Wojciech Solarz, a biologist at the point out-run Polish Academy of Sciences, wasn’t prepared for the disapproving public response when he entered “Felis catus,” the scientific name for the frequent home cat, into a national database operate by the academy’s Institute of Nature Conservation.

The databases previously experienced 1,786 other species listed with no objections, Solarz explained to The Related Press on Tuesday. The uproar in excess of invasive alien species No. 1,787, he said, may well have resulted from some media reviews that made the untrue impact his institute was contacting for feral and other cats to be euthanized.

Solarz explained the increasing scientific consensus that domestic cats have a hazardous affect on biodiversity given the range of birds and mammals they hunt and eliminate.

The standards for such as the cat amongst alien invasive species, “are 100% fulfilled by the cat,” he mentioned.

In a tv section aired by unbiased broadcaster TVN, the biologist faced off previous 7 days from a veterinarian who challenged Solarz’s summary on the hazards cats pose to wildlife.

Dorota Suminska, the author of a guide titled “The Delighted Cat,” pointed to other brings about of shrinking biodiversity, which includes a polluted ecosystem and city setting up facades that can destroy birds in flight.

“Ask if gentleman is on the checklist of non-invasive alien species,” Suminska stated, arguing that cats were unfairly assigned far too considerably blame.

Solarz pushed again, arguing that cats kill about 140 million birds in Poland each and every yr.

Before this month, the Polish Academy institute released a submit on its website citing the “controversy” and in search of to clarify its situation. The institute pressured that it was “opposed to any cruelty to animals.” It also argued…