota Suminska pointed to other causes of reduced biology, such as polluted environments and urban building facades that can kill birds in flight. First pet-friendly oxygen mask saves cat from London house fire alien invasive species. After three weeks on the run at an airport, Rowdy the cat is captured.