UK police community support officer orders man to clean up his dog's urine

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is another very strange indeed ridiculous story because the behaviour of the police community support officer is extraordinary and ridiculous.

Steve Schuurman, 56, an NHS worker, was walking his dog in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England (information provided for non-UK citizens) last week. His dog cocked her leg to relieve herself which is what we expect dogs to do.

Dog urinating in typical style! This is not the dog in the story. Image: The Telegraph.

In the UK, the modern policies to pick up dog faeces which makes a lot of sense and people do it all the time these days. But there are no rules about trying to scrub off urine from surfaces. That's entirely impractical and ridiculous.

However, a police community support officer became aggressive towards Steve Schuurman, according to him. He claims that the Dorset police community officer told him to "clear [up] your F*****g dog p**s".

He challenged her at which point the officer threatened to have him arrested if he didn't move on.

At that time, Dorset Police and Bournemouth Council had a stall and a van in the town centre as part of a day of action and after several high-profile crimes in the area.

Steve Schuurman said he would have cleaned up his dog's urine but didn't know how to do it.

He reported the incident to the Dorset Police complaints department. They are looking into it! Steve Schuurman said that the woman "got really aggressive" and "was waving her hands around and putting her hands on her hips, saying it was disgusting."

He asked for an apology. Apparently there were two female police community officers as I understand it. On asking for the apology they told him that he would be arrested if he didn't move on.

As I said, it is extraordinary. And an abuse of police powers. For those living abroad, a "police community support officer" is a kind of lesser police officer with shorter training but they wear a uniform and have certain rights/powers but not those of police officers.

Further comment: obviously these officers were asking for the impossible and therefore they were acting stupidly. And of course if we are to be totally fair, nobody ever asks cat owners to clear up the cat's urine when they pee in public places. Not that it's practical or feasible but it's another point worth making about the idiocy of the behaviour of these two police officers.

There is one last point to make and that is this: of course, when an animal urinates in a public place it is not nice. It is possibly unacceptable but it happens all over Great Britain and other countries all the time. It'll be up to the government of any country to create a law which forbids it. But the police officers can't make up the rules as they go along.

Such a law would be very difficult to pass through Parliament in the UK and in any other legislature in any other country. In fact it would be impossible today but one day it may happen. It really might happen one day.

-----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Conflicting cat and dog ownership policies between Singapore and Hong Kong

The vast majority of Singaporeans live in publicly owned accommodation in high-rise flats (HBD) where cats have been banned for 34 years but not dogs. Now, at last, Singapore has decided to lift the ban on cat ownership in these flats. The ban on cats "was first introduced in 1989 because they are “generally difficult to contain within the flat”, according to the Housing Development Board's (HDB) website".

The cats and dogs of Singapore and Hong Kong are owned under different rules. Image: MikeB

That is probably very fair but there are downsides because it means lots more cats living in small flats which places an added and quite demanding responsibility upon the caregiver to ensure that the environment is as enriched as possible because a cat living in a one-bedroom flat while the owner is away at work is going to be catastrophically bored and it might result in stress leading to cystitis among other stress-related diseases.

But that is another issue. It just shows that Singapore now has consistency between dogs and cats in respect of ownership in these flats. The same cannot be said about Hong Kong at the moment as in 2003 due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Hong Kong, dogs were banned from public housing complexes except for rare exceptions. They can currently keep small pets such as cats and birds but not dogs I'm told.

Notwithstanding the ban, people apparently flout the regulations by secretly keeping dogs and it also seems that they get away with it a lot of the time.

This policy seems to be in conflict somewhat with another policy about educating young people about companion animal caregiving as delivered by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong. They are learning about how the take dogs for walks and to groom them et cetera.

Hong Kong has seen an increasing number of pet owners and the government open 54 parks for pets in Hong Kong where there are now 170. And there is a pet friendly shopping centre. It seems that the Covid-19 pandemic created a heightened interest in pet ownership because during those long lockdowns, pets helped people deal with loneliness and stress.

All this is inconsistent with the restrictions on dog ownership in public housing. It's interesting that in Hong Kong dogs aren't allowed in public estates while in Singapore, in the past, cats weren't allowed in public estates but dogs were. A very confused situation.

As you might expect, there have been calls for the ban on dogs to be lifted in Hong Kong. Rather disturbingly, it is reported that Hong Kong Housing Department staff provoked dogs into barking by playing barking recordings and making a noise outside homes to provoke the dogs into barking to allow them to catch those who were in breach of the regulations. 

It's caused some distress among the tenants with one reportedly slitting her wrists because the Housing Authority kept pressing her to get rid of her dog.

In Hong Kong, also, there are many private housing estates were there are strict regulations on keeping companion animals. It is believed that if the authorities allowed pets in public housing estates it may change the attitudes of landlords who own the private housing estates.

---------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Same old story as dogs are favoured over cats at Christmas

OPINION: News media today tell us that researchers found that pet owners will spend 27% more on dogs and cats this Christmas. It's always been like this. Dogs get taken to the veterinarian more often than cats. Dogs are more closely connected to their owners and cats because they look up to their owners as the alpha, leader dog and they fawn all over them and a very needy towards their owners. 

This creates a very close connection whereas the solitary, independent-minded domestic cat can tend to have a looser connection with their owner.

Image: MikeB

This appears to inevitably lead to spending less at Christmas on the animals! And other things. 2000 pet owners were surveyed. They found that typically cats received £19-worth of gifts whereas dogs received gifts worth £25.

There are many gifts for dogs and cats available these days. Typically cats received toys and some food treats. Chew toys apparently are top of the list for dogs.

RELATED: Cats vs dogs – it’s a draw as expected.

It doesn't surprise me that quite a lot of money is spent on cats and dogs her Christmas because they are very much part of the family and in some instances they are the entire family and in other instances they are more important than human family members!

John Lewis reports that sales of pet gifts are up by 19% this Christmas. The pet gifting buyer at that organisation said that "everything from edible Christmas cards and chew toys, to litter robots and DIY cross stitch collars have been flying off the shelves this year. All throughout the year, we have so many pet parents coming into our stores looking for that perfect gift for their cats and dogs and we are always delighted to help find that special something for them."

Separately, it is said that dogs are slightly better behaved than cats at Christmas with 11% of cats described as being naughty while only 8% of dogs are in that category.

That said, 72% of cat and dog owners say that there companion animals make Christmas celebrations all the more special when they share Christmas festivities with them.

Survey: believed to be OnePoll poll from America.

---------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Loyal dog chases ambulance carrying their caregiver all the way to hospital

It is a remarkable video. This is where dogs can outdo cats by a mile. No criticism of cats; it is just that they wouldn't think about following an ambulance carrying their caregiver to hospital even if they were used to being outside with their owner. 

The difference is the group living of the dog's ancestor, the wolf. The caregiver is the alpha and they are followed. That kind of group living does not apply as I am sure you know to the ancestor of the domestic cat, the African wildcat.

So, here is this great little video. It reminds me of a dog who stayed outside a hospital for the entire time his master was inside. The man died of stabbing injuries. The dog remained outside the hospital for four months!! Phew. Dogs show immense persistence and loyalty.

The caption reads: "A dog chased an ambulance carrying its owner all the way to the hospital. When they arrived at the hospital the loyal dog waited outside while its owner was treated and released."

I am pleased that the man survived and they were reunited. His dog deserved to be reunited again. A reward for their loyalty. It doesn't always end well, however.

Screenshot.

Do cats bite more than dogs?

Officially, in terms of recorded incidents, cats do not bite more than dogs. In fact, it is quite the reverse. For example, statistics tell me that in the US dog bites are by far the most common type of animal bites with around 4.7 million incidents annually (2009). An estimated 800,000 dog bites resulted in medical care for the victim. And about 30+ fatal dog bites occur annually. 

Classic Dracula cat bite marks on human leg. Pic: MikeB

By contrast, there are an estimated 400,000 cat bites annually in the US. They lead to an estimated 66,000 hospital emergency visits (once again as at 2009).

However, rabies is more often transmitted by cat bites and dog bites. There were 18 rabies cases from dogs and 300 rabies cases from cats in the US in 2009. The source for this information is the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the US.

RELATED: How often do cats transmit rabies to people in the USA?

The reason why domestic and stray cats are more likely to transmit rabies to people is because they are off the lead. They wander freely. They are more likely to encounter wildlife who then pass the disease to them in a bite. It is just the nature of how companion animal ownership takes place.

RELATED: Walking your cat on a leash to explore and stimulate. A lifestyle to aspire to?

It's almost certain that recorded incidents in official figures, as stated, are not the true figures. There must be millions of small bites by cats and dogs that take place inside homes and in backyards across the planet annually which go unreported.

Therefore, I don't think we can be certain as to the answer to the question in the title.

For dog bites, the injury rate is highest for children in the age range 5-9. The rates decrease with increasing age. The rate is significantly higher for boys compared to girls. When boys and girls are 15 years of age there is no difference in terms of being bitten by a dog. Injuries normally occur to the arm and leg followed by the leg and foot, followed by the head and neck. When a dog bites a young child under the age of four they attacked the head and neck region (source: CDC).

I don't have CDC figures for cats but they are likely to bite hands more than any other part of the human anatomy because of over-petting and cats treating hands as play objects. Or a person reaches out to a stray cat and the fearful cat bites the person's hand.

Legs as well will be attacked by cats because they are at the same level as them.

Note: I believe that the 2009 CDC stats come from 1994! Anyway the comparison is the important thing.

Dogs love cars, cats hate them. Why?

The manufacturers of the mini in the UK (BMW) have decided to make a dog-friendly mini for sale in 2022. They have partnered with Dogs Trust. I have checked this out and I can't find out what a dog friendly car is. I don't know what they do to make it dog friendly but, to be frank, I'm not sure it matters anyway because dogs like cars but cats don't. Why is this?

I will have to use common sense. It comes down to domestication. The domestic dog is more domesticated than the domestic cat by about 10,000 years. Dogs been domesticated for upwards of 30,000 years whereas the cat has been domesticated for about 10,000 years plus a few thousand possibly. We don't know exactly.

Dogs like cars and cats normally dislike them. Photo: Mini.

The wildcat (African-Asian wildcat) within the domestic cat is just below the surface and it pops up when they go outside and hunt during the night or at dawn and dusk (normally). It is like throwing a switch. Although domestic cats are adaptable and they integrate pretty well into the human lifestyle, they retain their desire to have their home range or territory and other wild feline characteristics. This means that they like their routines and rhythms because they are reassuring.

I feel that the domestic cat inherently struggles a bit with the human home and way of life. And therefore, routines and rhythms and a calm ambience reassures them. When you take them out of that regulated lifestyle into a strange place which is the interior of a car with strange noises, initially, they normally don't like it. 

And also, owners invariably place their cat into a carrier and then into a car. Therefore, they don't like the carrier and being in the car. It is stressful.

Also, cats often associate cars with going to the vet. That is not to say that there are some cats who like going in a car and on a journey. Also, there are instances of inquisitive cats jumping into vans and lorries. And finally, although cats initially are normally anxious about being inside a vehicle, within about 30 minutes or one hour, they often settle down and accept it. So, it is not a black and white situation.

By contrast, though, the domestic dog is pretty well fully integrated into human life and home. They are more attuned to the human way of life and part of that is getting into a vehicle. There is, also, the connection between dog and owner. This is the connection of an alpha animal, the human, and the pack member follower, which is the domestic dog.

If the owner gets into a car the dog follows because they trust the leader. The connection between owner and dog is alpha leader and follower whereas the connection between owner and cat is one of equality and that of mother (the human) to kitten (the cat), normally. That automatically makes it a different relationship.

I think that the manufacturers of the mini car in the UK should work out how to make a car cat friendly rather than dog friendly. However, that's going to be almost impossible because it means changing the personality and traits of a domestic cat rather than the interior components of a car. 

But one thing they might do is provide a built in, large cage at the rear with a window low down so they can see out of it with ease. Once they've settled down, they enjoy looking out the window. It is entirely different to their usual viewing. It is stimulating. There are some benefits for cats in cars. Although this only applies to long journeys when they have time to get used to it.

Domestic cats get cancer less often than humans?

Wes Warren is part of a team of three with William Murphy and Lesley Lyons who mapped the genome of cats. Warren works at the University of Missouri and Murphy works at Texas A&M University. Lyons is a veterinarian and a specialist in cat genetic. They are very skilled scientists and Wes Warren said that cats don't get cancer very often. I thought I would briefly follow that up because Lesley Lyons suggests that cats should be used more in animal research which I strongly disagree with. 

He actually said this:

'We know that dogs get cancer more frequently, similar to ourselves. Cats don’t get cancer very often. And that’s a fascinating story of evolution.'

He is staying that cats get cancer less often than dogs and dogs and humans get it at similar rates.

Cat, dog and human. Photo: Pixabay.

The reason given is that they have better genes than humans (this is probably a massive oversimplification) and therefore we should study them to see whether we can improve human resistance to cancer and other diseases.

My brief research indicates that in the UK 0.54-0.59% of the human population will get cancer whereas in general I'm told that one in five or 20% of cats get cancer in their lifetimes. That positively does not square up with what Wes Warren stated.

It probably doesn't square up because when you try and research the prevalence of cancer in cats just don't get a clear answer except the one that I provided which comes from the Colorado State University. One thing is for sure and that is cats get cancer less often than dogs.

Certainly, dogs are taken to a veterinarian more often cats. That may point to the possibility that dogs are sick more often than cats (or owners are more concerned about dog health?). Overall, cats have better genetic diversity than dogs because a far higher percentage of dogs are purebred and therefore inbred due to selective breeding than cats. Purebred cats are relatively rare compared to random bred cats. Therefore, perhaps it is fair to say that cats have better genes in terms of longevity than dogs and perhaps humans.

I think this team of geneticists say that cats have better DNA 'dark matter' as they call it. The DNA dark matter needs to be studied as it is more important than believed.

Conclusion: I can't find direct statistical comparison between cats and humans on prevalence of cancer. But Wes Warren should know. Cats get cancer less often than people and dogs is the conclusion.

Cats get Covid-19 more often than dogs

There have been more studies on cats and dogs in respect of the coronavirus (Covid-19) recently, and they clearly point to the fact that domestic cats are more susceptible to getting the disease than domestic dogs.

Cats contract Covid-19 more often than dogs. Montage: MikeB

In one study published on the Science website titled: Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS-coronavirus 2, they ranked pets in order of their susceptibility to contracting the coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2). 

In the summary they say that the virus infects the upper respiratory tracts of ferrets. In cats the virus "replicated in the nose and throat and caused inflammatory pathology deep in the respiratory tract". But they say that "airborne transmission did not occur between pairs of cats". 

In dogs, viral replication was not as prevalent as in cats and they had a low susceptibility to the virus. Pigs, chickens and ducks were not susceptible to SARS-Cov-2.

In a second study from the University of Minnesota they looked at how common the virus is in domestic cats and dogs i.e. the prevalence of the disease in these pets.

They found that antibodies were present in 8% of domestic cats for the virus while less than 1% of dogs had these antibodies. This study backs up the earlier one namely that dogs are less susceptible to contracting the disease in cats. When an animal has antibodies to a virus it means that they've had the disease and their immune system has produced antibodies to combat the disease. This is how vaccines work.

The conclusion from these two studies is clear namely that cats contract the disease far more easily than dogs. Once again, it is strongly suggested that cats do not transmit the disease to others including other cats. Or there appears to be a low likelihood of this happening. I don't have the name of the second study but the lead co-author was Hinh Ly which may help people to search for it.

Domestic cats don't evaluate people who interact with their owner unlike dogs

A study carried out by Japanese scientists at the Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan, in 2015 found that domestic dogs evaluated people who interact with their owner. If these third parties were not helpful towards their owner they treated them in a way which indicated that they felt the person was hostile or less than friendly. This indication came from the fact that the dogs were less willing to accept food from the person who had failed to help their owner when help was requested.

Dogs evaluate third parties and cats don't. Pic in public domain. Words added
by MikeB on PoC.

I DISCUSSED THE STUDY IN A DIFFERENT WAY IN ANOTHER ARTICLE. CLICK HERE TO READ IT IF YOU WISH.

In 2021, the same or similar team of scientists headed by the same scientist, Hitomi Chijiiwa, carried out the same test on domestic cats. In summary, they found that "cats might not possess the same social evaluation abilities as dogs". The cats did not react as dogs had to people who did not help their owner by refusing to take food from them.

I will explain the study again and further comment on it below. They say that humans evaluate other humans based upon their interactions between third parties. I interpret this as meaning that people can look at two other people interacting with each other and by those interactions they can assess the character and behavioural traits of those people.

Dogs were also able to assess in a less sophisticated way (in my view) the character traits and behaviour of third parties. For both the cat and dog experiments they used the same procedure. They had the cats watch their owner try and unsuccessfully open a transparent container to take out an object inside and request help from the person sitting nearby. This person was told to either help when requested or not help when requested.

There was a third person sitting nearby who they describe as "passive (neutral) person". This person sat on the other side of the owner under both circumstances i.e. when the other person helped and when they did not help.

After both interactions by the actor who helped and didn't help with the owner, the actor and the passive person offered a piece of food to the cat. The scientist wanted to record from which person the cat took the food. They carried out four trials and noticed that the cats "showed neither a preference for the helper nor avoidance of the non-helper".

On this basis, they considered that cats "might not possess the same social evaluation abilities as dogs" as mentioned above. They do suggest that 'further work on cats' social evaluation capacities needs to consider ecological validity, notably with regard to the species' sociality'.

My comments and thoughts

My comments: I'm not going to read the entire study but simply pass my comments on these findings as stated in the study abstract. You might like to comment yourself. I would really like that actually.

The argument is that dogs have been bred to work with and associate with people. This has occurred for perhaps up to 30,000 years. This is when dogs were first domesticated, it is believed. And dogs have often been working dogs. And in the dog-human relationship they work with people so there is this naturally close, working connection which has allowed the dog to read people and evaluate them.

Conversely, the domestic cat has been domesticated for about ten thousand years, it is believed. It may be longer, as much as fourteen thousand years but this is still work in progress. The cat's role is as a companion although initially at the point of domestication they were working cats rooting out rodents and keeping the population down on farms. However, for many thousands of years their role is to entertain and provide companionship.

Further, the domestic dog is essentially a pack animal because their wild origins are the grey wolf. Pack animals look after each other and communicate with each other. The domestic cat, in contrast is essentially a solitary creature, living and surviving alone. Although their evolution during domestication has resulted in them becoming more sociable. Notwithstanding that advance in sociability, they still lack the skills to read behaviour patterns and traits of humans when watching them interact with their owner.

Ultimately, it comes down to the length of domestication of cats and dogs and their role in the lives of humans. This background has created the differences in results from this study in my opinion. What do you think?

Details of the study:

Cats (Felis catus) Show no Avoidance of People who Behave Negatively to their Owner Hitomi Chijiiwa1, Saho Takagi1, Minori Arahori, James R. Anderson, Kazuo Fujita, & Hika Kuroshima. Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University 2 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Corresponding author (Email: chijiiwa.hitomi.5m@kyoto-u.ac.jp)

Published online: Animal Behavior and Cognition journal.

Are felines stronger than canines?

Felines are cats and canines are dogs. Who's the strongest? Neither. It depends on the species. Size dictates mass and muscle mass dictates strength. The largest cat, the Siberian tiger (about 210 kg), is much larger than the largest dog, the Great Dane (90 kg). No contest on that basis. But the humble and ubiquitous coyote in the US, which is a species of dog kills many domestic cats who are unable to get away. No contest there either.

Lynx squares up to wolf. Image: Vadim Sidorovich

Cats have more fast twitch muscles than dogs I would say. Cats are sprinters. Dogs are endurance runners. Cats stalk and pounce (sprint) to catch prey. Dogs wear down prey animals over many miles. Does this affect strength comparions? No I don't think so.

But the concept of strength is flexible. There is strength of mind leading to persistence which is a factor in overpowering another animal. However, the question is probably asking if the mucles of cats are stronger than the muscles of dogs. The answer depends on their mass which in turn depends on the size of the cat and dog as mentioned. 

If they are the same size the contest is equal. There is an interesting contest between the Canada lynx and the wolf. These are similar sized felines and canines. Who won? The lynx did as the wolf backed off apparently. There is no hard data on this sort of one-to-one encounter in general but the wolf wins because they are always in numbers while the lynx is solitary. Strength in numbrs they say. This is an example. Another aspect of strength which muddies the water when answering the question in the title.