A Michael Broad Blog
Three factors conspired to commence the long general persecution of the cat in the Middle Ages, one of which is the starting point: fear of the cat. Fear breeds hatred which feeds superstition. I am returning to the Medieval era again as I have a theory that many (not all) people of that time …
To be candid, the superstitions surrounding the black cat are numerous and they either say that they bring bad or good luck in about equal numbers. That’s the power of superstition. Completely irrational but understandable. It is only the human who can harbour these strange beliefs. However, if you believe that black cats bring …
The compact infographic below summarises how the humble and innocent cat became so unfairly associated with witchcraft. Once again, I rely on the best man or women on the matter of cat history and behavior: Dr Desmond Morris. Such clean writing and clarity of thought. He says that religious bigots, in this case Christians, …
Although some Chinese living in the south of China appear to have the strongest reputation for eating cat meat, there are other countries particularly in Asia where this habit continues despite objections from some in the West and within China. And my study of cat meat consumption over about 15 years indicates to me …
A bit of domestic cat history from England and Europe in general plus an image created with the help of an AI computer and some superb online software and some imagination. In Medieval England (500-1500 AD) domestic cats were in danger of being captured and skinned by professional skinners. Does this remind you of …
In England in the fifteenth century the social etiquette manual of life insisted that domestic cats should not wander around the dining room and be fed by hand from the dining table or petted. I wonder if that attitude is the reason why a lot of people today – over 1,000 years later – …
In medieval times a labourer earned 2 pence per day. That’s about £300 in today’s money. An adult cat mouser was worth about 4 pence or two day’s wages. In today’s money: around £600. This is for a standard moggie. The value is not hugely dissimilar to that of purebred cats today at about …
It is interesting to dip into the medieval world (500-1500 AD) and see how they interacted with their domestic cats. We have an image, or I do, of domestic cat persecution because of the papal bull of Pope Gregory IX which denounced them as the devil personified. Many domestic cats were brutally killed for …
