As debate intensified over a YouTuber's campaign to ban the feeding of stray cats and reduce their population through culling, Choe Jae-chun, a chair professor at Ewha Womans University and one of Korea's leading ecologists, publicly rejected the proposal. Choe warned that the campaign lacks academic evidence applicable to Korea's ecosystem, making it impossible to conclude that reducing the feline population protects endangered species or aids the environment. Speaking Thursday on his YouTube channel, Choe Jae-chun's Amazon, Choe said the government now needs to respond because a petition informally dubbed the "Cat Mom Ban Law" and a counter-petition opposing it have each drawn more than 50,000 signatures. The YouTuber behind the channel Korean Birder filed the petition on July 10 to prohibit residents from feeding stray cats. The petitioner claims stray cats destroy bird species designated as natural monuments under Korea's heritage protection system, arguing that authorities must replace trap-neuter-return programs, or TNR, with culling. The ban proposal gathered over 50,000 signatur