Operation Cat Drop
In the early
1950s, the Dayak people in Borneo suffered from malaria. The World Health Organization had
a solution: they sprayed large amounts of DDT to kill the mosquitoes which carried the
malaria. The mosquitoes died, the malaria declined; so far, so good.
But there were side-effects. Among the first was that the roofs of people's houses began
to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT was also killing a parasitic wasp
which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Worse, the DDT-poisoned
insects were eaten by geckoes, which were eaten by cats. The cats started to die, the rats
flourished, and the people were threatened by outbreaks of sylvatic plague and typhus.
To cope with these problems, which it had itself created, the World Health Organization
was obliged to parachute live cats into Borneo.