7 ms·

If you have a cat and you are not living on a farm, where it can have a purpose, you are either caging an excellent predator or you are just letting it lose on

If you have a cat and you are not living on a farm, where it can have a purpose, you are either caging an excellent predator or you are just letting it lose on your local ecosystem. Both options seem cruel. Nothing cute about it.

jibbit 3y ago
what's the legitimate case for farms?
- tehbeard 3y ago
  Given the rest of their comment, natural pest control.
  - jibbit 3y ago
    households that aren't farms don't have pests?
    - dspillett 3y ago
      Not as much so, at least not causing the same issues. Feeding from (and crapping in) waste sites which is mostly what urban vermin do is far less damaging than spoiling grain stores and killing a farm's profit (or the farm's customers!). In the past, before much of our food was in plastic containers or more difficult to puncture packaging, or in a fridge, vermin posed more of a problem in that way within the house (they still do in poorer locations where safe food storage is more of a difficulty). Some non-farm households even in well-off locations do still have cats with vermin control being one of the stated reasons.
- defrost 3y ago
  Anything short of a full blown mouse plague: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITgdgPUMuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITgdgPUMuY Even cats will tap out then.
  - ASalazarMX 3y ago
    That would be rat terrier paradise. Your biggest problem would be what to do with lots of mice carcasses.
- dspillett 3y ago
  Vermin control. It is what brought us and cats together in the first place: grain stores attracted small animals that could spoil the crop or otherwise spread harmful disease, cats found these populations a very useful concentrated food source but did not cause nearly as much similar trouble themselves, so letting them stay around was a good bargain for us.
  - jibbit 3y ago
    Lots of rats and mice in places other farms e.g. cities, I’m just wondering why farms get special dispensation
    - dspillett 3y ago
      > why farms get special dispensation wrt allendoerfer's comment: farm cats are not constrained to a small building (a house), and are a more natural part of the local ecosystem (they have generally been allowed to remain, or have craftily managed to remain, rather than having been shipped in by humans) so don't cause the same potential imbalance in local small animal populations (the ones humans find more desirable and less damaging, like birds).
jjgreen 3y ago
I have a cat and do not live on a farm. The cat is not caged, she can go outside whenever she likes, when she does, she sits on the welcome mat and stares into the middle distance, philosopically. She is scared of mice, but will occasionally baff a smaller spider, rarely killing it (probably by accident).
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  I think you should use your cat to selectively reproduce a breed of ecofriendly cats.
varispeed 3y ago
> you are just letting it lose on your local ecosystem. They are the ecosystem. Like it or not. Some animals are smarter than the others when it comes to acquiring space to live and hunt. Cats managed to domesticate humans and so they can enjoy habitats where otherwise they wouldn't be welcome. It's a fine example of evolution. If other animals can't adapt, it's just part of natural selection, as cruel as it is.
- stuartjohnson12 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - ChoHag 3y ago
    [dead]
  - 3littlefish 3y ago
    Reductio ad absurdum. And also a pretty disgusting comment to make.
    - stuartjohnson12 3y ago
      Reductio ad absurdum is a perfectly valid form of argumentation. If you don't like the conclusion, that's the point.
  - varispeed 3y ago
    > By the same token, it also follows that if I break into your house and rape your wife that's just natural selection and the successful passing on of genetics at play. We as humans adapt as well, by having a legal system, police, security and developed self defence. Don't forget that we are part of the animal kingdom.
- toyg 3y ago
  > Cats managed to domesticate humans Lol @ western culture. In most of the world, cats are still treated little better than pests.
botanical 3y ago
> local ecosystem. Exactly this; letting loose has caused them to kill billions and even extinction of entire species. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife

jibbit 3y ago

what's the legitimate case for farms?

tehbeard 3y ago
Given the rest of their comment, natural pest control.
- jibbit 3y ago
  households that aren't farms don't have pests?
  - dspillett 3y ago
    Not as much so, at least not causing the same issues. Feeding from (and crapping in) waste sites which is mostly what urban vermin do is far less damaging than spoiling grain stores and killing a farm's profit (or the farm's customers!). In the past, before much of our food was in plastic containers or more difficult to puncture packaging, or in a fridge, vermin posed more of a problem in that way within the house (they still do in poorer locations where safe food storage is more of a difficulty). Some non-farm households even in well-off locations do still have cats with vermin control being one of the stated reasons.
defrost 3y ago
Anything short of a full blown mouse plague: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITgdgPUMuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITgdgPUMuY Even cats will tap out then.
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  That would be rat terrier paradise. Your biggest problem would be what to do with lots of mice carcasses.
dspillett 3y ago
Vermin control. It is what brought us and cats together in the first place: grain stores attracted small animals that could spoil the crop or otherwise spread harmful disease, cats found these populations a very useful concentrated food source but did not cause nearly as much similar trouble themselves, so letting them stay around was a good bargain for us.
- jibbit 3y ago
  Lots of rats and mice in places other farms e.g. cities, I’m just wondering why farms get special dispensation
  - dspillett 3y ago
    > why farms get special dispensation wrt allendoerfer's comment: farm cats are not constrained to a small building (a house), and are a more natural part of the local ecosystem (they have generally been allowed to remain, or have craftily managed to remain, rather than having been shipped in by humans) so don't cause the same potential imbalance in local small animal populations (the ones humans find more desirable and less damaging, like birds).

jjgreen 3y ago

I have a cat and do not live on a farm. The cat is not caged, she can go outside whenever she likes, when she does, she sits on the welcome mat and stares into the middle distance, philosopically. She is scared of mice, but will occasionally baff a smaller spider, rarely killing it (probably by accident).

ASalazarMX 3y ago
I think you should use your cat to selectively reproduce a breed of ecofriendly cats.

varispeed 3y ago

> you are just letting it lose on your local ecosystem. They are the ecosystem. Like it or not. Some animals are smarter than the others when it comes to acquiring space to live and hunt. Cats managed to domesticate humans and so they can enjoy habitats where otherwise they wouldn't be welcome. It's a fine example of evolution. If other animals can't adapt, it's just part of natural selection, as cruel as it is.

stuartjohnson12 3y ago
[flagged]
- ChoHag 3y ago
  [dead]
- 3littlefish 3y ago
  Reductio ad absurdum. And also a pretty disgusting comment to make.
  - stuartjohnson12 3y ago
    Reductio ad absurdum is a perfectly valid form of argumentation. If you don't like the conclusion, that's the point.
- varispeed 3y ago
  > By the same token, it also follows that if I break into your house and rape your wife that's just natural selection and the successful passing on of genetics at play. We as humans adapt as well, by having a legal system, police, security and developed self defence. Don't forget that we are part of the animal kingdom.
toyg 3y ago
> Cats managed to domesticate humans Lol @ western culture. In most of the world, cats are still treated little better than pests.

botanical 3y ago

> local ecosystem. Exactly this; letting loose has caused them to kill billions and even extinction of entire species. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife