INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY-AUGUST 8

 

INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY-AUGUST 8 

August 8th is International Cat Day. Created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the day raises awareness of cats and ways to protect them. Today, the event is organized by International Cat Care, a British NGO that has worked towards improving the welfare of cats since 1958. The cat is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae - which includes lions, tigers, and jaguars. Today, it is the most common pet in the world, although they have been our companions since the beginning of human civilizations! Recent evidence suggests that people domesticated cats in the Middle East over 10,000 years ago.

Cats are carnivorous small furry mammals — for the most part — with four legs, a tail, and claws, that humans have domesticated as pets since ancient times, even though they have descended from the African Wildcat and they used to catch vermin.The first historical human record about cats could be found in Ancient Egyptian Civilization’s culture. We all seem to relate cats with Egyptians, because of their adoration and consideration of cats as gods. Mafdet was the first known cat deity and was regarded as the protector against snakes, scorpions, and evil during the First Dynasty, so for them, cats were not just deities, but also protectors.Later, after the Egyptian Dynasty collapsed, Cats became popular everywhere! Greeks and Romans used them as pest control, and in the East, cats were originally owned by rich and wealthy people. But during the Middle Ages, in Europe, Cats became associated with superstition and suspected of carrying the disease during the Black Death of 1348, that is the reason why too many cats got killed in that era, and it wasn’t until the 1600s that cats’ reputation started to recover.In America, cats were part of the cargo on the colonization ships to minimize vermin and disease, so those cats went ashore and flourished. Nowadays, cats seem to be one of the pop icons in modern society – we have about half of a billion among us. And, since 2002, thanks to the “International Fund for Animal Welfare” cats have their own holiday! 

Effective since August 3, 2020, the leading cat welfare charity, International Cat Care, became the custodians of International Cat Day. Since 1958, they’ve challenged cruelty, ignorance, and misunderstanding to affect positive change in the lives of cats. With an estimated global population of 600 million cats, half of which are thought to be unowned, their work has never been more important.

Prof. John Kurakar