DO NOT feed strangers cats. Water is fine. If you feed it, at best you’re fucking up its diet, at worst you’re basically abducting the cat.
Pet cats should live inside, with plenty of toys and people that care for them, not out killing bird populations and risking getting run over, etc. Outdoor cats have much shorter life spans…
I can see the logic but it does feel like the cat’s already out of the bag on this one. There are so many free-ranging and feral cats that I wonder if it makes any difference at this point.
It does. Travel to a 3rd world country and look at the difference. Dogs and cats everywhere due to no cultural expectation to keep them indoors or neuter them.
Here is an article better clarifying the effect of our cute little killing machines:
That article seems very new-world-centric
Europe, Mainland Asia & Africa all have native small cats and so the birds and small mammals have evolved to deal with them, the issue is that in Australia & the Americas they haven’t and so that’s where all the risk of species actually being wiped out is - in the old world the cats largely just replace the larger predators that humans have killed off in the ecosystem
Even in the Americas we have wild cats though. Bobcats are slightly larger but not completely dissimilar. We even used to have ocelots across much of the US, and neotropical migrants will still encounter those for part of the year. So I find the claim that mainland birds are not able to handle cat predation to be a bit questionable. However I am not fully educated on this topic.
I’ve seen a lot of stats about cats and it seems very likely they have important conservation implications in island ecosystems where birds did not evolve with similar predators.
But I’ve not seen evidence of conservation impacts on the mainland where we do and did have similar predators in the past. Just stating that cats eat a lot of birds doesn’t mean they’re a threat to overall populations.
True, but that article says that over 350 of their prey species are at risk species, and that several of those are suspected to already be extinct.
I love cats—I think most people should have them—just be responsible with your furry murderers.
Again it would depend on where those are—threatened species are disproportionately located on those islands I mentioned. Furthermore it doesn’t assign any causation to cat predation.
Maybe cats are a serious conservation threat on continental areas but I’m just saying I haven’t seen evidence of this.
Here’s a study from Oklahoma State University specifically talking about the effects of mainland cats in contrast to island cats:
“Our review shows overwhelming evidence that, beyond causing island extinctions, where there were no native predators, and massive numbers of mainland wildlife deaths, cats can exert multiple types of harmful impacts on mainland wildlife species that are reflected at the population level,”
Maiq has heard its dangerous to be your friend.
No lies detected.
People buy cats from shelters, then let them be outdoor cats. It does matter.
On the flip side, I’ve homed three outdoor/feral cats in my house. They adjust to being indoor cats fine.
Cats are an invasive species in most places and are super damaging to the local fauna.
Most places is a stretch… They’re invasive in around ⅓ of Earth’s land area and where less than ¼ of people live
I don’t think it’s true that they’re native to 2/3rds of the earth, is it?
⅔ may be overestimating, but yes, they’re native to all of the Middle East and Africa, and most of Europe (outside of Scandinavia) and mainland Asia (outside of deserts, Siberia etc.)
I guess you are going off of the genus Felis which is probably valid since I expect their hunting behavior is similar enough. However the map I saw showed they were absent from most of Russia and China, so there are exceptions.
No they are domestic animals
Where I live there is practically no risk of them getting ran over. But yes they do catch 2-3 birds per yer.
Cats that have had to live on their own for any period of time catch a few more than 2-3 birds per year. Our guy caught enough prey that he was actually getting on the chubby side.
(Where we lived the windows were the air conditioning, so no way to keep him inside, and he was already a stray. So he wasn’t conditioned to it. In fact he’d destroy a screen to get out if he had to.)
Well, we were talking about pet cats, not cats that had to live on their own
My cat figured out the dog door by watching the dogs. She’s inside 80% of the time but prefers to do her business outside if the weather’s clear and goes out for an hour or so about twice a day besides that.
Of all things, my part basset hound mix is a bird killing machine despite the stubby legs, broken hip and arthritis. I don’t know how she manages to do it, but lots of half eaten bird corpses started showing up in our yard right after we got her, but only in the back yard which she could reach via the dog door. Starting before the cat started using the dog door.
The cat is abducting itself. They’re not dogs. They’re rarely loyal.
They’re rarely loyal.
I condemn this anti-feline propaganda
As someone who is stauncly pro dog … and weary of cats… I feel like I need to take a side in this debate
Back when my cat was alive I got occasional reports that he would enter various other houses nearby and meow by the fridge until he was given a cold cut.
We have many strays we are trying to rescue amd until then they get fed and if some rando is letting their cat out to eat whatever the heck then find (and steal my food) on my property that’s the cat’s owner being the asshole. I’m trying to help needy cats and I can’t even oht traps down to get them medical attention because I could end up catching some irresponsible person’s cat.
We have an asshole stray in our neighborhood, but she’s smart enough she’s figured out traps. One of these days we’ll get her.
I have one cat and a doggy door so it can go in and out as it pleases. A stray cat figured out it could use the doggy door.
I have two cats.
Outdoor cats are responsible for the extinction of numerous bird species.
https://enviroliteracy.org/how-many-birds-killed-by-cats/
https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/
Outdoor cats are also at increased risk of contracting avian flu.
Yep
Further proof that if you’re cute enough you can get anything you want.
Step 1:
Step 2:
Well I mean i would probably take in an alligator if it came through my window
Alligator can have the whole house, actually. It’s okay, I’ll move 👍
But then the alligator will be lonely :(
Sir, this is a Wendy’s, you cannot keep the gator just because it was thrown through the window…
I thought it was Florida’s natural activity.
Toxoplasmosis gang.
My favourite origin myth for human over-civilization is we’re the science project of cats. They saw our ancestors tossing their own feces at each other, and thought, I wonder…
I hated cats. Then a cat decided he lived in my house. He changed my life. Now I have another trash cat living with me and I love them both so much.
Same thing happened to me …Luci is the worst, he climbs on my chest and greets me as soon as I’m up …then he hunts me all day.
Such sweet kitties!!!
I love that ear fluff!
actually what they say is “I live here meow”
I can’t tell if I hate cats or love cats but they are never neutral. In fact there is a wild one in my house right now
I don’t even know why is he in my house or how it happened but at this point I think we tolerate each other pretty good. He gets the hose sometimes, I get his piss hose on the floor sometimes. He gets the snacks, I get the purr and fluffiness. I guess I can live with this chaotic balance.
I guess for someone who likes to control things cats could be a nightmare as they will never be some obedient pets but that may tell more about the owner than the cat.
Kinda sucks that my floor and sofa is ruined tho, it’s like a mini tiger, wildlife in your house. I guess this is the pleasures of completely feral cats. It’s possible that with this experience I could take on some caracal or serval. Of course I am not crazy nor I approve to do this but I have a glimpse of what mindset and work it would take
The Cat is also a menace that cannot stand sight of any other cat and goes straight for the throat. Little fluffy psycho, quite lovely
I love cats, but I also love my plants, and despise the odor of a used litter box. Therefore, I cannot have cats. It sucks.
So we got that expensive robot litter box and you can’t smell it unless you’re emptying it. It has made cat care so much easier.
will never be some obedient pet
I find it odd that people think that. Mine are all incredibly well-behaved. I mean, I invested time in training them but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I think the secret is being consistent and correcting the behavior as it’s happening. They’re smart enough to know when they’re doing something wrong. Oh, they know! Lol
Did they model their meows, or did they have a trait that happened to work in a new environment and then pass it on?
From my understanding, wild cats only meow when little and domesticated cats keep this juvenile trait into adulthood
Yes, but the question is if they model their meows to sound like human infants. We know they changed their behavior to meow when wanting attention from us. But I’d be willing to bet they didn’t model their meows to sound like that. They just happen to sound like that because they’re small animals with high pitch voices.
There’s a good chance that it’s just a mammalian trait that predates modern humans or house cats. Pretty much all mammals require some extra protection and care when they are young and vulnerable, so it being common among other mammals isn’t exactly surprising.
“They modelled their meows to sound like human infants” implies active intent, but (I’m sure you know) that’s not how evolution actually works. If the theory is correct, their meows would naturally evolve to sound more like babies because those are the cats that we would be more likely to take care of, whereas cats with meows that sounded less like our babies would be less likely to be taken care of, and thus less likely to reproduce.
My only issue with this statement is that it implies there were cats that sounded different from how domesticated cats sound now. I’m not really conviced of that. To my understanding they have a high pitch voice because they’re small. For instance you can find videos online where they record a tiger “meowing” then they pitch it up to the register of a house cat. The resulting meow sounds nearly indistinguishable (other than the digital artifacts Inherent to doing such a thing) from a regular house cat’s meow. Now tigers obviously didn’t adapt to meowing like infants so my conclusion is that cats just sound like that and natural (human?) Selection had very little if anything to do with it.
Or: people who didn’t respond to these meows didn’t keep their cats and rats ate all their grain so people more responsive to the meows reproduced more…
To my knowledge that’s a lot of how domestication winds up being.
What I found interesting was a study when they tried to domesticate silver foxes for the fur industry (because basically they didn’t take to being raised in fur farms well). So basically they were selectively bread for not being aggressive to humans.
Which worked, but the drawbacks were effectively… all of their childlike traits remained. IE their ears stayed floppy, and they stopped growing the silver coat that was the whole reason the fur industry wanted them.
Basically I think it could be said that effectively… most domestication traits are more or less, keeping childlike mentality for life in animals.
Doesn’t work on me, I just shoo them away. Gotta evolve harder if they wanna try manipulating me.
Would people really let some stray live with them? Can’t imagine having a pet. They convert money and time into poop and stink and offer nothing in return. Never understood the appeal, yet I love all animals.
offer nothing in return
Warmth, company, fun…? Also, the experience of being responsible for and caring for another being can be very valuable.
Not to me, sorry. What benefit could i have from “caring for another being”? Me, personally? The other being, yes, maybe. But me? I could never care ADEQUATELY for any animal. they don’t belong in my company/house. Just because we domesticated the fuck outta them doesn’t make it better. And i also couldn’t neuter them or feed them this disgusting shit we call pet-food. And also I don’t want to take out the shit of others :-)
Your family and friends must adore you.
They actually do. Not that this is either anything of your concern nor the point. And guess what, friends are people i care about that I CHOSE TO. They didn’t get bought in a pet-shop and were forced to be in my vicinity, nor suddenly appeared in my house as strays. You maybe see the point somewhere there.
My point?
What benefit could i have from “caring for another being”? Me, personally? The other being, yes, maybe. But me? I could never care ADEQUATELY for any animal.
Hypothetically, if someone that was very close to you was in a terrible accident at has become paralyzed and no longer capable of taking care of themselves. What benefit do you have in taking care of them. Will you just abandon them? I would hope you are not cold hearted as such. Obviously there is such benefit as companionship with another living creature. Im not judging you for not wanting a pet, i dont have one myself. But you are coming off very cold.
You must’ve totally misinterpreted. Of course I’d care for those close to me. Even without having any benefit for me. But those people I selected. They didn’t just wander into my house like a stray and decided my decisions. I actually work for free in my spare-time with abused people. Just because it’s a thing a civilized species should do, but sadly doesn’t.
Do you think people go “oh darn… a stray managed to get by my defenses, i guess they live with me now”?..
Newsflash: people choose to have cats too
I don’t understand that either, I dislike slavery, i even pay our maid double because i feel bad she works for us. But it’s not like I’d force her to, like I’d force a pet to do so.
I… What would you force your pet to do again?
I need you to understand, nobody, except like dog fighting idiots is forcing their pets. A pet is around and chill with that, otherwise the whole thing is not enjoyable… fish maybe? But you seem to miss a fundamental piece of understanding about pets, and that’s fine but why announce your position about something you just never got to experience? Envy? You know you could get a pet today. And it would be a friend. Most likely. And that feels good. It’s a very basic human emotion you are trying to discredit here. And I will stress again, if you want to, you can go and get a pet whenever. It’s not like being with other’s pets.
Your last sentence is crazy
“I love all animals, as long as those useless fucks stay outta my way!”
I love babies as a concept and the joy they bring their parents, but me and my partner are child free by choice, and part of that choice is us not wanting to care for an infant.
You monster! According to the replies here the correlation between liking XYZ and wanting to have and care for XYZ is a must. But yeah, we too.
But to ask “would people actually care for, shelter, and feed an animal they didn’t know? Like just bond with a creature for what? Emotional connection, companionship, and kinship to another living thing? I love animals, tho” is just a weird take. Like, you can love animals (or babies) and not want to be responsible for them in your home, but to be incredulous about why someone would want that is ridiculous.
“Would people really let some stray live with them?”
That’s literally the history of house cats. A million times, yes, people want to hang out with random cats.
You don’t need to want cats or babies to see why other people would want cats or babies.
I do love to interact with all kinds of species, learn from them and whatnot. I totally do. But the words “emotional connection” or “companionship” are very loaded. Most usual pets don’t care for my existence at all. Even cats would eat my dead body if they weren’t fed. A dog does form a bond, yes. But still. Why would I want that? I even despise the concept of “having a pet”. Who am I to enslave some animal to live under my reign? Spell it as romantically as you’d like, in the end, the animal does have to endure whatever you throw at it. I would not want such a “kinship”. My kind of “kinship” would end at a racoon (or whatever) coming to my house, gets fed, interacts with me, and then goes on to live the life it usually does.
I’m aware of the history of housecats, but it surely isn’t the majority of people who would just “suddenly now have a cat” because a stray wanders in. Sure there are, yet I would still wonder about the motivation of those. Which was the initial point of my reply. Would YOU do that? Having a sudden responsibility of at least like 200 bucks a month because a stray comes in?
Most usual pets don’t care for my existence at all.
That sucks, dude. I’m sorry you’ve never experienced that.
Also, a cat comes into your house and you have to feed it for a day:
It’s like not wanting the ocean in your house even if you love the ocean.
It’s like talking about all the things you hate about the ocean, saying you can’t imagine why anyone likes it, and then saying you love it
What a weird argument. I love rain too. Yet i don’t want it in my house. I also love elephants. But guess where I totally don’t want them. I also like to pet OTHER people’s cats and dogs. But that’s about it. They enjoy it and that’s fine by me. But i don’t want all the stupid work and time and money that go into a pet I can’t even speak with. Same reason (besides many others though) I don’t have kids.
You’re clearly very opinionated
At least i have one, arguments including.
Just because some things don’t align with yours doesn’t make it “crazy”. But if you prefer it that way? Then yes, I’m crazy I don’t want to care for animals that don’t belong in my house and force them into my reign. How crazy I prefer my time and money to be mine and mine (and my wife’s) alone. How crazy I don’t want to spend time scratching cat-poo out of a litter-box. Or go watch a dog on a leach (that would prefer to roam his territory freely, not under my heel) have a shit outside and scrape it off the floor.
Damn, I should take pills for that :)
That’s a very defensive long winded reply to my 5 word comment lol.
I have the time to do it, as I’m not force to comb my cat’s shitter for precious remnants :)
That’s the same argument I use for not having kids.
Also, I have a dog.
A kid can take care of you when you’re old. This is particularly pronounced in the developing world, where it’s much harder to save for retirement.
And I’m being called crazy :-) This is one of the worst and most sad reason for having kids.
So? cheap labor?!
Yes. Cheap labor. That’s about it. In tendency of course, not generally.
Sad sure, but is it really crazy though? They’re getting taken care of by someone because their government has failed them.
From a pure biological standpoint: No, absolutely. From an intelligent being’s standpoint: Yes. Sure, the gov fails the average Joe left and right. Nothing new here, but the last thing I could think of to do anything against this, would be to add another slave-worker dreading its life to this world. Especially not mainly so it could care for my old ass when I can’t do so anymore. It’s just the epitome of egocentrism. To me at least.
Sure i can speak easy because I don’t have to worry about being cared for, but if I could not, I’d prefer a bullet to the head at the right point in time over burdening my offspring with my care. And they doing the same later, and so on and so on.
Will you do that when you’re old, or will you just burden someone else’s slave-worker kids?
Qualify of life could improve significantly within a lifetime. We’re squandering resources on 1% of people.
I could understand having a pet, but not taking in a random stray without question.
Some strange cat walks into my house? It gets plopped right back into the street, that ain’t my cat!
I took in a stray kitten that someone dumped at my work back in the fall. I wasn’t sure if i would keep her or not, but i felt obligated to clean her up and feed her while i figured out what to do with her. As soon as she started interacting with my other kitten, they became best friends and i couldn’t in good conscience seperate them.
Another friend of mine slowly took in a stray cat over the fourse of a summer. Leave out food for it of it hangs out around your house until it starts to nuzzle up against you. Then you can pet it, maybe pick it up, and then take it to a doctor to get it checked out.
It sounds to me though, that the other guy just doesn’t like animals.
I actually dunno what I would do, but I probably wouldn’t kick it out. I’d feed it and stuff, but ultimately won’t keep it.
Cat meowing is the main reason why I redeveloped my echolalia. Yes, I meow back at cats.
You can have deep conversations with siameses. Those dudes are super smart
I’ve been witness to the great cat distribution system.
Our current cat has moved house with us twice. The first house at lived at, we were on the ground floor of the place and this furball just waltzed in and took over. Much to the dismay of the cat we already had.
The preexisting cat was similar. She would hang out at a bus stop that my SO would frequent to get to work, didn’t take long before she followed my SO home. She was a shit, but she was cute enough to get away with it. Rest in peace Zora.
Anyways, I would submit that the only reason we haven’t had more cats distributed to us is that we lived on the fifth floor of an apartment for a long while. We recently moved into a house so that might change.
They can also hop on your dad’s chest while he is sleeping so he can wake up thinking he is having a heart attack
Whenever someone suggests me the idea to let in/buy/adopt a cat, I sent them this link:
But didn’t Tommy have HIV which was the reason it killed him?
Sure, but toxoplasmosis is still potentially there with a cat and there other ways to get your immune system debilitated. It’s the reason why the image of cat ladies developed.
O. K. but did anyone take care-of/in the kitten, after?
