| Affiliation: | 1. George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA, 01610 U.S.A.;2. Francisco Santiago-Ávila, Carnivore Coexistence Lab, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 70 Science Hall, 550 North Park Street, Madison, WI, 53706 U.S.A.;3. Joann Lindenmayer, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, 145 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA, 02111 U.S.A.;4. John Hadidian, Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 900 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA, 22208 U.S.A.;5. Arian Wallach, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007 Australia;6. Barbara J. King, Anthropology (emeritus), College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA, 23187 U.S.A. |
| Abstract: | Some conservationists believe that free-ranging cats pose an enormous risk to biodiversity and public health and therefore should be eliminated from the landscape by any means necessary. They further claim that those who question the science or ethics behind their arguments are science deniers (merchants of doubt) seeking to mislead the public. As much as we share a commitment to conservation of biodiversity and wild nature, we believe these ideas are wrong and fuel an unwarranted moral panic over cats. Those who question the ecological or epidemiological status of cats are not science deniers, and it is a false analogy to compare them with corporate and right-wing special interests that perpetrate disinformation campaigns over issues, such as smoking and climate change. There are good conservation and public-health reasons and evidence to be skeptical that free-ranging cats constitute a disaster for biodiversity and human health in all circumstances. Further, there are significant and largely unaddressed ethical and policy issues (e.g., the ethics and efficacy of lethal management) relative to how people ought to value and coexist with cats and native wildlife. Society is better served by a collaborative approach to produce better scientific and ethical knowledge about free-ranging cats. |
