• lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I agree and disagree. If you did a large enough trial with many animals and people, for each of many test cats in homes, then the data might show this. I just think that even if this hypothesis is true, the reaction to every cat/person won’t be the same for a given test cat. That could be a noisy signal.

    • Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 day ago

      It was more a plea to cat owners that know their cat. The cats I know don’t tolerate cats on the street outside their house, let alone inside, plenty of people around though. I’m sure there’s exceptions, I don’t know cats well. As a rule, I think they’re intolerant of strange cats being in “their” space, less so humans. We don’t smell like cats, we don’t sound like cats, we don’t act like cats. Cats aren’t dumb (except orange ones), they know we aren’t cats (even the orange ones)

      • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I have never seen a cat beg another cat for food. I have seen plenty of cats beg humans for food. I am pretty sure cats are smart enough to realize we are not cats. For one, we have hands we can use to open doors and give pets

      • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        I see what you mean. I have 3 cats, all girls and spayed. Our neighbor has an outdoor cat (socially acceptable animal cruelty imo), a boy and intact.

        They make goo goo eyes at each other through the windows. I dont know what would happen if I let them out, but they look like they’d be friends.

          • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            They live much shorter lives outdoors. Im not sure how someone could not care about the length of life of something they care about.

            • quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 hours ago

              Maybe they care more about their quality of life than their life span. I my opinion it is the other way around, the socially acceptable cruelty is to have them confined their entire lives, doesn’t matter how big and comfortable is the cage.

              • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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                1 hour ago

                Yeah, I qualified it as my opinion because I know not everyone agrees. I make sure our cats have many litter boxes, places to nap and places to scratch, and a couple cat buddies. I hope that they do not feel something is being withheld from them. Thats my goal.

          • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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            12 hours ago

            One of the big things is their robust appetite for murder. Domesticated cats destroy bird populations. At minimum they should have a collar with a bell.

            • ganryuu@lemmy.ca
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              7 hours ago

              It’s not as clear cut as this, a lot of the studies that suggest this don’t stand up to scrutiny, with for example some having numbers of estimated birds killed by cats over the total estimated bird population. Also the fact that the majority of kills by cats are already weak or sick animals, animals that would die soon either way, and not really affect the total population. The only ones that seem legit and suggest an effect on the population are from small islands.