While writing these lines, my cat Skinner is napping on an unfolded batch of laundry and Sigmund is playing outside, harassing the neighbor’s dog.
Up until recently, I believed that we, the cat lovers, were a special breed ourselves: sensitive, compassionate and complex. This ideal was challenged when I realized that cats have a share in hurting the environment.
The History Of Cats
Cats were domesticated about 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. It is not clear if they domesticated themselves, or if the Egyptians initiated it. In those days the Egyptian economy was based on raising agricultural crops.
The seeds were stored in large structures that naturally attracted rodents. The wildcats may have come of their own free will, or they may have been brought by humans to protect the seeds, as they were natural and beneficial exterminators.
It was only a matter of time before they achieved high status in Egypt, so high that a cat’s death would involve mourning that was expressed by shaving the eyebrows of the family members, a dignified burial, and sometimes even mummification.
As sacred figures in Egyptian culture there were even laws that protected cats that included the death penalty, and it was forbidden to remove them from the country.
Despite all of this, cats were brought by ship to Europe by Greek and Italian merchants that needed them to protect their crops. Soon they spread, and became part of the European landscape.
Bad Rep For Cats
Trouble began in Medieval times when black cats where considered to be manifestations of Satan, or witches in animal skin.
Obviously these things did not contribute to their popularity and even today, much as in the past, single women still bother the religious establishment. In many cases these women were traditional healers and raised cats for their pleasure.
This combination caused them to be suspected as witches, and cats the devil's messenger. The independent character of the cat, along with its flexibility and night vision made him mysterious, sexual, and even frightening to many.
And Then A Change
200 years ago, with the decline of the church, the cat’s popularity rose again. Pure breed cats have become status symbols with beauty pageants, and even street cats often provide pleasure and pastime for the people that feed them.
Today it is acknowledged that cats are beneficial to sufferers of migraines; they help reduce blood pressure, and lower the risk of stroke or heart attack. And, a child that has grown up in a house with a cat or dog has a stronger immune system.
They even have community value. In our neighborhood, all the cat owners always have something to talk about!
Cats And The Environment
Those who are not fond of cats complain about whining, broken plants, and toppled trash cans. Lately, it has become clear that cats are also an environmental problem with deeper significance, mainly because they are a contributing factor in the extinction of local wildlife.
I had first heard of this at a lecture by zoologist Dr. Ayelet Shuster. The headline read, “What kind of natural world will we leave our grandchildren: The Crisis of Species Variety.” The lecture presented a variety of animals that are threatening to other species.
Among them are the domesticated cat: Since there are too few people taking care of all the cats, many of them go “back to nature” and live from hunting small animals, especially rodents, lizards, and small birds.
Another problem is the mating of house cats with wildcats causing the degradation of genetic purity in wildcats. The dodo bird, a famous extinct species, disappeared from the world also because of cats (and others animals) that were brought by humans to the island of Mauritius who ate the native bird eggs.
So what can you do? Of course there is no sense in starving street and house cats, because after all, they are part of the environment too. The solution is well fed, neutered and spade cats. This will minimize their need to hunt animals, and control over population.
On Sunday, Sigmund and I are going to the veterinarian; there he will say “Goodbye” to his auburn testicles, and the neighborhood lizards will breath a sigh of relief.
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Translation: Yasmine Ariel