Pets

A respected Polish scientific institute has classified domestic cats as an “invasive alien species,” citing the damage they cause to birds and other wildlife. Some cat lovers have reacted emotionally to this month’s decision and put the key scientist behind it on the defensive. A biologist at the state-run Polish Academy of Sciences told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he wasn’t prepared for the public response when he entered “Felis catus,” the scientific name for the common house cat, into a national database. The database already had 1,786 other species listed with no objections. He says some media reports created a false impression that the institute wanted feral and other cats euthanized.