Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Killer Cats Are Winning

nybooks.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 139 posts

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#71

Post by cowpewter »

icebraining wrote: post #68
cowpewter wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have three cats. The youngest straight up chose to be an indoor cat. He was a feral kitten, about 12 weeks when I first encountered him (based on the vet's estimate of 16 weeks when I eventually brought him in). I left food out for him for a month, as he progressively hung around more and more and watched my two indoor cats through the sliding glass door in the back of my apartment. After about a month he seemed to…

She got out for a week when she was around 3 years old, and came back so thin you could touch your fingers together on either side of her stomach. Yeah, but maybe they were the best seven days of her life, worth more than a decade living indoors. It just seems to absurd to decide what's "best" for them. By what standard?

She was actually pretty emotionally traumatized. I lived in a fairly small apartment at the time, and she would wander into the next room, realize she couldn't see me, and just start crying.

I would try to call her back, so she could find her way back to me, but she would just sit in the next room and cry until I physically went into the room she was in. Then she would run to me and rub against my legs and follow me back out. Then she'd be calm for 30 minutes or so, then wander into the next room, repeat. It was worst the first week she was back, and gradually got better until she could handle leaving the room and coming back to find me when she wanted company again on her own.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#72

Post by kwhitefoot »

ionwake wrote: post #60

I am pretty sure the simplest and most humane solution is... to put a small bell on your cat. I am suprised no one else has said this.

Doesn't work.

My cat who died a couple of years ago at the age of 16 had a bell on his collar all his life. I couldn't pick that bell up without it tinkling but Radar could walk from one end of the house to the other, including the stairs, without a sound. Also when hunting he did most of it by waiting for his prey to get close enough so that any noise from the bell was simply the last sound they heard.

For a while he used to sit on the roof and catch bats

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#73

Post by kafkaesq »

“Euthanasia needs to be part of a successful long-term solution.”

But linguistic abuse does not. Make whatever recommendations about species culling you want -- but there's no way that targeted killing can be compared to "euthanasia."

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#74

Post by trhway »

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…

people gather wild bird eggs for food as a delicacy in city parks. Yet we blame the wild bird decimation (those birds who was able to survive in already tough city environment created by humans) in cities on cats. Cats don't eat eggs, rats do. Cats control rats. Cats also able to catch and eat an ill bird. It is pretty healthy coexistence until humans forcefully insert themselves. And it is so typical of the human race to blame somebody else for the harm humans create. I mean just look at the environmental damage, including the damage to birds population, resulting from production of that burger you've just ate for lunch.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#75

Post by wil421 »

upofadown wrote: post #55
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…

Livestock allowed to roam in the wilderness can be very destructive. Is that sort of thing still done there?

"Wilderness" most likely meaning the wilderness on your fenced in but very large property.

IIRC some cattle out West are allowed to graze on government/public land. Later in the season when it's time to get them back to the farm they check their brands so they know which Cattle belong to their farm.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#76

Post by jahewson »

ScottBurson wrote: post #70
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…

I have owned cats my entire adult life (I'm 58) and have never allowed them outside. They do just fine indoors. They also live longer, healthier lives, with less disease and much less danger from cars, raccoons, etc. And they don't bother the neighbors. In the country, I could imagine letting cats outside -- though only after getting them neutered or spayed -- but in the city or suburbs, where I have lived, keeping t…

> healthier lives, with less disease

Seems unlikely. Citation needed.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#77

Post by takk309 »

upofadown wrote: post #55
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…

Livestock allowed to roam in the wilderness can be very destructive. Is that sort of thing still done there?

Many states in the west still have free range laws allowing ranchers to let their livestock roam about on public lands.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#78

Post by ferentchak »

smallnamespace wrote: post #57
BFatts wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just stop. Stop bickering about cats being the problem. The problem is humans... We are the problem. Their existence is due to us. Their domestication is due to us.

Certainly. So what should humans do about the cats?

In practice it seems bring them snacks and put them in cute sweaters.

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#79

Post by smallnamespace »

jahewson wrote: post #76
ScottBurson wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have owned cats my entire adult life (I'm 58) and have never allowed them outside. They do just fine indoors. They also live longer, healthier lives, with less disease and much less danger from cars, raccoons, etc. And they don't bother the neighbors. In the country, I could imagine letting cats outside -- though only after getting them neutered or spayed -- but in the city or suburbs, where I have lived, keeping t…

> healthier lives, with less disease Seems unlikely. Citation needed.

https://www.vetinfo.com/indoor-outdoor-cat-life-expectancy.h...

'A pet that spends more time outdoors may live on average 2 to 3 years less than a cat that lives exclusively indoors.'

Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning

#80

Post by narrowrail »

ScottBurson wrote: post #70
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…

I have owned cats my entire adult life (I'm 58) and have never allowed them outside. They do just fine indoors. They also live longer, healthier lives, with less disease and much less danger from cars, raccoons, etc. And they don't bother the neighbors. In the country, I could imagine letting cats outside -- though only after getting them neutered or spayed -- but in the city or suburbs, where I have lived, keeping t…

The freedom to roam seems like an interest to all creatures.

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Why_the_Caged_Bird_Sing...

Post reply on HN