More army horses running loose in London

The Times and other news outlets are reporting a new incident of army horses running loose through London. This event recalls the troubling incident approximately nine weeks ago when Household Cavalry horses, startled by loud construction work, galloped through central London, resulting in injuries to four people and significant harm to at least two horses, though they fully recovered. During that episode, the horses charged into a double-decker tour bus and a van.

In the latest occurrence, three army horses from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, supervised by five soldiers, bolted through central London. The incident began when one horse, which was being led, got spooked by a bus, causing two riders to be unseated and their horses to run loose.

The horses dashed from Seville Street to South Eaton Place, where one was captured. The remaining two continued to Vauxhall Bridge before being stopped. Soldiers were later seen soothing the horses amidst the traffic.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that all three horses were safely returned to Hyde Park Barracks, and none were involved in the previous incident nine weeks prior.

A spokesperson said:

Whilst exercising this morning, three horses from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment became loose from their riders. They were swiftly and safely recovered. One horse received minor injuries but no further treatment is required and there were no injuries to the soldiers.

Two of the horses were collected and placed into a horse box.

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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.

When you shoot feral cats, you psychologically harm the people who care for them

Even in Australia where the feral cat is a pest to be killed in any way possible (irrespective of whether it's cruel or not), often by shooting, there are volunteers who operate TNR programs to manage feral cat colonies. One of these is in Newcastle, Australia and this study refers to them as the 'Stockton Breakwall' cats. Under the orders of the local authority the feral cats were shot at. The intention was to kill them but when you shoot at feral cats you don't always kill them cleanly; in fact probably hardly ever. You leave them severely injured and dying slowly. Barbaric, I say. Unforgivable.

When you shoot feral cats, you psychologically harm the people who care for them. Image: MikeB

This study says that the culling process was mismanaged. They say that it was mismanaged in two ways both in the intended euthanasia (laugh) of the feral cats concerned and in the psychological harm that this process caused to the TNR volunteers.

And I love this study because it looks at the effects of shooting feral cats from the standpoint of the people who want to care for them and who do the right thing. TNR volunteers are great people because they deal with feral cats humanely.

Nathan Winograd, one of America's great animal advocates, sets out six reasons why TNR programs are good for the community. A TNR program:

1. Improves the health of community cats;
2. Reduces intake and killing of community cats;
3. Reduces complaint calls to animal control;
4. Reduces illness in the shelter;
5. Reduces waste of taxpayer money on impound and killing; and, 
6. Increases opportunities to expand the lifesaving of other animals.

By contrast, he says that "lethal methods not only harm cats, they also harm people". The study I'm referring to is "The Impact of Lethal, Enforcement-Centred Cat Management on Human Wellbeing". Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13020271

In summary, they found that the bond between caregivers and cats was "as strong as the bonds with their own pets" and that the "the cats looked to them (the caregivers) to keep them safe and fed".

“I had a favourite called (Nala) and she was one of the ones that got killed… There’s people that really, really had such strong feelings for these animals… They are very loved.”

“They’re not feral. They’re pets waiting to go home, they really are. They’ve proven that to all of us that care for them. They just deserve better.”

“…the worst area. There was blood everywhere. All over the rocks, all over the pathway, like drag marks. So, once I’d sat with them, I’m going, ‘far out!’—something horrendous has happened here… I just started crying because the realization that out of the cats that were there, they probably only spotted about five. It was like, oh my God, what the hell has happened out here?”

“… two men came back in sort of like council suits, and they had some wheelie bins with them. They proceeded to scrub the blood away. They had cleaning products, and they were cleaning up the mess. We asked them what they were doing, and they laughed at us. That’s when we knew that this was something way bigger than we ever imagined.” 

We know that TNR volunteers give names to the semi-domesticated feral cats. They treat them as domestic cats and some of them are. They are adoptable. But they are living good lives in a feral cat community. The arrangement is beneficial for the human and the cat community. Why destroy that? And why destroy it in such a brutal and insensitive way?

I'll tell you why. It is because the Australian authorities across the continent have got it into their heads that they have to eradicate feral cats because they are preying upon their small mammal and marsupial native species. They want to conserve these small native species and of course I strongly agree with that objective.

But they can do far better in their objective if they looked to themselves and their behaviour. Human behaviour is far more destructive of Australia's native species then feral cat behaviour. Prioritise the most damaging cause of the gradual extirpation of native species which is human activity both in building new settlements as Australia is always doing to improve the economy and in terms of their contribution to global warming through the exportation of vast amounts of coal to China.

Australia has suffered from horrendous global warming events such as massive floods and intolerable heat waves. Look to yourselves I say and stop harming the kind and generous people who care for feral cats that were put there by human negligence.

It is unsurprising that feral cat caregivers suffer psychologically when their cats are shot brutally. The suffering was described as "significant". It led to "grief, trauma, poor physical health, and long-term psychological distress, including profound guilt, loss and the ability to eat" in the words of Nathan Winograd. Stop it!! You are insensitive and frankly ignorant when you order shooters to kill feral cats.

And what about the mistakes? Shooting someone's pet cat which must happen. Then you harm the owner psychologically as well. 

And what about shooting millions of kangaroos? 

Kitty with broken arm still makes biscuits

Kitty with broken arm still makes biscuits. Screenshot.

Super cute and a bit sad at the same time. I don't know anything about the backstory but what is obvious is that this cute little blackie is a rescue cat and for some reason they broke their right foreleg. It is been splinted. I suspect the vet thought that being a kitten with growing bones, the leg would knit together well.

Well, if he feels pain, it does not stop him from making biscuits - kneading. The drive to knead is high especially in kittens as it is an instinctive behavior to help the flow of colostrum from their mother's breast as you almost certainly know by now as it has been discussed a lot on the internet.

He is kneading a mother cat substitute: the bedding which feels nice and warm like his mother's breast. Cute. I hope he recovers fully and is lucky enough to be placed in a loving home as soon as he is well enough.

Why do cats isolate themselves to die? They don't.

This is my opinion, essentially, based on common sense and a general understanding of feline and animal behavior, although I did a bit of reading up on it before putting pen to paper. Cats don't decide to 'isolate' themselves to die. It's the wrong word. Firstly, in my opinion, domestic cats don't know that they are dying. They are not making a rational decision to go away to die on their own. 

They do know that they cannot defend themselves against a predator because they are injured. And they do know they have to find a safe place to protect themselves from predators. The domestic cat is behaving as a wild cat. They don't recognise the fact, under the circumstances, that they have a human home to go to for help (when the injury occurs outside the home).

Why do cats isolate themselves to die? Photo in public domain.

And so domestic cats find a safe place to protect themselves when they are badly injured or very ill. 

There is a complication here because if a domestic cat is very ill, they will normally be treated by a veterinarian with their owner's help. There is no opportunity to find a safe place to hide. The concept of finding a safe place to hide really is about indoor/outdoor cats and the cat being outside and getting into trouble. Or they live in a household where the owner is absent and unconcerned, perhaps even negligent.

They don't do the same thing if they are dying of natural causes in my opinion. Domestic cats will find a safe place for protection if they are seriously injured but not if they are dying of natural causes, but it depends upon whether they are dying of old age (general failure of the body's organs due to old age) or of a specific illness in my opinion.

I think this is a correct assessment because, as mentioned above, they don't know that they are dying (disagree with me? Please leave a comment). And therefore, if they don't feel pain, they don't feel vulnerable and if they don't feel vulnerable there is no need to find a safe place to protect themselves. Under these circumstances they will simply stop breathing wherever they are. 

This is why you read stories of domestic cats dying of old age anywhere in their owner's home. It might be in their favourite place or in the kitchen or on their owner's lap. They suddenly pass away perhaps during the night and their human caregiver simply discovers them.

But if they are injured, they will do their best to find somewhere safe which affords them protection, to allow themselves time to gain their strength and to heal themselves. They are not predicting into the future that they will be able to heal themselves. It's all instinctive. They just instinctively know that they need to have time in a safe place to try and get back to good health. They may well pass away at that place and often do.

They do not go away 'into isolation' to hide from associates (friends) but from predators. Although I would appreciate the views of others. I did a quick search of the Internet to see what other people thought and, by and large, the general mood is as I stated on this page.

Cat claw is bent sideways, what should I do?

The cat's caregiver asks the question in the title and adds:

"Should I leave like this or do something? He can walk fine and it only seems to hurt if you touch it, I didn't see any blood or complaining"

My response is as follows (it continues below the picture - what would your response be?):

"As the cat's claw is embedded into bone and that bone is the distal phalange of the foreleg and hindleg toe, it would seem to me that the claw has broken at its base where it enters into the bone.

Cat claw is bent sideways, what should I do? This is a screenshot from a video provided by the user whose username is: u/Kistar2.

It will be sore because there are nerve endings and blood vessels which pass into the base of the claw.

As the others have said, cats are stoic. They don't show pain generally but your cat does indicate that it is tender to the touch.

It would appear that he or she has landed badly after jumping down, jumping up or perhaps clawing their way up something and the claw has been damaged in a way which I think requires a veterinarian to check out.

That's my assessment. I could be wrong. I am not a veterinarian but I have spent 15 years studying domestic cats including their anatomy including the cat's claw as I am interested in a ban on declawing. Good luck."

Tip of cat tail bone exposed. Cause?

Here is a link to a slightly disturbing picture of the degloving of the tip of a cat's tail. I am linking to the picture in case it upsets some advertisers. It is not that bad though. It just depends how sensitive you are. The bone at the tip of the tail is exposed. The fur and skin are missing.  

It is the sort of injury that could lead to an infection and, yes, the cause is probably an injury because the tail was trapped in a door and the cat moved forward at the same time causing the skin to tear off. It is unusual to see bare bone like this.

Click to see injured tail tip 

Although trapped tails are probably not that unusual as they trail behind a cat. And cats linger around the feet of their owner. How it happens: the owner fails to see their cat at their feet and closes the patio door at the moment he/she is coming inside the home. Bingo, the tail is trapped and the skin torn off. 

The moral (one I have learned after stepping on my cat) is to always check you feet when closing doors and when feeding your cat in the kitchen.

This problem is one which come about because of the enormous size difference between cat and human. They can be almost invisible if they follow you around unless you look down all the time. There is a real danger of injury to a domestic cat if they are very attached to their owner. We are giants in the eyes of our cat companions. It is good sometimes to lie on the grass with your cat to get down to their height. I find that my cat appreciates it 😉.

A common injury with respect to the tail occurs when a car runs over the tail which pulls apart the sacral-lumbar or coccygeal vertebrae, stretching the nerves that go to the bladder, rectum and tail.

Berkeley cat has sudden aversion to being petted

I have taken the title from The Mercury News. The reason why I am writing this note is because a reader of that online newspaper asked a question of their resident expert, Joan. They said that their nine-year-old beloved indoor cat had suddenly taken to clawing at her after she petted him for more than a minute. She found it very odd because he is usually very docile. She wanted to know the cause. I'd like to throw my hat into the ring.

Cat being petted. Image: Getty.

Joan suggested two possible causes: that the cat was feeling pain for some reason and petting him exacerbated the pain causing the inadvertently provoked aggression in response. And secondly she thought that he might be feeling stressed because of a change to his lifestyle as a result of the pandemic.

It's a good question which implies that for many years this woman has been petting her cat in a completely acceptable way. Therefore nothing has changed in the way that she is petting her cat. Therefore the change must come within the cat i.e. there is pain or the environment has changed.

The most likely cause would be that this middle-aged cat has developed sensitivity to petting. This could be quite easily investigated. It may be a certain area of his body which is tender. The owner could do what veterinarians do namely palpate her cat which means to feel her cat and apply a bit of gentle pressure. She can then observe her cat's response. An aggressive response after palpitating a certain area would clearly indicate pain in that area. She could then telephone her vet is there was no external injury.

Cats perceive these circumstances as the person being aggressive towards them. They don't rationalise the fact that they are injured and the person is trying to find the injury. They just feel pain and the pain is being caused by a person so they think that person is deliberately causing them pain. And this would apply even if they have lived with that person for many years in a very good relationship. It's instinctive.

If that doesn't produce any results then you need to look to the environment. I don't believe the coronavirus is the problem (but see below). There may be something else in the environment which is upsetting him. For example, there may be a cat outside which he has noticed which is irritating him because that cat is invading his territory. He wants to attack the cat but can't because he's an indoor cat. Therefore he redirects his aggression at his owner. Petting can irritate under these circumstances and therefore he claws the owner. This, I believe, is the most likely kind of environmental issue causing this abnormal response to petting.

There might be someone else in the home which is upsetting them. Or the owner might be away a lot more than before. On reflection Covid might be a factor on this basis because if the owner was home all the time and then it suddenly away from home the cat might be upset. However the aggressive reaction under these circumstances is unlikely.

The first thing to do is to check health as Joan said (the most likely cause) and then to go through the environmental tick box possibilities until you hit the right answer. The problem might subside naturally with patience.

Leroy, a happy cat who had fragments of his spine in his abdomen and a fused spinal cord

Leroy is at Happy Tailz Cat Rescue Inc. (Tampa Bay area, Florida) . He is being cared for brilliantly. He was badly injured; I am not sure how. His spine was damaged. He was operated on but the infection wouldn't go away so they operated again. They found 3 fragments of his spinal column in his abdomen. They must have split off when he was injured. And nature had fused his spine. The rescue said:

"Dr Sabshin removed the pieces and took an X-Ray which revealed Leroy has a partial fusion of his spinal cord, more than likely from injury related to the formation of his original wound. This cat is a walking miracle. With his spine like this we should see issues walking, even paralysis, but he has no issues!"

Leroy. Photo: the cat rescue.

Nature healed this cat's spine which became partially fused. Image: the rescue.

Fragments of bone from Leroy's spine found in his abdomen. Photo: the rescue.

A handsome, happy and resilient boy cat who is being loved and cared for. And he is a humble black moggy. That's the best thing about it. America's rescue organisations do some impressive work. And lots of them are volunteers doing it for love. They are the best of us.

P.S. I wonder if Leroy is genuinely not feeling pain. Cats purr when in pain and distressed. Although the photo of him shows a relaxed cat.

Autistic Singaporean with antisocial personality wanted to harm cats because they weren't human

ANG MO KIO, SINGAPORE - NEWS AND COMMENT: A 37-year-old Singaporean, Leow Wei Liang, simply wanted to harm community cats. In some respects he hid behind his autism and antisocial personality disorder. But the bottom line is that this man wanted to harm cats because they are not human and were 'just cats'. He harmed them for his own perverse entertainment. He could not use his personality disorders as a defence to being cruel to animals. As a consequence, he was successfully prosecuted and on conviction he was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison.

Photos: Ang Mo Kio South Caregivers and Feeders)

Leow pleaded guilty to 3 counts of animal cruelty and another four charges were taken into consideration. In evidence it was submitted that several community cats were injured over a month in housing estates in Ang Mo Kio. He said that he had bought a penknife with the intention of injuring seven cats.

He said that he is allergic to cat fur and "wanted to have fun since the stray cats were stray animals and not human."

The cats suffered a range of wounds, all serious but none fatal as far as I am aware. Leow was assessed as to his mental health in order to ensure that he could stand trial and plead. The assessment found that his acts of cruelty were not because of a difficulty in comprehending the consequences of his actions but simply because of a desire to inflict pain on animals as a form of entertainment

Comment: the case is interesting partly because this man had mental health issues which may have opened the door to using them as a defence in his prosecution. They might have argued that he did not have the sufficient intent to commit the crimes because of his personality disorders. But the experts found that he was perfectly able to comprehend what he was doing and the consequences thereof and therefore he stood trial and was found guilty.

It seems that the police didn't take that long to find him which indicates to me that the was either very careless in his acts of cruelty or was unconcerned about being arrested and tried.

Here is a Facebook post on the topic which fills in some gaps. Remember that FB posts sometimes stop working over time as they are deleted on FB.

Do tigers lose their teeth because they break over time?

Tigers certainly do lose their teeth especially the canine teeth because they are used so heavily when attacking and holding prey. I am referring to wild tigers in their habitat. I'd expect captive tigers to suffer from teeth breakages less often.

They have four canine teeth, two on the upper jaw and two on the lower jaw. The photograph on this page shows all four of these teeth either broken or almost entirely missing. The photo below shows intact canines. 

I've seen lions with pretty well the same problem, missing perhaps one, two or more of their canine teeth through heavy usage.

Broken or badly work tiger teeth. Photo: Getty Images.

It must be a hazard for the big cats and it must affect survivability. I'm not saying tigers can't survive with broken canine teeth but it must be harder. Tigers have longer canine teeth than other big cats and in a fully grown tiger they can be nearly 8 cm long (6.4-7.6 cms - 2.5 to 3.0 inches). In addition to breakages, as they get older their teeth become more yellow.

Intact tiger teeth. Photo in public domain.

In addition to broken teeth often teeth are worn down. A tiger can starve because of bad teeth. Bad teeth may also encourage them to seek easier prey which means they might move closer to human settlements to search for domestic animals. This brings them into contact with people and possible retaliatory attacks which may take their life.

Canines have pressure sensing nerves attached to them which allows the cat to sense the location where the canine is inserted into prey for best effect.

Shelter received frantic phone call about a cat seen for several weeks with plastic contraption around its leg and neck

Shelter received a frantic phone call about a cat that had been seen for several weeks with a plastic contraption around its leg and neck. Photo: Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter.

The cat was saved. She may fully recover. They thought that she might lose on of her lelgs. What happened I wonder for this cat to become entangled with piece of circular plastic? Accidental or deliberate abuse? We'll never know.

The FB post below may stop working in due course because they are sometimes removed from Facebook. The post is 'embedded' into this website with code.

On Wednesday evening , we received a frantic phone call about a cat that had been seen for several weeks with a plastic...

Posted by Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter on Friday, July 9, 2021

Domestic cat bites off the end of her tail. Why?

The owner of this cat, Cleo, suggests that she plays with her tail because she was raised with dogs. The problem has deteriorated to the point where she growls and is more aggressive with her tail. She actually bit off the end off, which is self-mutilation and this cannot be normal. 

Kitten plays with tail. Photo: Warren Photographic published her with his express permission.

Perhaps a domestic cat might get into a habit of playing with their tail more often than normal and it may go wrong but I don't think a domestic cat can bite off the end of her tail unless something is wrong. I would suggest, therefore, that she has a mental health problem or she feels pain in her tail.

MENTAL CONFLICT

Firstly, she is in mental conflict or in a state of anxiety and is engaged in displacement activity. Displacement activity is when a cat does something which displaces their emotional state which is uncomfortable. The classic example of it is when a cat licks their nose. Humans do it when they bite their fingernails. Over grooming is also a form of displacement activity.

Sometimes the cat's owner may intervene in the wrong way, perhaps in an indelicate way which exacerbates the situation. And if a tail has been damaged in this way it may also exacerbate the situation because there would be pain. The tail may have to be amputated. The underlying mental condition would remain, however. They would need to be an assessment of the cat's mental state i.e. mental conflict causing this 'compulsive disorder'. And the pain would have to be managed. 

A barrier to biting the tail would have to be introduced e.g. a collar.

A veterinarian might prescribe mind altering drugs to calm the cat and also the owner can do a lot by creating regular routines and providing daily interactions. I think a lot of this sort of problem is due to anxieties which are difficult to detect.

BEHAVIOURAL

A second possibility but one which is probably much less likely would be that a cat has become too aggressive when playing with their tail. It is commonplace for a cat to play with their tail. I think that it can often be due to boredom and they have this natural hunting instinct so they hunt their own tail. It might develop into something which is too aggressive causing self-mutilation. If this is the cause then it is relatively harmless but once again a way out of it would be for the human guardian to engage with their cat more often in play and to ensure that their cat was fully stimulated.

PAIN

A third possibility would be pain in her tail. There should be an attempt to alleviate it. There would have to be a full veterinary assessment to look for conditions such as neurologic diseases and dermatologic disorders. Animals do try and resolve pain by nibbling and biting and when it gets worse, they may end up self-mutilating. Along that way of thinking, there appears to be three overall possibilities. 

CONCLUSION

In conclusion the three possibilities are (1) mental conflict (2) overaggressive play (3) disease causing pain and discomfort.

P.S. I am not a vet just a concerned cat owner.

Should a domestic cat lick her wounds and why do they do it?

I would argue that it is entirely natural for a domestic cat to lick her wounds but veterinarians object to it. After surgery there is a wound and veterinarians stop cats licking that wound by providing an Elizabethan collar. But nature dictates that domestic cats will naturally lick their wounds. It is what a wildcat would do. This is because there are both good things and bad things in cat saliva. 

Firstly, licking alleviates pain. And it has a calming effect which is why cats lick themselves when stressed.

Cat wearing a collar to prevent her from licking a wound. Pic: Pixabay.

Secondly, there is a long list of substances in saliva which are beneficial to wound healing. You can read the full list on Wikipedia. I'll quote a short section: 'saliva contains cell-derived tissue factor, and many compounds that are antibacterial or promote healing. Salivary tissue factor, associated with microvesicles shed from cells in the mouth, promotes wound healing through the extrinsic blood coagulation cascade. The enzymes lysozyme and peroxidase, defensins, cystatins and an antibody, IgA, are all antibacterial. Thrombospondin and some other components are antiviral'.

The problem is - and we all know this - that a cat's saliva contains some nasty bacteria. This is exactly why cat bites can become badly infected, sometimes, albeit quite rarely, in my opinion. You have to take antibiotics quickly on the first signs of an infection from a cat bite in order to prevent quite a lengthy process of healing.

So there are pros and cons in cat saliva with respect to a cat licking her wound. The bottom line, however, is that veterinarians have made the decision that the cons are much bigger than the pros or in other words the dangers and downsides of a cat licking a wound far outweigh the potential benefits brought about by the compounds that I mentioned above.

Therefore the answer to the question in the title is that cats should not lick their wounds. However, when left to their own devices they'll do it because it makes them feel better. It alleviates pain and it helps the wound to heal. It is part of evolution. It is a home-made way for cats to heal wounds. Sunlight containing ultraviolet light is also good at healing wounds which is why they are sometimes better left exposed to the sunlight.

Delivery driver runs over kitten in driveway of property. Who is at fault?

A woman is in the process of receiving a delivery of groceries having ordered them online. The supermarket vehicle is parked up in the driveway and the goods are being offloaded. The woman lets her cats go outside. This is the UK. One of her cats is a 7-month-old kitten. She does not know where he is.

As she knows he could be outside she asks the delivery driver to move off slowly after the delivery has been fully offloaded. The idea is to give the kitten warning that the vehicle is moving. The driver does not carry out her instructions and drives off quickly. The kitten is crushed by one of the wheels. The kitten must have been very near the wheel when the vehicle moved off.

The woman is naturally distraught. The supermarket apologised, gave her flowers and £100. The woman is still upset and feels aggrieved. She is complaining to the company.



Who is at fault? It is not all on one side. I'd say the woman is equally at fault as the driver. She may have to bear the burden of most of the fault in my view. She knew the van was there. She knew her kitten could have been there. A tragic accident was forseable. She did not do enough to prevent it. The better solution would have been to either keep her cats inside when the delivery was being made or to inspect under the vehicle before it was driven off.