What if medieval Europeans didn't fear cats?

What if cats were never denounced in any wide ranging manner and never persecuted, left alone to continue to hunt mice? Could this prevent the Black Plague?
 
What if cats were never denounced in any wide ranging manner and never persecuted, left alone to continue to hunt mice? Could this prevent the Black Plague?

No. The rats were too much for the cats to handle in the first place. The Black Death also poured through the rest of Eurasia, which didn't fear cats.
 
Well, if medieval Europeans had feared cats, they might have suffered more mice than they did. Since they by and large did not, they had mousers in their homes. It didn't help much.

Of course, there would still be the option of having other small predators fill the niche.
 
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