things got really bad for our cat friends during the Middle Ages, when they were associated with cults and declared unholy. It is believed that millions of cats were sentenced to death and burned in witch trials or thrown into bonfires. And if cat owners tried to protect their pets, they would face inquisition themselves. The sad irony is that during this time, the Black Death spread and killed thousands of people. Rats (or rather the fleas they carried) were known carriers of the plague, and killing massive numbers of cats would have certainly contributed to the proliferation of rats.
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