>Their presumed links with paganism and witchcraft meant they were often treated with suspicion.

Unfortunately, one of the most cruel forms [0] of medieval "suspicion"-treating. I will spare the details, here.

The article is quite shallow, the links are a much better read e.g.:

>One European pilgrim who traveled to the Middle East even noted that among the differences between Muslims and Christians was that “They like cats, while we like dogs.[1]

Or those wiki-articles [2],[3].

[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat-burning

[1]https://www.medievalists.net/2013/10/why-cats-were-hated-in-...

[2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_dogs

[3]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_cats