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Is there a more socially selfish form or pet ownership that cat ownership, specifically those who allow their cats out at night?
What other pets are allows to shit in other people gardens, murder masses wildlife or, as happened to us last night, jump through an first floor open window and fall asleep on a childs bed? We were woken last night by screaming child, cat bolting through the window and discovery of dead bird on the bed this morning.
I spoke to the owner this morning who basically shrugged her shoulders and said its a cat and they can't control what it does. How is that a thing? What on earth would people say if I allowed my dog to go feral at night?
And, calm....
Dog ownership.
Why are people owning carnivorous pets that they justify owning bigger cars for in a climate crisis?
Why are they walking them in public spaces without leads, especially on national cycle routes?
Why are they assuming it's for people to adapt to the dog's behaviour, not for them to adapt the dog to people's behaviour?
Etc. Etc.
Dogs are the absolute sodding worst.
Maybe the cat thought the child was hungry and vulnerable, so it brought some food and watched over the wee tyke.
Good cat. 😉 😜
I don’t think it’s fair to assign all cat owners to that special brand of deleted
But that said I’d feel no remorse about killing any cat I found on my property given their role in Australian animal extinctions (and yes, I’m aware it’s humans that effectively cause the problem).
I think the difference with dogs is that there are realistic options to control their behaviour. I can stop my dog doing all of those things. Cats owners seem unable to stop their cats doing what they do.
One banning, 5 main protagonists arguing endlessly, one flounce and a stressed moderator.
I will put the kettle on.
Are there realistic options to eliminate their pointless carbon footprint?
Dogs are the absolute sodding worst.
Dogs People are the absolute sodding worst. FTFY 😉
There are good people in the world that own, train, look after animals in a responsible and caring, for others, way. Then there are an awful lot of similar folks that do none of that. See also car ownership, driving, etc etc etc. Bike owning, riding etc etc.
We live in an imperfect world, in my view, mainly due to the human element. I think the outlook is quite bleak, but then I'm not in the best of headspaces right now anyway.
Other's MMV
My cat is an indoor cat who I take out on supervised outdoor visits and walks with a little harness and it's impossibly cute. Cats are awesome!
If you're concerned about bird populations might I suggest focusing your complaints on habitat loss instead?
I'd agree with munrobiker, my life is negatively affected far more by dogs than by cats. But I am concerned by cats predations on the bird and small mammal populations, and I think it's really hard to justify the pet food industry. I also think that keeping a sentient species for your own gratification is morally dubious.
You won't need many kibbles, this thread won't last long.
Why are people owning carnivorous pets that they justify owning bigger cars for in a climate crisis?
Where I live they make a genuinely useful contribution to the economy as working dogs.
Quite like my neighbours cats keeps the mouse and rat population from the farm down to a manageable level and means I don't need to own a cat.
Perhaps they should be in the same category as woodburners 😉 ok where essential not ok in urban areas 😉
While it’s true that one of our cats in particular is like the Angel of death to the local rodent population (people will really miss those rats, eh?), at least it’s not doing what a lot of the local dogs are doing and tearing fwuffy ickle baa lambs limb from limb on the moors
Every day seems to have another pleading request on local social media from a farmer who’s had yet another animal (which are his livelihood) killed by a dog who’s entitled owner won’t keep it in a lead around livestock, despite there being signs up everywhere requesting them to do so
So… this ‘selfishness’ lark… stones and glass houses and all that…
We had a cat for 17/18 years, she never slept on a kids bed in all that time. Even our kids beds.
We have a dog now after she died a few years ago. We might get another cat though at some point.
Cats are cool.
and yeah I know...
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I thought it was a well held principle that you don’t own a cat?
Yes … cats don’t have owners, they have staff
When I’m working from home, I’m essentially their butler
or, as happened to us last night, jump through an first floor open window and fall asleep on a childs bed? We were woken last night by screaming child, cat bolting through the window and discovery of dead bird on the bed this morning.
Your neighbour's cat jumps in out of your first floor window and hunts birds at night?
Why are people owning carnivorous pets that they justify owning bigger cars for in a climate crisis?
Yeah the climate crisis is absolutely due to the cats and dogs. And not the 8 billion humans.
So the window was open enough for a wild animal to crawl through and the wild animalis at fault? Could have been a fox, and the bird was clearly a gift of apology for the shock caused to said child. Won't someone think of the children's faces?
All of this is said tongue in cheek by the way/
And I apologise for being a rescue dog owner who felt she deserved a chance at a better life than living/dying on the Bosnian streets, yes, I used it to justify a second fossil fuel burning car too, but I have no kids and have bike commuted to work most of my life, or worked from home, so I'm only mildy apologetic. She's also an on lead walker due to patchy recall and reactivity and has never killed anything as she's a terrible hunter.
Mob rule. More people like having cats than those who oppose it.
I complained on a community facebook page about the amount of crap on our lawn (we witnessed the cats doing it so there was no doubt in my mind) and I got so badly flamed (200 posts and counting) that the admin had to lock and delete the thread. Admittedly the abuse was actually getting funny by the end.
The cat owner's logic of 'that's just cats being cats, what do you expect us to do?' didn't really work when I suggested I would like to own cockerels, which, being cockerels, were likely to make everybody's lives a misery at sunrise every day...
Dogs are omnivores; they will (and frequently do) eat anything. Cats do as well, but the difference is that cats are predators and dogs are very much more scavengers.
If you decide to hammer frozen sausages into a cat owner's garden, I would be damn sure that any dog you took with you would dig them up and eat them. And likely the cat poo that was in the flower beds.
jump through an first floor open window and fall asleep on a childs bed? We were woken last night by screaming child, cat bolting through the window and discovery of dead bird on the bed this morning.
I know this won't really help but I thought that was actually pretty funny.
You don't seem to have a problem with dogs which shit all over public property and actually kill people on a fairly frequent basis.
The cat owner’s logic of ‘that’s just cats being cats, what do you expect us to do?’
We had a neighbour complain that one of our cats was bullying her cat.
To placate her, I said I'd sit him down and talk to him about it.
It did seem to genuinely reassure her...
Perhaps they should be in the woodburners 😉
FTFY
Having just had to prise a friends dog off another friends cat, resulting in the cat having to be put down, there are too many shit dog owners. The owner had no control. I had to wrestle the dog, jaws wouldn't open so shoved both my thumbs into its neck. The barsteward let go but I had to pin it to the floor. Didnt think that my face was inches from its jaws. Shit owner. Too many of them about.
PS the cat lived happily with two working cockers.
PS 4 cats here but all indoor/have a cat run and are in at night.
Oh and there was blood everywhere mainly the dog owner, her daughter and her friend, and my friend owner of the cat. I also got cut. ****ing dog owners eh.
I also think that keeping a sentient species for your own gratification is morally dubious.
Yes, cats definitely have moral questions to answer on this point.
We know someone that is a right on vegan. Why he feels he can feed slaughtered meat to his imprisoned cat I don't know.
Closed within 2 pages as you aren't allowed to talk about dog ownership, dog poo, people killed by "pets that wouldn't hurt a fly".
We know someone that is a right on vegan. Why he feels he can feed slaughtered meat to his imprisoned cat I don’t know.
Have you experienced the alternative? My mate was veggie and fed his Staffie a veggie diet. You have never smelt anything like it! Seriously, its regular gaseous emissions could instantly clear a room. It was like chemical warfare. Eye-watering like you'd been CS gassed! 😳
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TBF OP I can see why you are stressed right now, however, I think a bit of a sense-check is needed here – is 'cat sneaking into a child's room and leaving a dead bird' a common occurrence in the world of cat ownership? I'd think not – it's just one of those regrettable things that can happen sometimes. HOwever the attitude of the cat's owner was pretty appalling – I accept it is not possible to control what a cat does, but showing some contrition would have been in order.
We know someone that is a right on vegan. Why he feels he can feed slaughtered meat to his imprisoned cat I don’t know.
Because cats are obligate carnivores and it would be abuse to give them a vegan diet, as well as very bad for their health. Cats also aren't 'imprisoned', they're domesticated.
2 rescue cats here - 3 years old. They came as indoor cats and as we live in the sticks but on a road that gets occasional cars driving very fast we kept them like that. Despite the house being a good size it felt wrong. We had cats that became voluntarily indoor cats in their dotage, but young super healthy cats being kept indoors felt weird. As the months went past I think I'm at peace with it - they seem to enjoy their life and have no interest in outdoors. The local wildlife remains unmolested. I might build them a run!
An aside - I'm sure there was some research that indicated that despite the huge number of small birds and animals taken by domestic cats the impact on the health and number of said critters in a local area was not actually impacted. Sounds counter intuitive, but something to do with apex predators not being the defining factor in population and resources being the driver. Or something.
Sounds like the OP needs a cat; might help him to chill out a bit.
Most kids I know would love to find a cat on their bed. Maybe yours would benefit from having a furry friend in the house? Nothing more comforting than a cat curling up next to you 🙂
PS. Mine won't go out at night; he just likes to go for a wander a few times each day. He certainly helps keep the local rodent population down too. And the vet in new cars.
Yeah the climate crisis is absolutely due to the cats and dogs. And not the 8 billion humans.
What about 1bn dogs? That's how many dogs there are in the world. Only 0.6bn cats.
Confirmation bias.
Next time I go out I'll take photos of all the dog shit that's littering the pavements. Of late, someone seems to have decided that the path outside my front door makes for a great dog-walking route. I'm just thankful that the front room is a wooden floor.
Meanwhile, a mass murderer recently:
Meanwhile, a mass murderer recently:
Ahh, just look at him... planning his next bout of neighbourhood-terrorism 🙂
He's a she (unusual I know). Planning is all she'll be doing, she's never been outside.
Joe Rogan does a great bit about vegan cats (edit: NSFW)
https://youtube.com/shorts/-j8OEUCAv-s?feature=share
Sorry to hear that happened OP, I’d be pretty pissed if that happened to us. Once a bird flew in to my daughters room (nee cat mind) and the mess was biblical.. I was working from home at the time and had to clear my diary for the afternoon to a) get the **** oot and b) clear up the mass of feathers and birdshite.
I think a lot this is a result of the covid pandemic which negatively affected peoples empathy, plus more people acquired pets without any real idea how to train or look after them properly.
Wow... rare to have a female ginger.
I like irony.
When we got our Bengal / Ragdoll crosses (Think, expensive tabbies with cute markings) I named the little girl Ginger. Unfortunately, she died one day before her fifth birthday. Fred is still going strong at 12 years old though. Asleep on my bed at the moment 🙂
Not a fan of Dogs myself but I get that some people love the fury little bastards.
Out of control Cats don't generally tear toddlers faces off at a family BBQ or randomly block paths/jump at strangers while their owners tell you they're "being friendly". But I'm sure I've got it backwards and Cats are the real menace to society...
Climbing in through a window to have a snooze and deliver a dead bird is the sort of behaviour a cat would normally reserve for someone they like/trust, has your child gone and secretly been nice to a neighbour's cat OP?
It was probably just "being friendly"...
Have you experienced the alternative? My mate was veggie and fed his Staffie a veggie diet. You have never smelt anything like it! Seriously, its regular gaseous emissions could instantly clear a room. It was like chemical warfare. Eye-watering like you’d been CS gassed! 😳
On the flip side I had to baby sit a vegetarian dog and knowing that was stupid I fed it nice chicken. Jeez that got messy .
Tropical fish are the real planet killers, think of all that wasted electricity and carbon emissions. Same for snakes and bloody reptiles.
Why are threads about pet ownership okay?
I am very sympathetic to your points OP, but I know better than to argue with strangers about it on the net.
It was probably just “being friendly”…
I see what you did there, but come off it... it's a cat.
😉
invasive species
Birds cause an immense amount of damage, mice chew electrical cables and cause house fires, so I'm glad we have cats to keep the numbers naturally in check.
I’d feel no remorse about killing any cat I found on my property
Some might suggest nature is trying to even the score by trying to drop trees on you 😉
feeling massively irresponsible right now, I've got the power of life and death in my hands.
I'll give her some dreamies.
Just balance up how many birds die from cats to amount of pesticides sprayed taking away lots of food for the tits with 8 chicks to feed
My cat is bullied by the Magpies but does kill a few mice
Law of the jungle.
Their turds are 1/10th of a Rottvie or big dug but I suppose still minging if left lying
TBH I find the whole concept of cat/dog ownership a bit of an anachronism. Both have their uses in some situations but, a bit like wood stoves, most of the owners seem to be doing it because it's fashionable or there's some sort of primal desire they can't shake off, despite no longer living in a cave.
I see what you did there, but come off it… it’s a cat.
Well it's basically being friends with a small, fur covered sociopath:
They don't really know how to show affection other than to take a Rodent or Avian life and present you the corpse as an offering. They like you but when they try to express that fact it will be disturbing.
We've had lots of trophy kill offerings and once a live execution of a sparrow at the dinner table. I choose to think it's been character building for my kids rather than mildly traumatic...
Anyway on behalf of all cat owners everywhere please allow me to apologise for someone else's cat, which clearly lacks an appropriate sense of boundaries...
TBH I find the whole concept of cat/dog ownership a bit of an anachronism. Both have their uses in some situations but, a bit like wood stoves, most of the owners seem to be doing it because it’s fashionable or there’s some sort of primal desire they can’t shake off, despite no longer living in a cave
Have you done it? I didn't get it until I did. Obviously everyone is different but after having had a cat for the best part of 20 years when she died the house felt empty. Hard to put into words how much 'life' an almost completely silent 3kg animate object (or two currently) can bring to a household (and the grief when they go). It's totally illogical but hard wired in a lot of us somehow.
Btw - there is nothing fashionable in a rescue moggie.
We get our next door neighbours cats coming into our house all the time.
Theres a specific hashtag for the furry little invaders, arriving uninvited
I am very sympathetic to your points OP, but I know better than to argue with strangers about it on the net.
... he argued.
😁
interactions with cats may improve health and reduce physical responses to stress: for example the presence of cats may moderately decrease blood pressure.[39] Cat ownership may also improve psychological health by providing emotional support and dispelling feelings of depression, anxiety and loneliness.[40]: 23–56 Their ability to provide companionship and friendship are common reasons given for owning a cat.[11]
From another point of view, cats are thought to be able to improve the general mood of their owners by alleviating negative attitudes. According to a Swiss study carried out in 2003, cats may change the overall psychological state of their owner as their company's effect appears to be comparable to that of a human partner.[41] The researchers concluded that, while cats were not shown to promote positive moods, they do alleviate negative ones.
One study found that cat ownership is associated with a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes at the 95% confidence interval.[42]
Several studies have shown that cats develop affection towards their owners. However, the effect of these pets on human health is closely related to the time and effort the cat owner is able to invest in it, in terms of bonding and playing.[43]
It's a mutually beneficial relationship, also genetically speaking, we are basically cousins to cats.
most of the owners seem to be doing it because it’s fashionable or there’s some sort of primal desire they can’t shake off, despite no longer living in a cave.
Pets are just great to have around. They're very therapeutic. Ours are rescue cats and they both join us on the sofa in the evening, call up on us, purring away
Here they are, the murderous little bastards. Yogacat...
he actually sleeps like this. Like he's been thrown out a plane.
And this one sits here staring at me with a look of total contempt on his face when I'm on the turbo trainer 😂
Closed within 2 pages
Getting dangerously close to 3 pages... 🤷♂️
Wow… rare to have a female ginger.
Yeah. Up until we got her I didn't know it was possible. There was a second ginger in the litter who also turned out to be a girl, she was adopted by The Boy (my partner's son). We renamed ours, they didn't, so she has a sister named Neville.
There's precedence here, mind. The mother was a calico who for some inexplicable reason was called Kevin.
Have you experienced the alternative? My mate was veggie and fed his Staffie a veggie diet. You have never smelt anything like it! Seriously, its regular gaseous emissions could instantly clear a room. It was like chemical warfare. Eye-watering like you’d been CS gassed! 😳
Mate of mine had a 12-stone Giant Schnauzer. The dog's favourite food in the whole world was broccoli. Under no circumstances was he allowed to eat broccoli.
TBH I find the whole concept of cat/dog ownership a bit of an anachronism. Both have their uses in some situations but, a bit like wood stoves, most of the owners seem to be doing it because it’s fashionable or there’s some sort of primal desire they can’t shake off, despite no longer living in a cave.
Wait until you find about the horses!
There are lots of things not right in the world. Pet ownership is way down the list of problems.
db (dog owner)
Well it’s basically being friends with a small, fur covered sociopath:
Ah, that explains it. They probably see me as a kindred soul.
Pets are just great to have around. They’re very therapeutic.
Aye, it's a thing. I had cause to be at the hospital recently and someone came round the wards with a therapy dog. Cheered everyone up, was a talking point for ages.
Your neighbour’s cat jumps in out of your first floor window and hunts birds at night?
That's nothing, our* cat could make it in through the 3rd story window of a stately home, that's ~50ft from the ground level? He got in and out via a circuitous route involving jumping between the rooves of several detached houses, down to a 12ft wall, onto an almost level spiked wooden fence, down to a 5t wall, and then the ground (and the reverse to get back in). He would do that whilst carrying a live rabbit!
When he got old we added scaffold planks so at least he didn't have to leap the gaps between rooftops.
*may years ago, my brothers, I am not a cat person
Climbing in through a window to have a snooze and deliver a dead bird is the sort of behaviour a cat would normally reserve for someone they like/trust, has your child gone and secretly been nice to a neighbour’s cat OP?
It was probably just “being friendly”…
Yes, i've decided to not get another cat, as i'm away every other weekend now. So we're nice to the neighbours cat instead (their kids are in and out of here when mine are around, so it's no big deal)
But i've started finding her outside the back door, or curled up on the sofa outside looking for some respite from a house with three kids in it. So i now have a box of treats next to the back door. It's a good halfway house 😉
And before then i had cats for over 20 years, and in that time one of them caught a mouse, and then got so nervous and freaked out that he threw up.
And one of them caught a bird.
After it'd already flown into the window and knocked itself unconscious. I think we should ban windows, killing the poor defenseless birds...
Yes, i've always had useless cats, mostly indoor, or "very close to the house because it's all scary out there".
Either actually broken, terminally lazy or incredibly badly coordinated.
One particularly stupid cat spent two or three entire summers trying to catch a bird, any bird, from the railing on the edge of the balcony, in that time the only thing he managed to perfect was leaping on to the railing *without* going over the edge (only first floor, so not a long drop). Never caught anything, no feathers, no funky green organ left behind. Just embarrassment as he went over the rail, again.
Another particularly robust and lazy individual went to sleep on the lawn because it was warm and comfy, instead of completing his chosen task of stalking a bird. Laid out there for a couple of hours while the birds just carried on around him.
For me,the MOST shocking thing in this thread,is that Binners has a turbo trainer.
Changed days indeed 😆 🤣 😉
Oh **** horses! (Not literally obvs) They make a total mess of my local tracks.
Chop them up and feed them to dogs, then maybe dogs would stop eating babies all the time.
I like nothing better that tracking down evil smelling cat turds in the flower beds, apart from accidently finding one with my bare hands.
There are lots of things not right in the world. Pet ownership is way down the list of problems.
Honestly, I don't understand it.
I'm not a fan of dog shit (who is), it's a menace, but I wouldn't then conclude that I'd cheerfully murder any dog I found in my yard and hit the Internet to boast about it. What if it were the neighbour's children that had just climbed the wall to retrieve a football that'd just put your window through? Antifreeze tub lollies all round, kids? It's insane.
The bottom line is that other people are a ****ing inconvenience, animals are just being animals. It astounds me on a regular basis how one person can be so devoid of spatial awareness or social mores that they can block off an entire supermarket aisle on their own. Or minicab drivers who see their mate coming from the other direction so both drop anchor in the middle of the street for a chat. No-one gives a **** about anyone else bar themselves and it's getting worse.
Their turds are 1/10th of a Rottvie or big dug but I suppose still minging if left lying
The difference is I can ride around a rotties turd on the path, I see it once, and it's out of my life. Next doors cat however leaves hundreds of shits in my garden just waiting for me to step in them whilst eating my breakfast. And while 95% of dog turds get picked up or flicked into the undergrowth, I've never heard of anyone wandering around the neighborhood apologizing and offering to pick up after Mr Meowoggi has done a turd that smells worse than a post vindaloo expulsion in the roses.
I've never understood the outrage caused by cats shitting in gardens. Presumably those bothered about this are also outraged at badgers, birds, foxes and other wild animals doing the same? Cats are semi-wild. It's what makes them so appealing, you get the companionship of a domesticated pet, without the high maintainence dependency of a dog (which is like having a un-toilet trained toddler for 15 years). Also you can minimise the wildlife problem with bells, keeping them in at night etc.
To the OP, maybe keep your child's window's closed or ajar so animals can't get in? Whether domestic or wild, animals don't respect property boundaries.
Pets are just great to have around. They’re very therapeutic.
Agreed - our kids absolutely adore our dog and a child living with us (fostered) uses her for emotional support when he is distressed or upset about anything - he even curls up in her bed sometimes even if she's not in it.
What about 1bn dogs? That’s how many dogs there are in the world. Only 0.6bn cats.
Yeah, it's the dogs who are drilling all the oil, burning the coal, cutting down the rain forests and mining lithium for batteries so we can pretend to be green. And it's the cats that make them