I've just seen the robot cat and it's the end of the feral cat problem!! Just joking but it may have an impact in that direction. This is a typical piece of clever Japanese robotics and at what should be a reasonable price when it is released in July 2009. The cat is called the 'Yume-Neko Venus', or 'Dream Cat Venus' apparently. I'm not going to waffle about the cat because you can see it in the video:
You know, a robot cat will no doubt satisfy a lot of people who would otherwise have bought or adopted a real cat. This is certainly the case in relation to Christmas buying of cats (the short term irresponsible type of buying).
Lets say it takes off and does really well as I think it will. How will it impact the world of the real domestic cat? Will the impact be good or bad for the cat? Well, it would seem to cut two ways. Initially, it would mean less adoptions from rescue centers. This would mean (should that happen) more euthanasia, tragically. Yet in the long term I think the robot cat might benefit the domestic cat. It would mean less real cats adopted/bought. This would bring down the number of cats that are not neutered and are abandoned. This would translate into less feral cats and therefore less misery for feral cats who find it hard to live in a human world.
There is an argument that there is an overpopulation of cats. The robot cat would tackle that problem. Some people (one person?) thinks there is no overpopulation problem however (see this article: solutions to cat overpopulation). This robot cat might well satisfy the casual cat buyer, the people most likely it seems to me to be irresponsible. The Australians will love it. They are desperate to solve their feral cat problem and allow and encourage unspeakable things to happen to achieve their objectives (see Bengal cat shot in Australia).
See also:
From Robot Cat to Home Page
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Your comments are always welcome.