Bad decisions in history: The massive cat slaughter

Pope Gregory IX affirmed that black cats were a representation and disguise of Lucifer. A century later, more than 50 million people died because of the Black Death.

Although these felines did not possess specific characteristics as other work animals domesticated previously, its presence and predatory character among human populations was effective to scare off rodents and other small animals that threatened to eat or contaminate grain crops.

However, from the twelfth century the relationship between cats and humans changed dramatically. With Christianity as the dominant thought, the notion that all living beings were created by and to serve God and could be used by man was widely accepted; however, the felines did not enter into such a definition: they are semi-wild animals that maintain an independent character. They are not willing to follow orders or have the typical flattery of dogs, the example of a pet par excellence.

This nature, defined as haughty and disinterested led to serious doubts about their behavior, especially when the moral system of the time (Christianity) demanded asceticism and obedience, while feudal economic relations (vassalage) were based on servility and loyalty from the servants to the feudal lords. The proper temperament of the cats was interpreted from such principles and added to the vision that would later become a catastrophe for its population

«In 1223, Pope Gregory IX wrote Vox in rama , a papal bull that describes orgies of witches fraternizing with Lucifer disguised as a black cat "

This idea was replicated by various ecclesiastical authorities some stated that "Lucifer can appear before his worshipers in the form of a large black cat ...") in the following decades a constant persecution against domestic felines, at least in the subsequent two centuries.

It is impossible to know precisely how deep was the decline of the population of European cats during the Middle Ages, the fact is that once the cats were chased away, the proliferation of their immediate inferior in the food chain happened: black rat, a species that in turn carries the flea with it, the natural vector of transmission of the Black Death towards humans, the pandemic whose first outbreak arose a century after the papal bull of Gregory IX (1346) and ended with just over 50 million people throughout the medieval world.

It is very likely that the decline of the feline population has had a powerful influence on the proliferation of the Black Death, the deadly disease that changed the way of conceiving the world during the Middle Ages.