The Killer Cats Are Winning • Hacker News Board

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#41

Post by mikestew » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 4:44 PM UTC

strictnein wrote: post #17

lowleveldrone wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dogs can be trained ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier ) to kill rats in a much more controlled fashion than having free range cats wandering around.

Grew up with cats that would kill mice, but weren't very good at it. Got a miniature pinscher, which were also bred to kill rodents, and it was amazing how lethal they were around mice. Grab, bite, dead.

I'll put a terrier up against a cat any day. As you describe: grab, bite, dead, move on to the next one. None of this "let's play with it for a bit" crap from cats, there's work to be done.

Mole problem? Borrow a dachshund for a week, no more moles. For efficient, methodical obliteration of a local pest population, hard to beat a canine for Terminator-like determination and efficiency. Cats just dick around too much.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#42

Post by TheDrizzle43 » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 4:56 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #36

jp_sc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rats with wings

He said "birds" not "bats". If you're going to be snarky, at least get the classification right.

He's talking about pigeons.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#43

Post by thenipper » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 4:56 PM UTC

strictnein wrote: post #17

lowleveldrone wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dogs can be trained ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier ) to kill rats in a much more controlled fashion than having free range cats wandering around.

Grew up with cats that would kill mice, but weren't very good at it. Got a miniature pinscher, which were also bred to kill rodents, and it was amazing how lethal they were around mice. Grab, bite, dead.

My parents have a story when they had some rats that got into the hay in a dog house their scottie had the best day of its life. 13 dead rats later she was bummed she didn't get to play any more.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#44

Post by pc86 » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:00 PM UTC

caub wrote: post #18

That's why I hate the current idiocracy: overconsumption, cigarettes, that, and many other things.. that denaturate the world more than it should

Interesting that you look down on the "idiocracy" yet "denaturate" is not a word.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#45

Post by chiph » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:13 PM UTC

wiredfool wrote: post #12

shagie wrote: post #5

And a counterpoint http://www.npr.org/2016/04/04/473002208/facing-a-growing-rat... That example is why cats were domesticated in the first place. Not having a healthy predator prey relationship in areas leads to public health issues.

Few years back, I moved to a place in the country where the previous owner fed birds. So there was a bit of a rodent issue. I had with a indoor/outdoor cat, not much of a hunter to look at -- big floofy Maine Coon, and not all that fast. Ran a bit like a bear, thundery, not graceful. In that first year, I found 23 small rodent bodies inside and out, I got 2 with traps. I found no bird carcasses. Pretty sure he wasn't…

> Ran a bit like a bear, thundery, not graceful.

Maine Coons are the powerlifters of the cat world.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#46

Post by linkregister » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

honkhonkpants wrote: post #26

Recently a coyote killed an outdoor pet cat in Berkeley and the citizens were outraged. The predator must be hunted down and shot as soon as possible! This amused me of course. Pets can be predators but actual predators are "invasive" and must be shot.

> and the citizens were outraged

100% of Berkeley residents were so flabbergasted we spilled fair trade granola and almond milk all over our copy of the Sunday New York Times whilst listening to NPR in our REI/Patagonia outdoorwear.

Or maybe some citizens were outraged. This Berkeley liberal monolith stereotype gets a bit old. The chicken population in Berkeley is in the hundreds; Berkeley residents do small-scale farming, to include slaughtering their animals. Plenty of Berkeley residents have more perspective than the knee-jerk reaction you describe.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#47

Post by vkou » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #36

jp_sc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rats with wings

He said "birds" not "bats". If you're going to be snarky, at least get the classification right.

He may have been referring to pigeons. Rats with wings is an apt metaphor.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#48

Post by triplesec » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

jhbadger wrote: post #39

triplesec wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indoors is categorically not better for the cats. They're nocturnal predators. Let them hunt as is their desire and way of living. It's like keeping birds in cages and not letting them fly. Or chickens in battery farms. There are so many unhappy cats imprisoned for the benefit of their fluffy -loving captors. If you have cats, you must let them be cats. So here's the rub: we really have to stop keeping so many cats

That's exactly like saying humans ought to only live in the savannah of Africa as hunters and gatherers. Just because that's where humans evolved doesn't mean that that is the only way they are "supposed" to live, nor is where they are "happiest". For starters, humans in civilization and indoor cats live a heck of a lot longer and don't have to worry about getting eaten by predators.

Our modern ways of living, sedentary, often little visceral excitement, control by overlords and paperwork and rules do lead to an awful lot of depression and anomie. Why do you think so many people are unhappy? Indoor cats have that without any of the benefits.

It's not as black and white as you paint it

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#49

Post by khalilravanna » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:20 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #33

> This is a ridiculous point to waffle on: pet cats should no more be allowed to roam around at will than should pet dogs, horses, pythons, or pot-bellied pigs. Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. So there's certainly use cases for letting a pig roam free and gather some forage. By the time I…

Are you suggesting we should ignore an ecological disaster because the perpetrators are "just doing their job"?

Citing the historical reasons for their existence doesn't really help the case that they aren't a problem now because the exact reason that it's now and not then. Cats may have had a purpose when they were introduced but in most cases they don't actually serve that purpose anymore. And we can ignore that point entirely because feral cats don't even fit the definition of animals with a job to begin with. They aren't owned by anyone, they are just another animal in the environment. One that happens to be an invasive species causing extraordinary damage to the environment.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#50

Post by markhahn » Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 5:21 PM UTC

It's a special kind of creepy when people decide that cats are a problem worthy of public attention. Yeah, they can cause real problems when introduced into closed ecosystems which lack a historical small-predator.