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

Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 93 posts

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#21

Post by bserge »

egeozcan wrote: post #14
wut42 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? There is some sociability in feral cats.

Feral cat is an un-owned domestic cat

I think "feral" here refers to cats completely unaccustomed to humans. I know from experience that they will run away or bite and scratch the shit out of you until you back off, and they have no interest in getting to know you.

If you give them food, they'll wait until you're gone, then take it and run. I guess not many people have witnessed them. They're not sick, that's just how they are. They probably can get accustomed to humans after a while, but it would definitely take longer than with feral dogs.

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#22

Post by [deleted] »

zelon88 wrote: post #15

The answer to the title question was never scientifically answered. They described the experiment, the results, and then lead into a conclusion that didn't match the science. Then they finally reverted to anecdotal evidence to support the original claim which the scientific evidence does not support.

[deleted]

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#24

Post by wut42 »

msrenee wrote: post #18
wut42 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cats can be trained quite well do to activities and if you can understand them correctly. It is still very rare, tho. I've seen videos of cats doing skateboard and other things their human trained them to do, but he was a cat behaviourist.

I always wanted a dog growing up. My parents finally agreed to a cat, so I made do. She knew sit, shake, high five, would "play" the piano, and could be sent off to touch a mark. When my sister's cat came to live with us for a few months, I taught him to sit and to jog on the treadmill. The treadmill trick was no longer allowed after the day mom was running on the treadmill and he jumped on and ran up between her fee…

That's damn cute. While I've always grew with cats I've never been able to make one do things! They always loved me deeply (in their own ways, for example my first one was always walking me to school and doing silly things for fun on the walk, coming back at the pause, and coming back to search me when school ended).

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#25

Post by bserge »

My cat would be the first to run away haha. And she only lets me pet her and pick her up, she's very wary of other people and animals.

I think it's more about realizing there is nothing she could do about, well, any danger. I did chase some bugs and a mouse once and she actually joined in.

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#26

Post by CraneWorm »

leetcrew wrote: post #19

there's also the obvious fact that a cat isn't a credible threat to a human. there's no point in "punishing" a creature that weighs 15-25 times as much as you do. would you try to "punish" an elephant if you were unarmed? conversely, any creature that a cat can credibly deter is not a lethal threat to a human. I imagine a large dog understands, at least on some level, that it can actually win a fight against a human.…

> it would be interesting to study how/if cats defend other cats against roughly cat-sized threats

fiercely: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EEa6jZv-Khc

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#27

Post by nicklecompte »

atkbrah wrote: post #12
pestatije wrote: post #3

They don't bring the stick back either

Back in the 90s we had a cat that liked to play fetch. Every now and then it would come to you with a bobble (a hairy ball) and you were supposed to throw it and it would bring it back (it would even drop it to your open hand). She also liked to eat cheese puffs.

My cats also play fetch: I throw the ball, they run over to where it landed, and then they sit still while they wait for me to walk over and throw the ball again :)

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#28

Post by wut42 »

egeozcan wrote: post #14
wut42 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? There is some sociability in feral cats.

Feral cat is an un-owned domestic cat

As bserge said, it was what I was referring to. But maybe theses abandonned cats, over a couple generation, still get the "socialization" ? I have no idea to be honest. I was referring to herds of cats in Russia or some other country, saw a documentary about it a couple of years ago -- they developed quite a society.

Re: Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you

#29

Post by nicklecompte »

wut42 wrote: post #11
devenson wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat explained: because they were solitary hunters before domestication, unlike dogs who hunt in groups.

Is it? There is some sociability in feral cats.

The article points out that cats do clearly have some sophisticated social behavior with humans, it just does not seem to be as well-developed as it is with dogs.

It makes sense that cats in the wild would be “somewhat social” for grooming / shelter / care when for kittens, and feral cats do form somewhat matriarchal colonies. But there isn’t anything like the hierarchical pack structure of feral dogs.

Post reply on HN