The typical adage is that cats are independent creatures that often rebuff the affections of their owners, but in fact, the domestication of cats was born of a mutual need between humans and felines. As agricultural life replaced nomadic, for the first time people began to have stores of food to protect from small but destructive nuisances in the form of vermin.
Cats adapted, to an extent, to life with humans to gain access to a plentiful source of food - namely, those vermin - and humans welcomed their services, and eventually their companionship. Experts traced the origin of cat domestication to the Near East after remains of a cat were found deliberately buried with a human, dating their domestication to more than 8,000 years ago.
Elaine A. Evans, Curator of the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, explains that ancient Egyptians kept and prized cats specifically for their hunting skills, which enabled them to control and eliminate vermin. Their agility, soft fur, nuzzling tendencies, and endearing purring eventually elevated them from pest control to revered animal and companion.
With the rise of Christianity, the status of the cat began to decline. The association of the cat with a pagan religion was the animal's undoing. Before long, cats in Europe were associated with the devil and witchcraft. Their popularity and numbers dwindled dramatically in the time leading up to and during the Great Plague of England in 1665, when killing cats was encouraged.
So effectively targeted were the cats that their rapid decline likely allowed the spread of the plague to reach the epidemic proportions it did. The rats that transported the plague-carrying fleas were allowed to multiply and roam freely without intervention by their natural predator, the cat.
Modern U.S. families in the 21st century are back to doting on the furry feline. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, in 2004, 37.7 million American households owned cats as pets.
The American Bird Conservancy has launched a campaign entitled "Cats Indoors!" to discourage free-roaming cats from preying on birds. According to the conservation group, "scientists estimate that free-roaming cats (including owned, stray, and feral) kill hundreds of millions of birds and possibly more than a billion small mammals in the U.S. each year." Those numbers are, among other things, testimony to cats' abilities.
According to the late Dr. James Richards, former Director of the Feline Health Center at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, "members of the cat family are among nature's most successful predators. Predation was one of the traits (along with the purr, the snuggle, and the half-closed contented eyes) that made domestic cats such desirable companions during the earlier years of human existence." It's as natural for a cat to kill as it is for one to purr. Not every frisky feline is a skilled hunter - some are better than others.
For those who wish to allow their cat to flex their hunting muscle while undermining their cat's success, researchers at the University of Glasgow offer some hope. The results one of their studies showed that cats wearing bells on their collars killed only half as many rodents and other small mammals and birds as they did when not wearing bells. The statistics also revealed, however, that there was no significant impact on amphibian prey, presumably because they could either not hear the high frequency, or did not associate the sound with danger.
For indoor cats, toys that mimic their predatory chasing behavior may offset boredom and weight gain from inactivity. Anything that creates a stimulating game of chase, from dangling string to a laser pointer, will potentially satisfy your cat's innate desire to hunt. It's just who they are.
Health & Home
Leave a Comment
No account? Sign up here.
Your Privacy
Comments (8)
If it's illegal worldwide to torture animals using any method (bullfighters seem exempt), then why are cat-owners allowed to torture ALL wildlife with their cats? Cats don't just kill wildlife humanely (like one can kill a feral cat with a well-aimed bullet), cats torture any animal to play with it while it's still alive and twitching with its entrails hanging out. It seems that the longer they can keep an animal alive the more enjoyment that cats get out of it. Shouldn't outdoor-cat owners and all TNR groups be charged with this crime of animal-cruelty, fined heavily, and all of them serving severe jail sentences? There seems to be a drastic double-standard going on. They may not be torturing other animals with baseball-bats or other weapons in their hands, but their cats are just as much a tool of theirs.
Would a dog owner be fined with the crime of animal-cruelty if they continually let their dog attack other animals? Of course, and it's already happened, many times. Fined and convicted. It's in the news often.
This drastic double-standard needs to be corrected. With the fines that all cat-owners and TNR groups would have to pay we'd have the money to clean up this ecological disaster they created. Think of all the new jails that would have to be built to house them all too, all the new jobs. We could turn this ecological disaster into an economic recovery by finally making some use of useless cat-lovers.
There is NOTHING natural about a cat destroying a bird nor any other native wildlife. Cats are an invasive species. Bred by man for man’s purposes through selective-breeding, a form of genetic engineering. They are NOT an indigenous species anywhere on the planet today and have NO PLACE in nature. They have NO natural predators due to the widely and randomly colored patterns that have been bred into them. Bold patterns on any cat is a universal symbol to all wildlife that that animal is using toxic or olfactory defense mechanisms (even though they lack one, other than all the deadly diseases that cats now carry), so all native predators have now learned to not go near any of them. The wild animals here that ran away from the cats I shot and then offered to them for food, weren't sensing their carcasses being riddled with diseases. What they were seeing were the bold black/white and striped patterns as they approached. Then became fearful of them. This is why none of the predators here will destroy these invasive cats. And this is why coyotes won't even eat them in many areas of the country now as well. For all intents and purposes cats are a foreign animal to them, and rightfully so. If a species is not on their normal list of eons of approved predation, they will avoid it until proven safe to eat or starving to death, even then avoiding it if possible.
Domestic-cats have no more right to be out in the natural world than some genetically engineered insect that, if released out into nature, would destroy all wildlife. JUST AS CATS DO.
If you delusional, misinformed, and misguided cat-lovers are going to talk about animal behavior and ecology in your pro-cat arguments, the very LEAST you could all do is go educate your ignorant selves to the true facts in this matter. How difficult can this be? Which part of the name "HOUSE-CAT" do you fools fail to comprehend? How old are any of you cat-lovers, really? Even three, four, and five-year-olds comprehend the meaning of those two words.
Let's call it for what it really is...
Cats pass disease to wildlife, even in remote areas:
http://www.labspaces.net/view_news_comments.php?newsID=110760
Dear members of Vox Felina, members of Alley Cat Allies, and any other feral-cat advocates and feral-cat relocation groups,
Here’s something that you really need to read:
biological warfare n. (Abbr. BW) The use of disease-producing microorganisms, toxic biological products, or organic biocides to cause death or injury to humans, animals, or plants.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/biological-warfare
Given the above information about cats harboring dangerous biological agents that are harmful to wildlife and humans (of which you all were previously aware), as well as the cats themselves being just as harmful if not more-so (this too of which you were all aware), and the information about your TRUE territorial motives (if you weren't aware of it before, you most certainly are now); the fact that you want to infest public and private properties with these harmful biological agents means that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU CAN AND WILL eventually be held responsible for the crimes that you are committing against all of humanity and all of nature.
May you all rot in prisons as soon as possible.
Let's call it for what it really is...
Cats pass disease to wildlife, even in remote areas:
http://www.labspaces.net/view_news_comments.php?newsID=110760
Dear members of Vox Felina, members of Alley Cat Allies, and any other feral-cat advocates and feral-cat relocation groups,
Here’s something that you really need to read:
biological warfare n. (Abbr. BW) The use of disease-producing microorganisms, toxic biological products, or organic biocides to cause death or injury to humans, animals, or plants.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/biological-warfare
Given the above information about cats harboring dangerous biological agents that are harmful to wildlife and humans (of which you all were previously aware), as well as the cats themselves being just as harmful if not more-so (this too of which you were all aware), and the information about your TRUE territorial motives (if you weren't aware of it before, you most certainly are now); the fact that you want to infest public and private properties with these harmful biological agents means that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU CAN AND WILL eventually be held responsible for the crimes that you are committing against all of humanity and all of nature.
May you all rot in prisons as soon as possible.
A little insight to help with the war on cat-lovers and their cats. Maybe if they understand this then more drastic means won't be needed.
I have come to the inexorable conclusion that the vast majority of cat-lovers and cat-owners that let their destructively invasive-species roam free, and those that defend the rights for feral cats to overtake public property and wildlife areas, are only (cowardly) using cats as a proxy for their own territorial behavior. Not unlike uneducated inner-city youth that will disrespectfully and inconsiderately use a boom-box to stake-out a territory for themselves with loud music. As long as they can have one of their possessions defecate in another's yard and the yard-owner not have any recourse to do anything about it, the cat-owner owns that territory. It's time to put a stop to them using their "cute kitty" excuse for usurping and stealing others' property. If they want territory they can damn well buy it just like anyone else. Instead of using their underhanded, disrespectful, and manipulative means, putting (and sacrificing) live animals in the path of their envy and greed. Again proving why they don't care about cats nor anyone else at all. Cat-lovers only really want your lawn, yard, or forest while making all others and all other animals suffer for what they can't have nor own. Bottom line--they want to control you and your property. That's all that "cat-lovers" are really after. It's why they don't care at all if their cat nor any other animals get harmed by their goals and (lack of) values in life.
I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of cat-lovers and cat-owners that let theirs roam free, and those that defend the rights for feral cats to overtake public property and wildlife areas, are only (cowardly) using cats as a proxy for their own territorial behavior. Not unlike inner-city youth that will disrespectfully and inconsiderately use a boom-box to stake-out a territory for themselves with loud music. As long as they can have one of their possessions defecate in another's yard and the yard owner not have any recourse to do anything about it, the cat-owner owns that territory. It's time to put a stop to them using their "cute kitty" excuse for usurping and stealing others property. If they want territory they can damn well buy it just like anyone else. Instead of using their underhanded, disrespectful, and manipulative means, putting (and sacrificing) live animals in the path of their envy and greed. Again proving why they don't care about cats nor anyone else at all. Cat-lovers only really want your lawn, yard, or forest while making all others suffer for what they can't have nor own. Bottom line--they want to control you and your property. That's all that cat-lovers are really after. It's why they don't care at all if their cat nor any other animals get harmed on your property.