The Kitten Crisis in Warriors by Eggpaw

Eggpaw questions the role of Twolegs and kittypets in Warriors

(This will be a bit of a darker article, so feel free to click away if this stuff makes you uncomfortable.)

First, a disclaimer. I’m not trying to stop you or anyone else from reading Warriors. I’m not saying Warriors is a bad book series. I’m only saying that Warriors should address the kitten crisis or overpopulation, especially since the Clans are already too huge. A passing mention that “the Clans are getting too big” or “there’s not enough prey/herbs to go around” or even “not all kittypets are lazy” would already do something.

So, many people are unfamiliar with the kitten crisis. I’ll explain. The kitten crisis is a term for the overpopulation of feral cats in real life, specifically the overpopulation of kittens. There are simply not enough homes for all the feral and/or stray kittens in the world. Open-admission shelters are overwhelmed and have to make horrible decisions about which animal gets to live. It’s a terrible thing that’s happening right now, in the real world. But what does this all have to do with Warriors, a fantasy book series? Allow me to explain.

Warriors is all about Clans of cats living in the wild. Already, this reminds me of groups of feral cats. When I see feral cat groups, I always notice that some cats have injuries or are sick. This always serves as a reminder of the things some strays go through. Feral cats groups are terrible places where cats fight daily and have to face cars, predators, humans, and disease. Meanwhile, in Warriors, Clans are portrayed as the exact opposite. Cats cooperate, share prey, and rarely get as badly injured as the real-life ones in feral cat groups. But you might say, “These are just fantasy Clans!” And I’ll tell you why they still affect real life.

When I was re-reading Into the Wild, I found myself thinking about the kitten crisis. Why are kittypets portrayed as lazy and disloyal? Why was Rusty, a kittypet, portrayed in a bad manner, while Firestar, a feral Clan cat, portrayed in a good one? Almost every kittypet in Warriors is deemed “bad” unless they join or help a Clan. This needs to change. Years ago, when I first read Into the Wild, I wanted to release my own cats thinking they would live a happier, unrestrained life in the wild. Yes, this is a true story. I was young and didn’t know better. Thankfully, my parents stopped me and told me it was a bad idea, but imagine how that could’ve gone. As you can see, overpopulation needs to be addressed in Warriors, or more people could feel the need to release their own pets as I did.

And now another thing. Why is there no human intervention? Even in WarriorClan, the humans don’t seem to care that their poor housecats are creating groups outside. In my opinion, there should be more indoor cats in Warriors, examples of what many think is the best thing to do. Why are everyone’s cats allowed to just roam outside, sometimes even without a bell collar to prevent the cat from catching prey? Why didn’t Rusty have any sort of microchip? Isn’t that what you should do if you let your cat outside? Why wasn’t Rusty fixed yet? Again, many agree it’s the best thing to do if your cat roams around. And why did Rusty’s owners just… get a new one from the same mother cat? If they lost one, what makes them think they’ll be responsible enough to take care of another? And that cat, Princess, had kittens, too? So they didn’t fix Princess, either? Are they doing anything to prevent overpopulation?

Sorry, I got a bit passionate there. But the facts remain. I’ll go on a bit of a tangent here but stay with me (unless this is making you uncomfortable. Feel free to click away at any time).

The Clan cats’ views on veterinarians. As soon as I realized how negatively they portray the veterinarian (dubbed “the Cutter”), I was extremely confused. Why do they see vets as so evil? Is it because they fix cats? I’ve already discussed that. Is it because they heal kittypets, which they already see as soft and lazy? Has any Clan cat been to the so-called “Cutter”? Has any kittypet told any Clan cat what vets do? Because vets aren’t just for fixing cats. They’re for healing pets. It’s unfair that the “Cutter” is seen as evil while medicine cats do the same thing, only with herbs that could have fungus or be poisonous. This, again, has the risk of translating to real life. And then the Clan cats’ view on humans—why are they so negative about anything that doesn’t support their way of life? What should happen is Clan cats being less stubborn and prideful so they can see how devastating life in the wild really is. But Pinestar, a Clan cat who became a kittypet, is openly shunned and hated by the Clans simply for this action. This is exactly what should happen, a feral cat being taken into someone’s home to become a housecat. Instead of supporting this in the books or doing anything to acknowledge its importance, it portrays it as a bad action from the cats openly saying Pinestar was a bad leader. But back to the main point. The Clans fail to recognize how big and unmoderated they really are, and the humans fail to recognize the enormous amount of feral and stray cats that are living at the lake.

And now we come back to the start of the article. The kitten crisis is a huge problem where there are too many kittens and not enough homes to contain them. And Warriors is a book series that may convince little kids who don’t realize the severity of the situation to turn a blind eye to the sheer amount of feral cat groups they’ll simply label as “Clans”.

That’s all I’ve got. Please talk about this in the comments! I’m very passionate about this, so comments are greatly appreciated.