E03 | Cat Empire | Cat-astrophe

Our love and devotion to cats is not without consequences, and the environmental impact of our companions is enormous. In fact, the ecological impact of a cat in the United States is similar to that of a person living in Haiti! Even more alarming is the cat's ability to reproduce rapidly, which has led to a dangerous overpopulation problem. With tens of millions of stray cats roaming the streets of American cities, the problem has become so serious that, according to researchers, it has become one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in the United States, killing billions of animals each year. We meet scientists who are trying to prevent their proliferation and walk the streets of Los Angeles at night with volunteers who are trying to save them. Fortunately, killing and neutering cats are not the only solutions, and we spend a day exploring one of the world's largest private cage-free shelters, providing a home for more than 1,000 cats in California. Not content with invading the world, cats have expanded their territory to dominate the internet. With the help of experts on the subject (Jason Eppink, Fabien Loszach, Katherine Miltner), we examine the most popular trends: from memes to lol speak and cat videos, we try to understand the reason for their online fame. We meet the founder of My Pet Agency, the first talent agency dedicated to animal influencers. We cross the Channel to enter the secret world of the Magnificats, England's most famous cats, who share their daily lives with their 1.5 million Facebook friends every week. We end our journey by meeting some of the most famous cats on the internet: Pudge, BenBen and Nala (the most influential cat on Instagram, with over 4 million followers!), as they are guests of honour at the Meowfest festival in Vancouver.