Confirmed: Your cat is a troublemaker.
The respected scientific institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PASIFIC) has officially classified cats as an “invasive alien species,” according to the Associated Press.
The study, led by Pacific biologist Wojciech Solars, found that the damage cats do in terms of hunting and killing birds and other wildlife was sufficient justification to consider the animals invasive.
The ‘Felis catus’ species, also known as the house cat, was entered into a national database backed by the Academy’s Institute for Nature Conservation – which includes 1,786 other species – and no objection has been heard.
But the public reportedly responded to this new entry with an absolute rejection.
The scientist told the Associated Press that the public may have been upset by false accusations that the institute was pushing for the euthanasia of feral cats.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the state-run Polish Academy of Sciences for comment.
Solars argued that the cat “100%” met all the criteria to place itself on the invasive species list, due to the animals’ detrimental impact on biodiversity.
In an appearance on independent TVN, Solarz reported that cats kill 140 million birds in Poland each year.
The Associated Press reported that the institute addressed the controversy on its website last month, emphasizing the academy’s opposition to animal cruelty.
The institute emphasized that it was only recommended that cat owners limit the time their pets spend outside during the breeding season.
Becky Robinson, president and founder of Bethesda, Maryland-based Alley Cat Allies—a leader in a global movement to protect cats and cats—is skeptical that other parts of the world, such as Australia and New Zealand, have won’t continue efforts to get rid of cats.
“Make no mistake: Classifying cats as invasive is the preferred first step in a broader strategy to kill them in large numbers through horrific cat hunting and poisoning,” she said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
“The idea of killing cats will not be accepted by the compassionate society in which we live,” Robinson said.
“Killing cats will never be effective, nor will it be morally acceptable.”
Robinson said biologists and ecologists have established that other factors, such as climate change and habitat destruction, are the main cause of species loss – making it “completely inappropriate” to blame cats.
Robinson emphasized that the institute’s guidelines for limiting the amount of time cats spend outside went against the species’ makeup, because cats have lived alongside humans for thousands of years.
She said they only recently started living indoors, due to the invention of cat litter during the last century.
“There is no future in which people can live without cats. They are here to stay,” she said.
“The only way forward is through non-lethal humanitarian programs such as Trap-Neuter-Return, the scientifically proven approach to effectively and humanely dealing with community cat populations,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
