In Silicon Valley, rabbit rashes die out. All due to the fact that Google employees are very fond of cats

Rabbit Sychi are the only birds of bird in North America, nesting exclusively underground - in the holes that dug me dwarfs, gophers, badgers, turtles or armadillos. Some rabbit Sychi even dig their own burrows themselves - abrasion of the earth with its beaks and throwing it out with its paws. As the newspaper The New York Times, in the California Park SHORELINE PARK, located near the city of Mountain-Vyu, the rabbit rashes were at risk of complete disappearance.

According to the publication, in 2015 in the park they found the remains of such a raw - a paw, a wing and feathers. Soon another ray was found dead right at his hole, and the third disappeared; He was recognized as dead. It was almost half of the entire population in the park. Concerned environmental defenders drew attention to the fact that many homeless cats divorced there - but where they came from, it was not possible to find out. The New York Times reported their observation-and found that the trail leads to the Google headquarters, which is located right at the park.

It turned out that the company's employees are very fond of cats, and even founded a fund for helping homeless cats Gcat Rescue. Its volunteers act on the principle of “capture - castration - return”: all animals are caught and vaccinated. Friendly kittens and adults are disassembled by company employees (and not only), but completely wild chip, sterilize and release back to the will. According to the fund, this is the most effective way to stop the reproduction of homeless animals. During the organization’s activities, Google volunteers managed to attach 148 cats, but how much was released is unknown.

The company continues to take care of cats even after they are released: in the territory of the Google and campus headquarters, special feeders for homeless cats are placed, where they put food every evening. Volunteers are sure that this prevents the “unpleasant behavior” of animals. The professor of biology at the University of South California Travis Longor considers differently: in his opinion, castration and feeding do not reduce the need for animals to hunt. “If you have an open shelter for cats, you should expect the consequences for the environment,” Longor warns.

The zoo defenders say that Google takes care of rabbit meals on the territory of the Mofffet airfield a few kilometers from the Mountain-Vew-but does not make concessions at all in the “cat question”. At the request to comment on the situation, company representatives said that GCAT Rescue is a private initiative of less than ten employees, and Google cannot affect them. The New York Times notes that other large technological companies located near the ShoreLine park do not support the feeding of homeless cats, or, for example, Facebook, suspended such programs.

According to the Mountain-Voya authorities, in 2017, in the city district, homeless cats were seen 318 times, but for the first time in 20 years they did not observe the chicks of rabbit ras. Back in 2011, there were ten of them.

Olga Strachovskaya