Cats and Babies Can Coexist

Introduced carefully and taught to respect each other, should result in a happy cat and well-adjusted youngster who will remain companions for many years. Claire and Emily both grew up with cats; they all survived intact and Claire recently moved into her own home and adopted her own cat.

Cases of Abandoned Baby Attacks by Stray Cats

In May 2001, a new-born baby abandoned in a rubbish skip was apparently attacked by stray cats before a man saved her in Malaysia. The baby girl was still attached to the umbilical cord when she was discovered wrapped in a cloth and placed in a plastic bag in a dumpster in Kuala Lumpur. Police saw stray cats near to the skip and found scratches all over the baby's body when they arrived at the scene. The baby has been taken to hospital and found to be healthy and the parents were being sought. The baby was new-born and therefore would smell of blood. The cats would have been attracted to the smell of blood and being unused to humans, would not have viewed the infant as a family member.

This is not comparable to the interaction of domestic house cats with babies in their family. The cats were feral and not accustomed to people as "family" so they would have viewed a helpless discarded infant as prey rather than a family member, especially as it had been placed in a rubbish skip where they normally found household scraps. Also, the report referred to scratches rather than bite wounds so it is possible that the cats were investigating the find. The case is not unusual, a few days earlier Malaysian police in Selangor found the partly eaten remains of a newborn baby; it had been buried in a shallow grave and dug up and eaten by stray dogs.