Canis lupus hominis

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

18 Responses

1. on March 21, 2011 at 3:02 pm Bridget

   I’ve wondered many times why there is this division to cat and dog people. These animals are not so different after all. Cats and dogs actually will be friends which sleep together very easily if living in the same family. Or if not so close friends, at least they learn to respect and live in peace with each other.

   
   
   • on March 21, 2011 at 3:05 pm retrieverman

     Why is there a division?

     Because one animal– in most parts of the US– has no real legal controls on them. And the other is being legislated out of existence.

     I’ll let you guess which one is which.

     
     
     • on March 21, 2011 at 4:28 pm Pai

       Even as the cat population is overrepresented in shelters and their killing numbers, it’s dog breeders and owners that keep getting the brunt of blame and bad PR for that problem, as well.

       
       
       • on March 21, 2011 at 4:38 pm Pai

         What prompted this post, by the way? Did you get into an argument on another blog?

         
         
         • on March 21, 2011 at 5:15 pm retrieverman

           Youtube debate.

           On that Dalmatian video from today, there is another video where he roughs up a cat that was on his owner’s property. I defended the dog from the cat people cursing the dog’s owner. They were saying things like “Put him down!”

           I just saw red.

           
           
           • on March 21, 2011 at 6:12 pm Pai

             I wonder if it comes from the type of person who often has cats, who sort of enjoys groveling for attention from the animal and being disdained by it most of the time. Perhaps they don’t like their deified pets treated like a mere prey animal by a dog. =P

             
             
             • on March 21, 2011 at 6:19 pm Pai

               And I really find it offensive that in order to defend their desire to let their cat trespass on people’s property at will like it’s some god-given right, they would have anll dogs who dare behave LIKE A DOG be killed to allow them that ‘right’. If they hate the idea of their cat being eaten, how about they keep it in their own yard?!

               
               
2. on March 21, 2011 at 4:57 pm Bridget

   In Europe, Scandinavia too, the division exist. Tho’ we don’t have here a cati problem like you have in the US.

   Seems some cat people just stand or try to understand the dog. And there are dog-people who can’t stand cats. They keep insisting the cats and their shit, urea and parasites, and their occasional prey of the Common Thrusts and cute mice are on the list of the world’s ecological threats top 10. It is not, here, no way. The free-roaming cats here are not a threat people’s health, no way.

   PS. Why don’t they count the advantages these cats quite probably make? Like, they kill millions of rats, mice and rabbits, who carry diseases and spoil the human territories?

   
   
   • on March 21, 2011 at 5:14 pm retrieverman

     For one thing, Pirjetta, a cat can’t survive very well in Finland in the winter time.

     
     
     • on March 21, 2011 at 5:36 pm Dave

       They certain can in urban centres.

       They hide under the foundations up here in Canada when weather gets really bad.

       
       
   • on March 21, 2011 at 5:19 pm Pai

     Difference is, the U.S. has an ENORMOUS population of feral cats. Cats that are not owned by anyone, who are intact, and who breed freely every year. It’s estimated that for every owned cat in the U.S., there is a feral cat as well:

     http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/view.image?Id=1841

     It is estimated that half of all animals killed in shelters are cats. Many are killed instantly on intake, since they are too wild to ever adapt to a human home.

     This is a terrible burden on the ecosystem and shelter system. But because people see all cats as ‘pets’, and because there is such a blur between ‘roaming pet cats’ and ‘roaming feral cats’, you cannot even broach the subject of harsher animal control methods for feral cats without people thinking of their pet cat and getting emotional. The same problem occurs with our feral horses (which people with romantic notions call ‘wild’ even though they are descendants of dumped domestic horses, not a true wild species). They are not pets, and often overpopulate areas and suffer food shortage and disease, but people become outraged at any talk of culling these animals.

     
     
     • on March 21, 2011 at 6:43 pm EmilyS

       yes, the cat people want it both ways

       they want cats to be regarded as “pets” and given the same emotional weight AND they want cats to be regarded as unowned wildlife that isn’t subject to the laws on domestic pets. Actually they want it THREE ways.. because they also won’t allow feral cats to controlled as wildlife “pests” either. Cats are completely sacrosanct. Cats have the right to trespass. To destroy private property. To be a public nuisance. Cats have more rights than people.

       Oh and btw: don’t call them feral or even “unowned”. They are “community cats” now…

       
       
       • on March 21, 2011 at 6:46 pm retrieverman

         Commie cats.

         
         
3. on March 21, 2011 at 5:42 pm EmilyS

   this:

   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/science/21birds.html?_r=1&hpw

   reporting on this:

   http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/science_article/pdfs/55.pdf

   
   
   • on March 21, 2011 at 5:46 pm retrieverman

     Must do post on this!

     Thanks a bunch!

     
     
     • on March 21, 2011 at 6:39 pm EmilyS

       de nada…

       As long as you realize that it won’t help you with the cat freaks. There are a million of these studies and the cat freaks deny the accuracy/reliability/relevance of them all.

       
       
4. on March 23, 2011 at 9:53 am Lane Batot

   Every place I’m familiar with that USED to have a feral cat problem, no longer does since the nationwide spread of coyotes. The sacred-cow cat lovers and kitty hand- wringers can whimper and whine and squeal all they want about it, but the coyotes will blithely go on effeciently catching, killing, and eating cats with impunity. I know of several little old cat ladies whose free-roaming, constantly reproducing cat colonies have been WIPED OUT, although they have no idea why–they usually blame evil cat hating humans for the dissapearances. It is amazing how few people in the East U. S. realize what an extensive coyote population there is here now–in the cities and suburbs, as well as rural areas. I have had neighbors searching for their lost kitties come by my place, and look at me incredulously when I tell them if they didn’t find puss on the road dead, a coyote likely snatched it! They continue disbelieving in the wily, elusive coyotes’ existence, and the coyotes continue to fatten and raise their pups on cat meat–long may they howl! Not that I hate cats–I don’t. But if you’re going to let them roam loose, then you need to accept the consequences that inevitably leads to……

   
   
   • on March 23, 2011 at 10:17 am retrieverman

     http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2008/0721/where-the-wild-things-were

     I recommend this book very highly.

     There is a great section on some studies performed in Southern California on suburban wildlife populations. Those areas with coyotes have greater diversity in their small bird and small mammal populations because they 1. eat cats and 2. keep the smarter cats on their toes.

     
     

Comments are closed.