I Just Got a Cat, Robert!

In France, there was a centuries-old tradition of burning hundreds of cats to death and gigantic bonfires. Louis XVI, even famously lit Paris's catfire in 1648. The charred remains of these tortured cats were taken home as good luck charms by people. In 1730, two apprentice printers got fed up with their masters and abducted their cats. They staged a massive public trial,. the Great Cat Massacre, as it's become known to history. Now this was tied more towards issues of class hatred than hatred of cats but the cats wound up actually taking the brunt of the damage.