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A moral panic over cats

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dc.contributor.authorLynn, William S.en
dc.contributor.authorSantiago-Avila, Franciscoen
dc.contributor.authorLindenmayer, Joannen
dc.contributor.authorHadidian, Johnen
dc.contributor.authorWallach, Arianen
dc.contributor.authorKing, Barbara J.en
dc.contributor.departmentCenter for Leadership in Global Sustainability (CLiGS)en
dc.date.accessioned2019-08-22T17:03:31Zen
dc.date.available2019-08-22T17:03:31Zen
dc.date.issued2019-08en
dc.description.abstractSome 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.en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346en
dc.identifier.eissn1523-1739en
dc.identifier.issn0888-8892en
dc.identifier.issue4en
dc.identifier.pmid31087701en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/93219en
dc.identifier.volume33en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.subjectbiodiversityen
dc.subjectethicsen
dc.subjectfree-ranging catsen
dc.subjectMerchants of Doubten
dc.subjectmethodological rigoren
dc.subjectmoral panicen
dc.subjectpublic healthen
dc.subjectpublic policyen
dc.subjectscience denialismen
dc.titleA moral panic over catsen
dc.title.serialConservation Biologyen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)