4 ms·
> Castration is a bit of a brute force for population control. No reason we couldn't also give cats vasectomies. Male un-neutered cats, somewhat like some of t
by darkr 7y ago
> Castration is a bit of a brute force for population control. No reason we couldn't also give cats vasectomies.
Male un-neutered cats, somewhat like some of their human un-neutered counterparts, are prone to aggressive, overly sexual, and territorial behaviour (including spraying). Likely fine on on an outdoor farm cat, but probably not what you want for a pet who lives in your house.
- taeric 7y agoThis feels awfully close to the argument that cats with claws cause damage. Specifically indoor cats, that will never have to defend themselves from anything.
- darkr 7y agoCats with claws absolutely do cause damage to furniture (mine is ruined). If you care about your furniture you shouldn’t have a cat. I believe the morality laws around surgery on pets are something like “It’s ok to perform surgery on pets as long as your intent is to inflict psychological damage; so as to break their will and make the animal more domesticated, but it’s not ok if it’s purely cosmetic”. Don’t question the laws man.
- viraptor 7y agoThis is pretty similar to training, isn't it? As in, training a dog is really to break their natural behaviour and move from slave for food/fun to slave by default. Yet, it's also widely accepted. (Yes, I have a dog)
- oeuviz 7y ago'pets' and 'natural behaviour' do not really play along. All domesticated animals are far from being 'natural' in almost any way. That said, I consider declawing a form of assault to the animal, taking away from it the only tools it can use and the main weapon to defend itself.
- vageli 7y agoHuman beings don't have claws, so we invented blades. Cats don't have the luxury to invent their own adaptations.
- asdff 7y agoYou can train cats to not scratch on furniture and the damage is minimized if you are regularly cutting their nails. You have to provide something better to scratch on like a scratching post or cardboard, and discourage bad behavior on problem furniture. Cats do learn.
- jrace 7y agoI have had cats for years. it is easy to train them not to scratch things - without resorting to throwing stuff at them. When I have adopted senior cats who are resistant to change I have just buyild scratching posts that sit beside the couch. Just like kids and dogs, you need to not only say NO, but to also say YES to what they can do. If you value your couch over your cats well-being you do not deserve a cat.
- asdff 7y agoA feral cat sprays in a way incomparable to a cat playing on a couch. They see another cat/dog/person/strange thing out the window and they will spray the door. You come into the house smelling like your friends dog and they spray your shoes. They spray their favorite places to sit or hang out to mark it as theirs. It is a really hard habit to break compared with scratching on furniture. It's not all that hard to train even a kitten not to be aggressive on furniture and it relies on giving them better outlets to scratch on instead, like a good scratching post and plenty of convenient cardboard scratchers, and actively discouraging bad behavior while praising good behavior. You can't really give a feral cat an outlet to spray on, they will spray everywhere they are if they are going to spray at all. It's a territorial behavior, not just rowdy play.
- igetspam 7y agoIf you've ever had a cat, you'd known that an indoor cat is just a cat that hasn't snuck out yet. The cats I have now are indoor. Both try to slip out sometimes and one ran off for a few hours. My cats are rather small and where I live there are predators. Had we not found her, her claws could have been what kept her alive.
- antisemiotic 7y agoI have a feeling that suggesting castration to solve the problem of male homo sapiens spraying on walls and trees near pubs could be met with some opposition...