Kill stray cats to save endangered birds?····The ‘stray cat debate’ repeating for a third year - 경향신문

This article was translated by an AI tool. Feedback Here.

On April 19, a cat sits in the grass in the Jeongneung-gol redevelopment zone in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. Kwon Do-hyun

Two months ago, the bird-focused YouTuber ‘Saedeokhu’ (Kim Eo-jin) posted a video arguing that endangered birds are threatened by the hunting of stray cats and calling for controlling cat numbers, and the debate over stray cats and wild birds is once again heating up.

On June 20, Kim posted a video on his YouTube channel titled ‘Cats, It Is Time to Decide’. In the video, he argued that endangered birds and other wildlife face a threat to survival due to stray cats and that the cat population should be reduced. He also mentioned that active measures, including culling, should be taken.

Kim released footage from Marado in Seogwipo, Jeju, and from Hongdo in Sinan County, Gwangju, South Jeolla, showing cats hunting wild birds, including endangered species, and said, “We need to catch cats. There is no choice but to carry out culling. This is not because I dislike cats or feel hatred toward them, but because it is the only way.”

Subsequently, last month he posted a ‘Petition on restricting feeding for ownerless cats and improving the management system’ on the National Assembly Public Consent Petition site, calling for limits on feeding stray cats and the installation of feeding stations. The petition met the minimum requirement of support from at least 50,000 people and on the 23rd of last month was referred to the standing committee with jurisdiction, the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee.

This is not the first time there has been a debate over stray cats. In 2023, Kim uploaded a video titled ‘To Cat Moms, Dads, and Animal Protection Organizations Nationwide Who Value Only Cats’, asserting that birds, including natural monuments, are being threatened by the hunting of stray cats. At the time, he argued that it was difficult to reduce cat numbers through measures such as neutering programs run by local governments and that feeding should be halted.

Three years have passed since then, but discussion about the size of the stray cat population and its ecological impact has made little progress. Recently, Kim has raised the issue in a stronger way, even bringing up culling.

Thumbnails of the video ‘To Cat Moms, Dads, and Animal Protection Organizations Nationwide Who Value Only Cats’ posted on the ‘Saedeokhu’ YouTube channel three years ago, and the video ‘Cats, It Is Time to Decide’ posted in June. Captured from the Saedeokhu channel

Cats, which can be seen easily almost anywhere in the country, exert a certain influence on the ecosystem as predators. However, research and citation on how much Korea’s stray cats affect the ecosystem and whether population control policies, including trap-neuter-return (TNR), are effective have been conducted only in a fragmented way. There is not even an accurate grasp of how many stray cats there are nationwide, and it is also difficult to know precisely whether the population is increasing or decreasing.

Early this year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that as TNR figures have risen, the number of stray cats in Seoul is falling. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs also released survey results in 2022 indicating that the number of stray cats was declining in the seven major metropolitan cities, including Seoul. However, some question whether such findings accurately reflect actual population changes, noting increases in stray cat roadkill and related civil complaints.

In the book <Doing Sociology with Stray Cats>, science and technology studies researcher and author Kwon Mu-sun pointed out that groups supporting or opposing TNR for stray cats are “ultimately conducting research within somewhat closed citation networks of their own.” As groups with different positions selectively cite studies that back their claims, debate over policies to manage stray cats is running on parallel tracks.

In the absence of an accurate diagnosis and management policy for stray cats, the debate over population control is getting mixed up with cat abuse and hatred directed at the ‘cat moms’ who care for cats.

In his video, Kim said, “I am not telling individuals to step up and catch (stray cats) as if carrying out private sanctions. That is animal abuse,” calling for management at a national level. Nevertheless, online there are also moves that use Kim’s logic to advocate physical measures against stray cats.

On the 12th, on the secondhand trading platform ‘Danggeun’, a group was launched under the name ‘Fur-cockroach (cat) hunting group’. The group leader introduced the group by saying, “We welcome those who feel pity for the indiscriminate deaths of wild animals caused by fur-cockroaches (cats) and those who have suffered property damage due to disgusting cat moms” and “We will hold gatherings to take physical measures so that cats cannot hunt birds, squirrels, and other wild animals.”

‘Teolbakwi’ is a term used on online communities to refer to cats with a connotation of hatred. Recruitment for the group has now been halted due to platform sanctions.

A cat is in the Open Songhyeon Green Plaza in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Han Su-bin

Under the current Animal Protection Act, animals that roam or are abandoned without an owner in public places such as roads and parks are defined as ‘lost or abandoned animals’, and local governments are required to take necessary measures such as rescue, treatment, and protection for these animals. Unlike ownerless dogs, ownerless cats are effectively excluded from these measures. Animal protection groups explained that, unlike most dogs, cats are born on the street and have adapted to live within the urban ecosystem, so it is difficult to apply the same criteria.

Animal protection organizations also agreed that discussion is needed to fill the policy gap in managing stray cats. Lee Hyeong-ju, head of the Animal Welfare Issues Research Institute AWARE, said, “We do not have a healthy forum for discussing how to deal with cats that have become a pillar of the urban ecosystem and how to address the problems around cats,” and added, “Because people are selectively choosing completely different research results to attack each other, it is necessary to have rational discussion based on scientific research on the domestic ecosystem.”