In honor of our cat poems in class, I decided to talk about those little devils. Well, what do cats have to do with the Black Death?
In the middle ages, it is important to understand that people associated cats with witches and evil. This was also around the time that the Black Death was very popular. The plague was spread by fleas that lived on rats. "The black plague, also known as the black death, is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It enters the body through the skin and travels via the lymph system. The bacteria live in the digestive tracts of fleas. The fleas, of course, live off blood from a host, and when the fleas swallow the blood, it becomes infected with the bacteria. As the bacteria multiply inside the flea, and intestinal blockage forms, starving the parasite because nutrients cannot be absorbed. The flea vomits in an effort to clear the blockage, and since the flea is starving, it feeds voraciously. When the infected flea vomits the diseased blood into a bite site on a host animal or human, the host becomes infected with the black plague."
Cats would control the rat population by hunting them and killing them, silently doing good for people. When rumors started to spread about cats and the association with evil, many cats were immediately killed. Because of the decline of cats, the rat population quickly rose, resulting in the Black Plague spreading very quickly.
I guess that goes to show you, every creature serves a purpose, even cats!
I like this post, i can't help but wonder if there are any other animals out there associated with such a deadly plague... poor cats though they are such sweet animals and are so freaking cute!
ReplyDeletePeople have been so ignorant in so many cases in the past, and in the case of the black plague, their ignorance may have killed them. This correlation described is definitely a good example of how a variety of organisms control the balance of how each organism affects other organisms. I would think that cats could have also carried the fleas that carried the black plague causing bacterium Yersinia pestis. I guess that may have depended on a variety of factors. How intense was the spread of the black plague before compared to after the ignorant killing of cats because of human's fear? While learning more and more about particular relationships between organisms and the outcomes of these relationships increasingly often, it helps to understand how most of these affect us in the long run.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is that I have never liked those little things! I agree with you, Everything has a purpose. I just think that at a time like this people didnt know better and the only solution they could thing of was the one that was right in their face. Being educated is the aswer for everything and being educated in this time could have saved thousands of lives.
ReplyDeletePlague is generally spread by fleas infecting rodents. Cats and dogs and occasionally also get the fleas and spread plague, but it's predominantly the rodents. Cats are revered by other cultures such as the Egyptians and are excellent hunters if you live on a farm.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post--I really enjoyed learning about this although I feel really sorry for the cats that were killed. :-(