Thread: My 10 month old cat made it's first kill! (pic inside)

Ugh.

Congratulations on having a cat that contributes to the annual massacre of North American song birds that have no natural defenses against cats.

Now that my cat is living with my parents, they have a nice big safe backyard for him to roam about. They let him out too much for my liking, but he hasn't shown tendencies of killing birds at least.

Originally Posted by sycld

Ugh.

Congratulations on having a cat that contributes to the annual massacre of North American song birds that have no natural defenses against cats.

Now that my cat is living with my parents, they have a nice big safe backyard for him to roam about. They let him out too much for my liking, but he hasn't shown tendencies of killing birds at least.

yeah, fuck letting animals roam around and be themselves

Originally Posted by coqauvin

yeah, fuck letting animals roam around and be themselves

this.

I wish my cat, Waffles, was still alive he died being a bad ass

Originally Posted by coqauvin

yeah, fuck letting animals roam around and be themselves

Cats are an introduced species that do not belong in North America, and relatively recently their population has soared.

Like I said, native bird species have lack defenses against cats, who are extremely versatile predators. They are the most abundant carnivore in North America, and there's nothing natural about that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/sc...pagewanted=all

Yeah I know you'll just reply with some stupid flippant response, but think about this: in surprisingly violent Mediterranian Europe, millions of migratory song birds are killed by human hunters just for fun.

If you think it's reprehensible for some adult men to go around shooting small birds for sport, to the point of threatening these species with endangerment, people are doing the same thing here with their cats as proxies.


As for meowing "not being natural" and "something only kittens do," adult cat behavior is basically kitten behavior not switched off. For instance, that "kneading the dough" sort of motion that cats do when they're coming in to cuddle is what kittens do on their mama cats to encourage milk flow.

Yeah, adult wild domestic cats don't meow so much, but hey, cats and dogs have to do things with humans that they wouldn't have to with other members of their species.

Originally Posted by sycld

Cats are an introduced species that do not belong in North America, and relatively recently their population has soared.

Like I said, native bird species have lack defenses against cats, who are extremely versatile predators. They are the most abundant carnivore in North America, and there's nothing natural about that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/sc...pagewanted=all

Yeah I know you'll just reply with some stupid flippant response, but think about this: in surprisingly violent Mediterranian Europe, millions of migratory song birds are killed by human hunters just for fun.

If you think it's reprehensible for some adult men to go around shooting small birds for sport, to the point of threatening these species with endangerment, people are doing the same thing here with their cats as proxies.


As for meowing "not being natural" and "something only kittens do," adult cat behavior is basically kitten behavior not switched off. For instance, that "kneading the dough" sort of motion that cats do when they're coming in to cuddle is what kittens do on their mama cats to encourage milk flow.

Yeah, adult wild domestic cats don't meow so much, but hey, cats and dogs have to do things with humans that they wouldn't have to with other members of their species.

Well, this is the thing: what kind of balance do you want to strike with a pet? How much of it will be the pet being itself and how much of it is you taking a living thing and projecting your desire onto it until it conforms to your vision of what you want it to be? This is why I'm not a big fan of housecats, because the very nature of bringing that animal into your house and keeping it locked up until it doesn't know what the outside world is is basically stockholm syndrome. That's kind of fucked up if you think about it (too much). Frankly, it makes me think of that Toddlers in Tiaras show.

I'm not really talking about introduced species and non-natural predators, I'm talking about the nature of the animal itself. You're absolutely right in that, technically, it's not natural for a cat to roam around in North America (unless it's a lynx or a cougar). But it's less natural (to me) for a cat to not roam around at all.

For dogs, which are pack animals anyways, it's completely different.

Originally Posted by coqauvin

Well, this is the thing: what kind of balance do you want to strike with a pet? How much of it will be the pet being itself and how much of it is you taking a living thing and projecting your desire onto it until it conforms to your vision of what you want it to be? This is why I'm not a big fan of housecats, because the very nature of bringing that animal into your house and keeping it locked up until it doesn't know what the outside world is is basically stockholm syndrome. That's kind of fucked up if you think about it (too much). Frankly, it makes me think of that Toddlers in Tiaras show.

I'm not really talking about introduced species and non-natural predators, I'm talking about the nature of the animal itself. You're absolutely right in that, technically, it's not natural for a cat to roam around in North America (unless it's a lynx or a cougar). But it's less natural (to me) for a cat to not roam around at all.

For dogs, which are pack animals anyways, it's completely different.

This is a good point.

Cats will always come back so I mean it's not a bad thing to let them out.. but whateves this house is big enough for her to enjoy herself.

(I felt the need to defend myself because now I feel bad )

Originally Posted by coqauvin

Well, this is the thing: what kind of balance do you want to strike with a pet? How much of it will be the pet being itself and how much of it is you taking a living thing and projecting your desire onto it until it conforms to your vision of what you want it to be?

I'm not really talking about introduced species and non-natural predators, I'm talking about the nature of the animal itself. You're absolutely right in that, technically, it's not natural for a cat to roam around in North America (unless it's a lynx or a cougar). But it's less natural (to me) for a cat to not roam around at all.

You're completely twisting the issue so you can justify harboring an animal that's wrecking the environment.

It's not about projecting your desires onto an animal. It's not a matter of balancing what's "natural" with what isn't.

It's a matter of environmental destruction due to an introduced, invasive species.


If you really think all this, then cats shouldn't have been brought to any area outside of the range of their wild ancestor, and outside this area their presence should be removed through mass sterilization.

That is, if there really is no compromise possible.