The Kiffness performs viral ‘eating the cats' track live in Munich. More pain for Trump.

The Kiffness is a talented South African musician renown for this satirical music. He has latched onto Trump's egg-on-the-face rant about Haitian migrants eating cats and made a funny song about it. More pain for Trump.

"My initial desire to remix the quote was because I thought it was amusing and outlandish, but I also recognized the melodic element to the statement. I decided to give it a shot and I had the basic idea for the song in a matter of minutes," The Kiffness told Newsweek of his inspiration to remix the line from the debate.

Here is a video on this:

About The Kiffness

The Kiffness is the stage name of David Scott, a South African musician, producer, and internet personality, renowned for his satirical, humorous, and socially conscious music content. He gained widespread fame through his innovative remixes of viral internet videos, as well as his original songs and clever musical parodies.

Key Facts about The Kiffness:

• Full Name: David Scott
• Born: 1988, in Cape Town, South Africa
• Education: Studied jazz at Rhodes University in South Africa
• Musical Style: Primarily electronic, with influences from jazz, house, funk, and pop

Early Life and Career

David Scott was musically inclined from a young age, learning piano and trumpet. He formed The Kiffness in 2011, initially as a live electronic act that performed energetic house and electronic dance music (EDM) at various festivals and events. "Kiff" is South African slang for "cool" or "awesome," which reflects the fun, positive, and lighthearted nature of his musical persona.

Over time, Scott's music evolved to incorporate more humor and social commentary, often addressing political and societal issues in South Africa. This shift in tone helped him gain more widespread attention, as he used his platform to speak out on issues like government corruption, load shedding (power cuts), and social inequalities.

Rise to Fame with Viral Internet Videos

The Kiffness skyrocketed to global recognition by remixing viral internet content, often featuring animals, news clips, and quirky internet personalities. His most well-known viral remixes include songs featuring meowing cats, yodeling goats, and quirky interviews. These videos not only display his musical creativity but also his ability to adapt viral trends into humorous, catchy songs.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, his unique remixes, especially those incorporating viral animal videos, found a huge audience online. The popularity of these videos led to massive growth on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.

One of his standout collaborations is the remix of a popular Russian cat video, where a cat meows in a distinct rhythmic pattern, and The Kiffness adds layers of instrumental and vocal harmonies, creating a viral hit.

Social Commentary and Satire

David Scott frequently uses his platform to make biting social commentary on political and social issues, both in South Africa and globally. His humor is sharp and often takes aim at government corruption, corporate greed, and environmental issues, but he always manages to balance it with light-heartedness and wit.

For example, he created a satirical song about South Africa's frequent power outages due to Eskom, the country's electricity supplier, and he has voiced his frustrations with governmental mismanagement in a way that resonates with many South Africans.

Activism and Advocacy

Beyond humor and satire, Scott is also vocal about issues he cares about, such as animal rights, environmental conservation, and promoting fairness in the music industry. He has advocated for fair compensation for musicians and transparency in the streaming industry, criticizing unfair royalty payouts from platforms like Spotify.

Personal Life

David Scott is married to Jute Scott, who is also part of The Kiffness’s videos and acts as a behind-the-scenes collaborator on many projects. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and continues to produce content that blends music, humor, and social awareness.

Impact and Legacy

The Kiffness has not only entertained millions worldwide with his catchy remixes and satirical content but has also managed to turn viral trends into meaningful social commentary. His ability to mix humor, music, and activism has solidified him as one of South Africa's most prominent internet personalities and a global viral sensation.

His work exemplifies how internet culture and music can merge to create viral, impactful content that transcends language and cultural barriers, making him a unique and influential figure in both the South African and global music scenes.

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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. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Story about Haitians eating cats was third or fourth hand and unsubstantiated

Note: see update at end of article. The Daily Mail tells us that Erika Lee is the person who posted information/rumours about Haitian migrants in Springfield Ohio killing and eating cats. But she got the information according to this paper through a neighbour who told her daughter about the rumour. The neighbour's name is Kimberly Newton. Kimberly Newton heard the rumour through a friend. And her friend heard the rumour from the alleged cat owner!

So I make that three stages through which the story passed i.e. through three different people, may be four if you count her daughter.

It's the kind of rumour that carries zero weight in terms of evidence in a court. It's third or fourth hand, a rumour or anecdote, there's no first hand evidence here. It's just highly speculative and Erika Lee regrets what happened.

She has posted to Facebook about this and about how the evidence is so weak that it has to be ignored.

Lee's initial Facebook post sparked panic across social media after screenshots were circulated around X in which she warned Haitian migrants were hanging cats from a branch like you do a deer for butchering.

And she went on to talk about dogs suffering the same fate and ducks and geese. And she said that people should keep a close eye on their animals.

As the entire world now knows, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance picked up on this and made complete fools of themselves with Trump raising it during that critical debate with Kamala Harris. Since then both Trump and Vance have tried to row back from that egg-on-the-face moment.

But Vance has dug a bigger hole for himself by saying that all along he spewed out the story to make a point about illegal immigrants and the reason for their existence in America namely Kamala Harris's policies. But that ridiculous claim has also backfired because it looks transparently fictitious. He's making it up as he goes along.

But this post is about one thing: the fourth hand rumour mill which ended up a hard fact in Trump's mind much to his ultimate chagrin.

'It just exploded into something I didn't mean to happen,' Erika Lee told NBC News.

Update 18-9-2024:  Huff Post reports the following:

An Ohio woman whose police report was used to power racist rumors about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating neighborhood cats has admitted her pet was found in her home, just days after she reported her Haitian neighbors to local police.

It appears that the cat owner is Anna Kilgore who filed the report but who she "told the paper that her pet, Miss Sassy, was found in her basement days after she contacted the police."

There you go. Another nail in the coffin of this silly story and another dollop of egg on Donald Trump's face. 😎

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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. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Don't buy or use this F**k**g litter robot killer (infographic and video)

This is a cross-post as the information needs to spread around the internet like manure over a farmer's field 😱. Look, when a device made in China ends up killing cats it gets me very annoyed. And there is a long history of China shipping crappy products from their country to the West which kill cats and dogs.

Cycles vertically - a scissor action by Michael Broad

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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. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

"My cat killing claim was all bull" said J.D. Vance

OPINION AND NEWS: In my view, J.D. Vance has dreamt up, over the last few days, a way to row back from the absurd claim he made about Haitian migrants in Springfield Ohio eating pet dogs, cats and ducks. He was heavily criticised. There was an avalanche of Mickey taking and he got burnt as did Trump. So he is backtracking and is doing it by saying that what he said was all lies. Quite a neat idea but more gasoline on the dying embers.

Image: Wikipedia.

J.D. Vance has admitted that he "created" the story about Haitian migrants eating pets. Speaking to CNN yesterday, Vance, 40, said that he created the unsubstantiated claims about Springfield which have been dismissed by the local mayor. He did so he says to "draw attention to the Biden/Harris immigration policies".

He said that he had to do this to draw attention to what he argues is sloppy policies by the Biden and Harris administration on matters concerning immigration. He claimed that he has to "create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."

He added (emphasised) that "I say that we are creating a story, meaning we are creating the American media focusing on it. I don't create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris's policies. Her policies did that."

Sidebar: I'm not sure that migrants in Springfield are actually illegal. In a previous post it was claimed that they were legal but that needs to be clarified.

And he further added: "But, yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about the story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris's policies." The third time he said it.

So there you go, he is arguably backtracking and trying to brush over what I argue was a massive faux pas on his behalf and also by Donald Trump. And I've also argued in another post this morning that the recent attempted assassination of Donald Trump while he was playing golf just might (allegation) have been set up by Don Trump himself and his team in order to garner more support in a faltering campaign brought partly about by Trump and Vance's irresponsible statements about these Haitian immigrants.

My guess is that Vance's team dreamt up this latest idea. He probably had a fraught meeting about it and asked for ideas. They came up with this. 

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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. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

San Diego man imprisoned for 8 years for extreme torture of at least 10 cats

This is another unusually long sentence for animal cruelty but it is very welcome as we are used to judges failing to sentence severely enough in cases of cat cruelty. The sentence appears to be commensurate with the crime as the torture appears to have been extreme.

There is not much detail except that in a video a local news media outlet describes cats being zip tied inside cages and tortured.

RELATED: Oklahoman kitten serial killer sentenced to 12 years in prison. - There are some mad people around. You have be criminally mad to do what these two did.

This is the readout from the missing cat's GPS tracker which led police to Boyer's home where the tortured and killed cats were in cages. 

I'll leave the rest to you imagination but don't dwell on it. It sounds like this man is very emotionally damaged and in need of treatment as well as punishment.

There were more than a dozen dead cats inside his home.

The police investigated when a missing cat's GPS tracker pinged at his house.  This would indicate that he was stealing domestic cats and torturing them to death.

The news media won't go into detail as it is too gory.

His name is Joshua Boyer (believed). He lives at Oceanside, San Diego, Calif, USA.

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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.

JK Rowling says that Scarlet Blake the cat-killing trans murderer isn't a woman

Transgender criminal defendants should not be referred to by their chosen gender. According to JK Rowling - a person who believes in biological sex rather than their self-certificated gender or trangener - a man who commits a crime as a transgender woman should be charged, prosecuted and sentenced as a man. I agree with her and support her outspoken and brave views.

JK Rowling pic from her Twitter account. I hope she accepts me publishing it here. If not please tell me in a comment and I will act fast.

She says this because she has criticised the reports about the criminal charging, prosecution and sentencing of Scarlet Blake, a transgender person who was successfully prosecuted for cat killing and torture followed by the murder of a randomly selected man namely Jorge Carreno

JK Rowling believes that to report these crimes as if they were by a woman denigrates women. She says that it is unfair on women that a transgendered man has been charged and prosecuted as a woman. This goes to the heart of what JK Rowling believes namely that you can't alter your biological gender or sex.

It has been very troublesome for her, that belief. She's been very harshly criticised by the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community). This community demanded that JK Rowling's books be outlawed by the community to try and hurt her sales. JK Rowling pressed on unaffected by it.

She has her rights and the right to have her own opinions and the right to express them. And I like that attitude. Personally I think that transgendered people should be able to choose their sex in terms of legal documentation and general day-to-day affairs but I also believe as JK Rowling does that you can't change your fundamental gender at birth.

I am sorry that this believe might upset some people but that's what I believe. The reason why am talking about this is because there is a cat context in this story as you probably know as Scarlet Blake is described as a "cat-killing trans murderer". That is in The Times today. The full headline is "Rowling: cat-killing trans-murderer isn't a woman".

After it emerged that Blake was a transitioned from male to female person Rowling criticised Sky News for referring to her as a woman in its reporting. She shared her views in a clip in a video on Twitter/X in which the author wrote: "I'm sick of this s***. This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes."

This tag is used by "gender-critical feminists". JK Rowling is a gender-critical feminists. These are people who believe what I've stated namely that your biological sex remains throughout your life and they say this in the interest of feminism.

In a separate post, Rowling added:

"Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes. Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a woman's present. Ideologically driven misinformation is not journalism."

Scarlet Blake, according to my research, was being held in a male prison. That was presumably on remand and I will presume that she will remain in a male prison during her 24 year life sentence without parole. That, if true, should be welcomed by JK Rowling.

1. Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes.
2. Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a women's prison.
3. Ideologically-driven misinformation is not journalism. pic.twitter.com/9hnBBAY6eH

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 26, 2024

Transgender women with male genitalia aren't allowed to be held in mainstream women's prisons according to The Times. Nine in ten transgender women are housed in men's prisons according to the Ministry of Justice.

I'm told to that the journalist Louise Tickle, an award-winning reporter who has written for The Guardian for more than 20 years, said that she was boycotting The Guardian newspaper for not telling its readers that Blake was transgender.

My personal experience is that early on in this story, newspapers were not mentioning that Blake was transgender and I guess it was because they were trying to be politically correct. 

I find that very strange because it's important that the reports should mention that Blake is transgender. It was part of the story and in fact it was part of the trial because the jurors had to consider whether Blake was big enough and therefore physically able to kill the man she randomly selected, Carreno. Being a man she was.

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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.

Scarlet Blake alleged murderer and cat killer claims she killed and tortured to please partner

NEWS AND COMMENT/OPINION: This is the continuing story of Scarlet Blake. It is a muddled story and it is unfolding in court at the moment in the UK. You may have read that she has been accused or it appears that she copied the behaviour of Luka Magnotta about which a documentary was made and aired on Netflix called Don't F***with Cats. 

Click this link for an earlier report about Blake before she attended court for her criminal trial.

And click this link to read my argument that her former partner Ashlynn Bell probably should be charged with aiding and abetting Blake's murder - she has been found guilty of murder in a British criminal court.

Scarlet Blake. Image in the public domain.

Luka Magnotta is notorious for suffocating two kittens in a plastic bag and then going on to kill a man and he uploaded the videos to the Internet. I have the video of the suffocation of the cats but I can't present all of it because that would be against current Internet rules. But if you want to see the beginning of it then please click this link.

Video of alleged cat torturer and man murderer walking the streets looking for a victim.

Inspired by docuseries?

We are not sure if Blake was inspired by this docuseries but her behaviour indicates that it was. But there are complications. She claimed that she is transgender and she told her parents that she was transgender when she was 12 and her parents rejected her and her feelings. This appears to have had a severely detrimental effect on her mental health and development.

My interpretation of the story, is that she hates herself and wants to be destroyed. She is obsessed with blood and destruction. She claimed that she self harms. She is a very troubled woman/man.

Transgender

As mentioned, she claims that she is transgender and has been taking testosterone blockers and has taken these drugs for a long time. We don't know whether she is a woman transgendering to be a man or vice versa. On the basis that she is taking testosterone blockers it indicates that she is a man transgendering to be a woman. If that is correct, this individual is a young man but the news media does not say this.

Did it to please partner?

And with respect to the cat that she tortured and allegedly put into a blender, she claimed that she did this to please her then lover or partner who apparently she met on a forum. Her partner's name is Ashlynn Bell who lives in Colorado, US. It is seems that her relationship with Bell was on the Internet through this forum but I don't know.

She claims that she dissected and put a neighbour's cat in a blender to please Bell. She feels guilty about it. She claims that she did not want to kill the cat but carried out this gruesome killing to put on a show for her partner/lover as it was her birthday or it was Valentine's Day.

She claims it was to make Bell happy because it was something that Bell wanted her to do. She pretended to enjoy it. The whole thing was choreographed she says.

She was asked in court whether she was concerned or aware of the cat's suffering and her response apparently, according to the report, that she felt "awful and guilty". She ended the cat's suffering by stabbing the animal in the heart.

She is also accused of killing a man who ultimately drowned apparently. It's not clear whether she hit him over the head and he subsequently fell into a river or a canal. But on social media there are claims that she strangled him but that would be impossible with the strength that she has or claims to have because she claimed that she has the strength of a unfit woman.

So it appears that she hit the man over the head and then pushed him into this canal or river. He drowned. She said that she was unable to refuse Bell's requests to harm others.

The court also heard that her name was previously Alice Wang. She claims that she suffers from dissociative identity disorder. She says that she has different parts of herself and feels like there are various people in her head. 

She lost her sex drive because of the drug she is taking and in response to a question about her sex life at court, she said the following: "Giving myself up to someone who would take pleasure in destroying me was something I was, I don't know, drawn to".

She involved herself in role-play with Bell in which she was strangled. This indicates that Bell was in the UK at the time? Confused.

Comment

This is an update, and as you can see it's a bit vague because the reporting is not that great in my opinion. But my conclusion about Blake is that she is a very emotionally disturbed woman or man I don't know which; obsessed with perhaps her own death and the killing and death of others. It seems that she wants to die and has very low self esteem. That is my personal assessment on what I read in reports and I'm a layperson not a psychiatrist.

Source of information: various but mainly Mail Online.

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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.

Closure of cat meat restaurant, Vietnam. For an animal advocate this is a great Christmas present.

NEWS AND OPINION. THIS IS AN OP-ED. I VOICE MY OPINION: For an animal advocate like myself and there are many millions of others the news that the Vietnamese restaurant that killed 300 cats a month to make cats soup has closed for good is the best Christmas present they could have. 

This restaurant was a blot on the animal welfare landscape. They drowned 300 cats a month to make cat soup and presumably other cat meat meals. Can you imagine that? Drowning 300 cats a month? Every act an act of gross cruelty multiplied by 300 in a 30 day period which is 10 acts of gross cruelty every day against innocent animals.

And the people who did it had no qualms about it at all. Not an inkling of conscience. Nothing, nada, zero. The brain was dead. Or perhaps I am wrong and they did grow a conscience (see below).

Education

Actually, I think this is about education. I think the owner of this restaurant learned through the Internet and through the Humane Society that stealing people's pets and cruelly killing them and then eating them was immoral, wrong and entirely inhumane. It's about education ultimately. If you want to stop the cat meat trade then you need to educate people.

Pham Quoc Doanh, the restaurant owner tears down the signage on the closure of his cat meat restaurant. Image: Daily Mail.

Internet and sites like this and news media educate

This restaurant has been in the news quite a lot recently and I'm delighted that the news media are picking up on cat meat stories from Asia. I know this is a cultural thing and I know that we have to be sensitive about cultural differences and I try to be. We have to be sensitive and I understand that but when a culture fosters animal cruelty I think it becomes a universal issue and I also think under those circumstances we have a right to criticise.

I believe that anybody anywhere should do their best to stop animal cruelty by anybody anywhere.

This was the Gia Bảo restaurant in Thai Nguyen city, in the country's northeast. It was a profitable enterprise. Where did the cats come from? The Daily Mail says that they were "likely including stolen pets". They were drowned in a bucket one after another the newspaper says. Horrendous. Don't dwell on that thought.

The business was run by a 37-year-old man called Pham Quoc Doanh who took to this horrendous business because she was struggling to feed his family selling "other normal food and drinks". He's the man in the picture above.

He discovered that there was no other restaurant in the area where he lived selling cat meat so he decided on that type of business. No issue in his mind about animal cruelty by the way? And I am sensitive to the fact that he was struggling to survive. That is one aspect of the cat meat business. He had to find a way to feed his family and sometimes we have to give up on principles. 

However, putting criticism aside, he appears to have changed his mind because he reached out to the Humane Society International which has been campaigning for some time to stop the cat meat trade in Vietnam. The Humane Society offered him a one-off grant to change businesses to a grocery store. Perhaps he had seen the negative publicity and experienced falling trade?

He took up the offer and the picture you see on this page is him symbolically tearing down the signage outside his restaurant to begin a new business and a new way of life.

He said that he became upset with the cat meat business. These are his words:

"For a while now I have felt a genuine desire to leave the cruel cat meat business and switch to something else as soon as possible. When I think of all the thousands of cats I've slaughtered and served up here over the years, it's upsetting."

He added: 'Cat theft is so common in Vietnam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone's loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that.'

Well, those words warm my heart in one way - his change of heart but he has committed horrendous crimes for a long time. And my eternal thanks to the Humane Society International which is doing such great work. It must have been a real struggle to encourage this man to do, what I would regard to be, the right thing.

The Daily Mail says that about 1 million cats are killed annually for their meat in Vietnam. I think you'll find that about 10 times that number is killed in China for the same purpose.

Vietnamese no longer believe in the cat meat business

Remarkably, the newspaper tells us that 71% of Vietnamese people living in Vietnam are in favour of a ban of cat meat. So perhaps his business was beginning to lose trade anyway. He found a way out.

We know that many domestic animals i.e. people's pets including stray cats are stolen for the cat meat trade. The same, by the way, applies to dogs in China and other Asian countries.

Education about superstitions

And you might know this but you might not: people who eat cat meat believe that it carries health benefits such as alleviating arthritis or that it has aphrodisiac properties. Sadly, I have to say that no science supports these views. It is all superstition; a superstition which results in mass cruelty against millions of companion animals. It is simply intolerable to any decent-minded person.

Massive amount of theft

The newspaper also tells us that 87% of people in Vietnam have had their pets stolen for the cat meat business or know of somebody who's pet was stolen.

That's another topic: the theft of domestic cats. The cat meat business is not only causing mass animal cruelty but mass criminality. Clearly nobody has been prosecuted for theft even though it happens up to a million times a year. This points to a lack of enforcement of criminal legislation in Vietnam because theft must be a crime in Vietnam. It begs the question as to whether animal cruelty is a crime in Vietnam. I would have thought that it was but once again there is a lack of enforcement.

The cats that were at the restaurant have been rescued. They were traumatised and they have been vaccinated and checked over for health issues and treated by veterinarians after which they will be put up for adoption and rehomed.

The companion animals and engagement programme manager of Humane Society International in Vietnam said:

"We are thrilled to be closing down our first cat meat trade business in Viet Nam, and hope it will be the first of many as more people like Mr. Doanh turn away from this cruel trade."

A big pat on the back to this man or woman. Let's hope that this cat meat business closure becomes a catalyst for similar events across Vietnam and in the wider region.

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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.

Financier threatened to kill his neighbour's cat over Knightsbridge property dispute

NEWS AND COMMENT: A financier threatened to kill his neighbour's cat because of a row over the space between their properties which is described as a "cupboard" and which had been inappropriately and illegally appropriated by one neighbour (a former owner) against the rightful owner, the financier, Mr Knight, and his wife.

Image by MikeB based on images from the Daily Mail.

Between two properties in Knightsbridge, there was a peculiar cupboard space which belonged to Anthony and Angela Knight's home.

The problem is that they didn't use that space as it had a separate door. In fact, they hadn't used it since 2010 when it was used a storage area. Over those intervening years of non-use, their immediate and adjacent neighbours Zyapkov and Grigore used this space as part of their flat apparently not knowing that their predecessors had illegally appropriated it by smashing through the party wall and thereby unlawfully incorporating it into their flat.

The Knights found out about this theft of part of their property when they visited their neighbour on an invitation. An argument ensued which went to litigation but the Knights and their new neighbours tried to settle the issue amicably. Emotion got in the way and the police were called several times.

In one argument, Mr Knight can be heard warning Zyapkov that taking the case to court would end in his ruin and the loss of his job at the Bank of America.

Also, it's alleged that Knight said: "Don't let the cat out here. If I see it, I will kill it."

Eventually they received a court order in which the cupboard will be returned to the Knights. His neighbours will foot Knight's lawyers' bills for the dispute. It's going to cost them over a hundred thousand pounds.

They were stupid to put it mildly. It was a total loss from the beginning and they must have been ill-advised or ripped off by their lawyers.

The flats are not far from Harrods where houses cost about £3 million upwards.

It is unsurprising to me that Mr Knight made a threat to kill his neighbours' cat because this happens so often as a domestic cat is a vulnerable sentient being. If they go outside as is not uncommon in the UK even in London, they are very vulnerable to angry people.

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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.

America's animal shelters don't care enough about saving lives (according to a celebrated animal shelter advocate)

The voice of America's displaced pets and the conscience of the animal sheltering industry, Nathan Winograd, claims that "uncaring and corruption are endemic to the [animal shelter] industry [in the US]"

A New York animal control officer was arrested for stealing Hope, a family’s 9-year-old dog. After Hope was found by a neighbor and taken to the local shelter, the officer sold her to people in Ohio. When Hope’s real family came forward, the officer told them that she had died. Hope is now back with her family. While animal control insiders want to pretend that the officer is a rare bad apple, the tragic fact is that uncaring and corruption are endemic to the industry. And though the facts of this case may be somewhat unique, uncaring and corruption aren’t. - Nathan Winograd

Nathan Winograd was motivated to claim that America's animal shelters don't care enough about saving lives and that there is corruption at an unacceptable level within the animal shelter industry, by a story currently on news media which reports that an animal control officer, Casterline, 51, stole a Yorkshire terrier whose name is Hope and then sold the dog to an unsuspecting purchaser.

Hope had been lost in Corning, California, and then found and taken to a local SPCA (Chemung County) from where Casterline picked up the dog and took her home and then eventually sold her to a family in Ohio.

I believe that this is little Hope. So pleased that she/he is back with their true owner. Image: Nathan Winograd's email.

The original owners of the dog became suspicious and telephoned the local police who investigated. Through a telephone number they discovered the family in Ohio who had bought Hope. This family released the dog which must have been difficult to the police.

The true owner of Hope had become very distressed because Casterline had told them that their dog had died.

Hope was then reunited with the original owner while Casterline was arrested for various misdemeanours including theft and he will be tried in the criminal courts. He has resigned his job.

CROSS-POST:  US animal shelter ‘industry’ accused of endemic uncaring attitude and corruption.

The big issue here is perhaps not the story of Hope which ended well, but the statement by Nathan Winograd. He clearly has a very negative viewpoint of America's animal shelters.

And I think it comes from the fact that he is a world expert in no-kill animal shelters and he insists upon high standards and the employment of various methods to ensure that the maximum number of shelter animals are rehomed and their lives saved.

He criticises many animal shelters for failing to use efficient and widespread methods to save lives. He accuses them of being lazy and hiding behind rather feeble excuses such as there are too many dogs and cats coming into the shelter and not enough adopters to take them off their hands. Often this isn't the case. It's just an excuse. An excuse to wriggle out of responsibilities. That would be the argument of Mr Winograd.

Another excuse is that the animal is unadoptable because of their behaviour. But shelters create bad behaviour in animals because they are relatively inhospitable places with strange noises and lots of commotion. A shy animal will become reclusive and difficult. They will be deemed unadoptable. Or the animal might become aggressive when approached because they become defensive thanks to the environment in which they are temporarily incarcerated.

This, too, will allow the shelters to kill the animal being deemed unadoptable. This applies to both dogs and cats. For example, in New York City shelter the authorities deemed it acceptable to kill animals that were 'mentally stressed'. They decided it was better to kill them than to take them out of the shelter and place them with a foster carer where they wouldn't be mentally stressed. It is that kind of thing I'm talking about.

Nathan Winograd should know because he is an expert as stated.

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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.

17 cats mysteriously died on the way to a veterinarian from a San Bernardino County animal pound

Rescue cats. Image supplied.

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a report from Nathan Winograd to me in an email. It is very disturbing. Nathan Winograd is America's greatest advocate for the No-Kill movement in animal shelters. He tells me that staff at the Devore pound (animal 'shelter') in San Bernardino County, California, USA, say that 17 cats on the way to a veterinary clinic mysteriously died. But there has been no explanation. 

No one believes the claim. Nathan Winograd hints in his email that the cats were killed deliberately because this particular pound has a record of killing animals unnecessarily.

He says that Devore staff routinely and systematically kill animals. And according to rescuers Devore killed 35 cats including young kittens in three days.

RELATED: Nathan Winograd’s No Kill Advocacy Center Reviews US Statistics on American Shelters.

Rescuers have accused the pound of the following:

• Routinely mislabeling friendly cats as “feral” to kill them because it does not have a community cat program;
• Allowing healthy cats to get sick because of poor protocols and filth and then killing them, even if the condition is treatable;
• Killing pregnant cats so as not to foster or provide veterinary care;
• Killing entire families of cats — mothers and young kittens together; and,
• Not providing prompt and necessary medical care “leading to suffering and even death.

And when rescuers complain about these unnecessary killings, the administrators of the pound retaliate by killing animals that the rescuers have offered to save. It seems extraordinary. This report indicates that there is a complete breakdown in the way this pound is managed.

And the pound is managed by Brian Cronin. And Winograd also reports that Cronin has been the subject of complaints dating back decades. For example, in 2006, it is said that he returned an abuse dog doused in gasoline and set on fire to the abuser who was awaiting trial at the time. This caused worldwide condemnation.

Winograd also accuses the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, who oversee the pound, of allowing the long-term neglect, abuse and killing of animals and the pound.

Is cat euthanasia guaranteed always to be totally humane and painless?

 The question in the title, I think, is a fair one. 99.9% of the general public believes that euthanising a pet is painless and the humane thing to do when the animal is chronically ill and suffering persistent pain. Of course, we know that many pets are euthanised at the convenience of their owner or because they are unwanted. That, incidentally, is a symptom of the failure of cat and dog domestication but it is another story.

I am asking the question whether euthanising a cat with sodium pentobarbital is genuinely painless. When this drug is delivered to humans in 84% of cases their lungs fill up with a frothy liquid which causes pain and distress indeed panic because it is like waterboarding torture. How do cats feel when this drug is delivered to them? Image in public domain.

Perhaps the two words "painless" and "killing" simply cannot live together. It seems unnatural that we can kill animals painlessly because being killed would seem to be automatically painful in the natural world. At least in some way or other. Can it be entirely painless? We like to think it is. My research indicates that it isn't.

Even the best veterinarians, much-loved in their community, might occasionally screw up and make a botch of the euthanasia of a loyal customer's cat or dog. And some veterinarians do not follow sound procedures.

There are different ways to euthanize a pet at a veterinary clinic. You can employ the one jab injection of barbiturate anaesthetic, sodium pentobarbital, that's the simple route. But it can go wrong because the hypodermic needle might be misplaced or the vein might burst. The sodium pentobarbital might spill out into the body tissue which I'm told is painful. It may be very painful.

That's the first issue. And in any case, simply injecting a cat in a vein of itself is going to be at least potentially painful and probably actually painful.

We shouldn't forget, by the way, the distress/pain of the pet's owner who should really be present in the consultation room when their beloved companion is being humanely dispatched.

The way to avoid the above-mentioned difficulty in administering the killing drug is to apply an intravenous catheter to the animal and then you administer the drug through that catheter. It is a more controlled and predictable way of proceeding.

The problem here is that it can be difficult to apply the catheter. The animal might struggle. The owner won't like it and be distressed. They take the animal into a back room which I think is going to also distress the owner because they won't know what's happening.

Then they bring the cat or dog forward into the consultation room to administer the killing barbiturate anaesthetic. There could be a third step which is to apply a painkiller and sedation drug which renders the cat or dog unconscious before the final injection is applied.

In short, this could be or should be a three-stage process to guarantee that it is painless. That is: a catheter, a knockout drug which renders them in conscious, and then the third stage is the final barbiturate injection.

That's what the best veterinarians do to humanely euthanise a companion cat. However, as I understand it, most veterinarians don't do it this way. They might use the single injection which is I think problematic. Although they might use a two-stage process and avoid using the catheter which of itself is potentially problematic.

The point I'm making in this post is that it requires considerable care and a good method to ensure that the euthanasia of a companion animal at a veterinary clinic is genuinely painless and therefore humane. Sometimes it isn't on my understanding having researched the matter on the Internet. We don't have numbers to rely on to tell us if this is a big problem or a non-problem. I can't find the statistics. 

There is also the issue of the drug sodium pentobarbital which I have highlighted in the caption to the photo above.

Of course, you should know that I'm not a veterinarian and therefore reliant upon research. But I use the best sources and, in this case, these were veterinary websites.

Want to get rid of your cat? Throw it out of a high-rise window. No problem. Legal in China

Chongqing, China - opinion: Yes, once again, I'm going to be highly critical of China in respect of their lack of animal welfare laws and their lack of respect on too many occasions for the sentience of domestic cats and dogs. They deserve to be criticised because the kind of cruelty we see on Twitter perpetrated upon these innocent animals is truly shocking.

The tweet:

#China: May 22, Chongqing. Pet cat was thrown to death by the neighbor. The owner: What kind of person can do such a thing? There's no legislation on cruelty to #animals. Those crazy people cannot be sanctioned.

Comment: I take that tweet to mean that the cat's owner threw their cat out of a high-rise window. I could be wrong but they threw the cat with such force that death was instant on contact with the ground due to blunt force trauma and catastrophic injuries. This happened by the way during Covid when some cat owners in China were anxious about getting Covid from their cat.

Without animal welfare laws, cat owners in China can simply throw their cat out of their apartment window hundreds of feet from the ground below. Job done. No problem. Within the law. There is no law. It is madness. It looks so completely wrong. It is completely wrong. The problem is that the people who do it do not see it as wrong. They see it as normal. This is because there has never been animal welfare laws protecting the general population of cats and dogs in China.

Cat owners and dog owners in China grow up without any real concept of what is legal and illegal in terms of animal welfare. There's just no norms to guide them on this. And their morality about cat and dog welfare is based upon a tradition that cats and dogs should be utilitarian. They should be useful. When they can't entertain anymore, they should be eaten.

This ancient tradition is gradually being eroded by modern life and the Internet no doubt has changed the minds of many thousands of Chinese people living in China but the vast majority of Chinese in China, it seems to me, just don't get the concept of animal welfare or that cats and dogs are sentient creatures.

If you asked them about the concept of sentience, they probably wouldn't know what you're talking about.

Xu Zhihui - Xu Mouhui - Jack Hot Strip - Jack Spicey Strip leads a gang torturing/killing street cats in China

NEWS AND OPINION: Xu Zhihui - Xu Mouhui - Jack Hot Strip - Jack Spicey Strip leads a gang torturing street cats in China and he created a video game app in which cats are cruelly killed in kitchen blenders. These are ALLEGATIONS. He did it for real! He killed a cat in a blender and videoed it and uploaded the video to Chinese social media.

Update: I've been told by a reliable associate who knows more than I do about this evil gang of cat torturers that the man I've mentioned Xu Zhihui is not the true leader of this gang but a person living in America who funds them. I am confirming this because it sounds very strange to me. Note: I could not confirm it and believe it was a lie.

The real leaders are in hiding and they use the name Xu Zhihui to post videos. I don't know whether this is a real person or a fictional person. Probably the latter. It is symptomatic of this story that it is shrouded in smoke and mirrors which what I'd expect.

Xu Zhihui - Xu Mouhui - Jack Hot Strip - Jack Spicey Strip. Gross and disgusting cat torturer and killer who needs to be stopped asap.

Gang? torturing and killing street cats

The story isn't clear but in my current opinion, Xu Zhihui is the leader of a gang (not sure if it's a gang or he kills alone) of Chinese men who like to torture and kill street cats in China. He is a food blogger/vlogger and he runs multiple accounts. He has a large following on a Chinese website called Bilibili with 400,000 followers and a Weibo account with over 20,000 fans. He posts videos of himself cooking (cats??). 

That seems to be his mainstream activity but I would allege that as a side activity to entertain himself and his gang of merry murderers, he commits the most heinous animal cruelty against street cats.

Cowcat was brutally tortured for 3 days by a famous food blogger. The Cowcat case kind of leads and symbolizes this "animal rights movement" in China.

I briefly saw a picture of one of the cats he horrendously tortured (I think the above tweet refers to it). He tied the cat up and cut off the cat's paws and then burnt the cat to death. And there is an uploaded image of this. It's something I shouldn't have seen but I just bumped into it. There is another below but I have pixelated it.

There is a current movement in China for animal welfare laws due to the hideous torture of this cat. If Beijing does create laws because of this cat's torture it would be the best legacy any cat has given to the world ever.

Different names

The problem with this man is that he has various names and personas and therefore is very difficult to know where the truth lies. For example, another name is Xu Mouhui (online name @jack spicy strip).

And I've written about this man before firstly in respect of a video game which I think he created. I don't know for sure but I think he did. It's a video game in which the player kills cats by putting them in blenders and in other cruel ways.

Beaten up

It fits in very nicely with his general modus operandi (MO) which is to torture cats and kill them. And I've seen on Twitter allegations that he killed cats by putting them in microwaves or one of his gang did. And also, I have a page on another website in which I have a video showing him allegedly being beaten up on the streets of China. Note: this video may show a gang beating up someone else in Holland! See what I mean. It is all smoke and mirrors.

It appears that he became well-known enough to be recognised and he wasn't just known for his cooking but also for his cat killing and torture.

No animal welfare laws China

The great difficulty with this man is stopping him. This is because in China they have very weak animal welfare laws. There is no umbrella animal welfare law which protects animals in general. This is shocking in itself. In fact, it is as shocking to know this as it is to know that this disgusting man allegedly tortures and kills cats.

But perhaps he does it because he knows he can get away with it. It is just not illegal to do it. However, my research on a Chinese website, Weibo.com tells me that the police are involved (but in what way?) and although there is no penalty for abusing stray cats and dogs 'without owners' (as they say) it may be against the law to upload videos of animal abuse because it is a breach of the peace. It disturbs society and undermines the cohesion of society. That, as I understand it, maybe why his activities could be illegal in China.

Apology

He apologised but can we believe that he is sincere? He asked to be given another chance. And he said that he was willing to bear all the consequences of his actions. He posted this apology on April 27 on his Weibo channel. 

On that channel he writes:

I am "Jack Hot Strip" Xu Zhihui, and I feel very ashamed, remorseful and sorry for my behavior of abusing cats and taking videos, grafting videos of online cat abuse and sharing in QQ groups.

You can read the apology and see a disgusting video (click here) in which I believe his apology is written out but, in the background, out of focus, is a video of a cat being abused. Thankfully it is out of focus but even then, it is horrifying and shocking.

Weibo post

On Weibo below this post (poor translation from Chinese) is the picture below which I have partly pixelated.

Jack Spicy Strip only admits to abusing cats, without mentioning the industrial chain formed by shooting cat-abuse videos, have these audiences investigated? Nearly a thousand demons in the group are quick to enjoy the abuse and mutilation of weak lives, and dare not imagine how twisted and ugly souls are covered under human skin, this is only the tip of the iceberg that has been exposed, there is no cost of crime, there will always be abuse and mutilation in the dark places!!!

That link also takes you to his channel on Weibo.com. If you are a Chinese speaker then you will be much more able than me to understand what is going on.

The trouble is that Weibo.com translates the Chinese into English and it is very poor English. In fact, it is unintelligible. But the general drift is that people don't believe his apology is genuine.

My thanks to whatsonweibo.com and Twitter.

Criticising Patrick Gower for advocating shooting feral cats in New Zealand

Paddy Gower - I'm told on a news website - has 'issues' with feral cats. He thinks that they are dangerous pests and that they should be shot dead ('hunted'). They should be hunted to extirpation. I can't read the article on their website because I live in a region of the world where it is not published. I have no idea why they restrict publication of this site to certain countries. That seems bizarre to me.

Patrick Gower. Image: Twitter. His face is as unattractive as his attitude towards feral cats.

Paddy Gower's attitude towards feral cats is also bizarre. Actually, it's more ignorant than bizarre. But then again, it should be added that a lot of New Zealanders (Kiwis) dislike feral cats to the point where they think they should be shot. 

Simply do away with them. It doesn't matter whether it's cruel or whether they are euthanised humanely. They actually prefer the former method because it's quicker and cheaper. The objective after all is, as mentioned, extirpation of the entire species from their country.

This is along the lines of Australians. It's a cultural problem. They ignore the central aspect of their inhumane attitude which is that they, New Zealanders, put the feral cats there in the first place. They are the creators of the so-called "feral cat problem".

When a person creates a problem, they have a duty to clear up the problem. And when the problem concerns sentient creatures, they have a parallel duty to clear up the problem humanely. That is the moral obligation. They entirely miss this critical point. That's why I have called them ignorant and which is why Paddy Gower is ignorant. Yes, strong words but my words are very much in line with his words. I chose my words carefully. He didn't.

You do not advocate the hunting of feral cats. If you do that you are advocating animal cruelty. And perhaps more importantly, you are encouraging people to take pot shots at a cat at a distance. Some of them will be indoor/outdoor domestic cats and therefore owned by a New Zealander. That would be a crime. The crime of criminal damage as well as a crime under the country's animal welfare laws.

You cannot advocate shooting feral cats. Period. It is an entirely unacceptable behaviour.

Paddy Gower is advocating potential criminality in his shoddy statement.

Patrick Gower (born 1976/1977) is a New Zealand political journalist and National Correspondent for Newshub (formerly called 3 News). Prior to his current role he was Newshub's political editor. - Wikipedia.

Classic case of domestic violence combined with animal violence (kitten)

NEWS AND COMMENT-HOLLYWOOD: This is the latest story in which domestic and animal violence merge and become one. We know - everyone knows - that there is a strong linkage between domestic and animal violence. By "domestic violence" I'm referring to human partners engaged in violence against each other normally the male against the female.

Aghajanian (left) and Johnson. Photo by Nancy Vienneau for The Tennessean.

In this instance, a top Los Angeles chef has been accused by her estranged wife of torturing and killing their two pet cats, one of them a kitten, as she filed for divorce and requested a restraining order over the abuse that he meted out.

FBI Realise the Important Connection Between Animal Abuse and Other Serious Crimes 

I'm concerned about the violence against the cats obviously. Elizabeth Johnson has filed for a domestic violence restraining order against her estranged husband Will Aghajanian. The story has been reported in The Los Angeles Times and The Daily Mail.

Elizabeth Johnson alleges that Aghajanian joked about feeding their kitten to coyotes. She also says that she witnessed Aghajanian shaking their kitten which caused his or her death the next day.

Aghajanian put the dead kitten into the trash can and insisted on keeping it there in the house according to the wife. Comment: to cause her more emotional harm allegedly.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dramatically under-reporting animal cruelty

As to the domestic violence aspects of the story she says that Aghajanian mentally and psychologically abused her. This, she says, kept her from realising what was going on with the animals in the house.

Aghajanian denies it and says that they are "false allegations". He claims that he is the victim and that his estranged wife repeatedly threatened to kill him and actually burned him at least twice with a metal spatula and a spoon which she had placed in a fryer according to the court filings and as reported by Mail Online.

Their restaurant Horses opened in September 2021 and immediately received rave reviews and was an instant celebrity favourite.

Comment: I can think of one outstanding comment namely this. Aghajanian wanted to harm his estranged wife the best way he could because of the animosity between them without physically hitting her. 

He knew that she was connected emotionally to the kitten. I would allege that he decided to harm the kitten to harm her. Perhaps he didn't want to kill the kitten but he shook the kitten so hard that it did kill him or her. It's a simple formula. We see this all the time. 

It is invariably the man who harms or kills cats and kittens to get at their female partner because it is invariably the case that the female partner adopts the kitten or cat and is more connected to the companion animal than the man. 

Like I said, it's an old tried and tested scenario which happens all over the world all the time and occasionally is exposed in court filings and in criminal prosecutions.

New Zealand's state sanctioned animal AND CHILD abuse by indoctrinating kids to kill non-native species

New Zealand's Ministry of Education encourages children to kill non-native mammals including cats which they label 'pests' (yeh, not 'pets'). It is state sanctioned animal abuse and the abusers are indoctrinated kids. Horrible.

In an astonishing conclusion to his lengthy analysis, Michael C Morris of the Royal Agricultural University, concludes that "even the Ministry of Education resources, encourage children to kill non-native mammals, show them how to set traps, and emphasised to teachers how they need to impress on children the importance of eradicating pests."

New Zealand's state sanctioned animal AND CHILD abuse by indoctrinating kids to kill non-native species. Image: MikeB

Other organisations in New Zealand including four government agencies, three conservation NGOs and one education NGO, promote the killing of non-native species by children.

"Non-native" means a species of animal which has not evolved in the country concerned. The domestic, stray and feral cat in New Zealand is a non-native species. It is therefore an alien species and regarded as a pest by New Zealand's authorities despite the fact that there are many cat loving care givers with cat companions in that beautiful country.

Shame, therefore, that despite being visually beautiful, the mentality of the Ministry of Education is far from beautiful and indeed quite ugly.

All the organisations promote trapping and poisoning to eliminate feral cats and other non-native species. The objective? To preserve biodiversity. To conserve native species because feral cats are very good hunters.

Shockingly, no consideration whatsoever, according to Mr Morris, is given to alternatives "such as changing human activities, non-lethal contraceptive or gene drive techniques, more localised and targeted pest control or translocation techniques such as Operation Nest Egg."

Mr Morris has not mentioned a very well-established alternative with respect to feral cats namely TNR which is widely practised in America where they, too, have a feral cat problem.

TNR is simply not on the radar in New Zealand. Well, it might be in the minds of some decent citizens of New Zealand who want to help feral cats but it is not in the minds of the country's administrators.

New Zealand introduces words such as "war" and "invasion" to describe the "pests" that are the feral cats in their country. For me, it is the feral cats who are the victims as much as the native species upon which they prey. 

The feral cats of New Zealand were introduced to the country as is the case in Australia by immigrants to the country bringing domestic cats with them and allowing those cats to return to the wild and procreate.

The back story, the root of the problem, is not the feral cat which is the 'messenger' of the bad behaviour of humans.

It appears that New Zealand is unique in mandating and encouraging children to kill non-native species which are perfectly good and decent animals. It is entirely inappropriate to single out non-native species as a target for eradication. It's a happenstance due to human carelessness that they are non-native and feral.

For the state to encourage children to kill animals is a form, in my opinion, of state sanctioned child abuse. 

It is indoctrinating them to believe that the cute possum or the cute feral kitten is an enemy of New Zealand. These children probably love the sight of cute possums. That is their natural instinct. And then, the Ministry of Education reprograms their brains to think that they are pests to be killed. It is simply unacceptable.

There are studies which have found a causal relationship between children who've witnessed animal abuse to then being more likely to be animal abusers themselves. 

If the children are animal abusers (which is what this program makes them), they are certainly more likely to become animal abusers and even human abusers when they are adults.

Large feral (?) 'Siamese' cat in Australia trapped and killed causing an outcry from some sections of the community

A large feral cat in Australia has been trapped and killed causing an outcry from some sections of the community. But was the cat feral or an inside/outside domestic cat? It appears so.

Large feral cat in Australia trapped and killed causing an outcry from some sections of the community. Image: Daily Mail Australia.

Comment on the above photograph: I find it very strange. The comments on the right-hand side appear to be have been made by the owner of this 'feral cat'. That means that the cat is not feral but an outdoor/indoor domestic cat. And the person has described the cat as "Siamese". The cat does not look like a Siamese cat judging by the camera traps image. The cat does not have pointing but appears to be an even colour throughout. So, I'm not sure what is going on. And if this is the case the authorities have killed someone's pet! Damages come to mind. The owner should sue them.

-------------------

I have followed the shenanigans and attitudes of the Australian authorities towards feral cats on the continent for years. It doesn't surprise me one jot that the authorities in charge of administrating Moreton Island off the coast of south-east Queensland decided to trap a so-called feral cat weighing 6.8 kg (15 pounds) and euthanise it (kill it). At least they didn't shoot it! That is the normal way for Australia's authorities to deal with feral cats.

Trapping and euthanising is way too humane for Australians when it comes to the 'vermin' and 'pest' that is the feral cat on that continent. They hate the animal but not everyone does because in this instance this feral cat who had earned the name 'Tangalooma puma' had a following and there was an outcry when the feline was trapped and killed.

A resident caught the cat in July having set up a humane trap. He learnt the technique in a workshop run by Brisbane City Council. The cat was then euthanised by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services in accordance with the Biosecurity Act 2014.

In order to verify that this cat was a pest by preying on native species, they conducted an autopsy and discovered the remnants of a crow and a bandicoot in the stomach. This proved to them that the cat was decimating native while species which justified their actions in killing it.

Residents of Moreton Island are allowed to have pets but as it is given over to being a national park, they can't really let their cats go outside. I'm not sure if there is a local ordinance which forbids domestic cats going outside. The reports don't comment on that.

Of course, most of the residents are happy that the cat was killed but, as mentioned, not everyone is in agreement perhaps because it was a pet cat 😎. It makes me smile ironically. No one should agree to domestic cats being killed by the authorities for doing nothing wrong. It is wanton cat killing.

It's peculiar that they dubbed the cat a "puma". It seems that in the imagination of many they exaggerated its size to that of a mountain lion (a very large feline). This is not untypical of humans. And in doing that there was a gradual swell of hatred of the animal resulting in one resident deciding to trap it.

But 15 pounds in weight for a domestic or feral cat is not that big. It is slightly bigger than normal but not huge. And if a cat has become feral for whatever reason, they're going to have to hunt to survive. 

People need to look more carefully at why the cat became feral cat in the first place. The only reason is because of human carelessness. I always think it is very unfair if the existence of an animal due to human carelessness becomes such a nuisance that they have to kill it. The animal is an innocent victim of sloppy human behaviour. This is not a reason to kill the animal.

It is a reason to educate people to stop being sloppy on cat ownership. It's a reason to be kind to the animal because they are victims as well as the animals that they eat.

US National Park Service wants to get rid of Puerto Rico's community cats and there's uproar

This is an example of cat loving people power winning for the time being in a battle against a US government agency.

First things first: Puerto Rico is neither a US state nor an independent country, but a territory of the United States and it is an island in the Caribbean. It is described as an 'unincorporated US territory'. That's why the US National Park Service is involved in deciding to remove all or some the beloved cats of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

There is a battle going on between the citizens of San Juan and I presume the wider population and the US National Park Service.

San Juan TNRed cat. Image: Pixabay.

The citizens are challenging the Park Service officials who feel that the cats have become a problem. The National Park Service have a plan and in it they mention "encounters between visitors and cats and the smell of urine and faeces [which] are inconsistent with the cultural landscape".

Their aim is to improve the visitor experience and protect cultural and natural resources. They want to reduce health and safety concerns and "alleviate nuisance issues". They also believe that the cats are killing wildlife in the area.

The Park Service do not want a public discussion about these community cats. There are many supporters of the cats, who want a proper formal hearing about what to do with them.

This caused a clash last Wednesday when dozens of people gathered for the first of two public meetings on the issue. The National Park Service said that there would be no hearing and demanded that the citizens write down their comments. That angered the citizens and those that love the cats.

They said that they have questions and doubts about the plan, and they want to ask questions in a meeting.

Eventually their demands were met, and the doors opened to a small theatre. They had their chance to have their say and one by one they did so to loud applause.

Apparently, several non-profit organisations demanded evidence from the National Park Service to support statements in the plan that some people did not want the cats.

They asked the question because citizens see tourists totally enamoured of the cats. They are a feature for tourists. And when you walk around the Old San Juan you see tourists interacting with the cats.

As I understand it, volunteers do operate TNR on these cats to control the numbers (see image above - left ear tipped). One person who is particularly concerned about the potential removal of the cats (which they believe would lead to killing them) is an animal lover, Alfonso Ocasio, who has been visiting the old town since 2014 to feed the cats a couple of times per week.

He said: "I don't know how these people dare face the world with their proposal." He spends up to $15 a week feeding the cats. He adopts those that are sick and elderly and cares for them during their last days.

The people have questions about what the National Park Service plan to do with the cats. And there are questions about whether there had been ecological assessments and what the consequences would be of removing them. Would there be a rat problem?

On my interpretation, it looks as though this is an example of people power and they are going to make sure that there is a proper hearing and a proper assessment about how to manage the beloved cats of this old city, the capital of Puerto Rico. I sense that they will be protected.

New Zealand town fractured by the disappearance of 24 cats

NEWS AND COMMENT-COLLINGWOOD, NEW ZEALAND: News media have reported that over the past five years at least two dozen cats have vanished from the back yards and environs of Collingwood.

Many of the residents suspect foul play. Some believe that there is a cat poisoner in the town or perhaps there is more than one of them. Almost all of the cats simply disappeared. The poisoning theory is supported by the death of Gypsy. Gypsy's caregiver, Shannon Mclellan, said that Gypsy had been sick for a few days before she died. She had vomited and eventually ended up under the decking screaming. When she tried to reach her she clawed at her. She eventually got her out and wrapped a towel around her before taking her to the vet but she died on the way. A sure indication of poisoning.

RELATED: New Zealand: man who trapped and drowned eight cats thought he was doing the right thing.

Note: on this page you will see three links to stories about domestic cats being killed by New Zealanders. There appears to be a culture in New Zealand which is similar to that in Australia vis-à-vis their attitude towards outside and feral cats. They don't like them in general. They want them removed from the environment in order to protect New Zealand's native species. There is a bad attitude towards outdoor cats in my view and that can lead to killing.

Image: Stuff.co.nz.

The preferred killing of indoor/outdoor domestic cats by cat haters is by poisoning. This is because it can be done secretively. Simply put down baited food. The cat eats it, the cat becomes ill quite quickly and if there is a fairly loose relationship between cat and owner the cat goes away somewhere in the countryside to quietly die. This makes evidence gathering by law enforcement impossible.

RELATED: New Zealand man boasts he’s buried 170 cats under his vegetable garden.

And this is another problem and perhaps the root problem. The police are disinterested in pursuing the matter in trying to find the perpetrator(s). And the back story is equally pertinent because in New Zealand, as in Australia, the government, including local governments, have consistently stated that outdoor cats and feral cats are a problem to their wildlife. Local and national government in New Zealand have promoted the idea that domestic cats are killing native species

RELATED: Stuff.co.nz journalist demands eradication of all domestic and feral cats in New Zealand to protect wildlife. This is the same online newspaper which is reporting these deaths. On the one hand they promote the idea of killing domestic cats and on the other hand they appear to be supporting residents who have lost cats through killings.

And you gradually engender the idea that domestic cats either need to be confined to their homes or killed. And it doesn't take long for a reckless cat hater to start to take steps to kill them. I am convinced that this is what is happening in this instance.

And because the residents can't get to the bottom of it - because the police won't help and because it has gone on for so long to such devastating effect - it is fracturing the town. It is causing tensions and upset. And frustrations.

Elliot Strange. Image: ANDY MACDONALD/STUFF

One resident of Collingwood,  Elliott Strange, has become the spokesperson for the others who have lost their cats. He is fundraising for a private investigator and he has offered a reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever is killing the town's cats.

When Elliott Strange moved to the town he was asked whether he had a cat. He was told that he needed to be careful. His cat disappeared. Initially he thought that it was just one of those things. Sometimes domestic cats do disappear as we all know. He thought that his cat might have moved off to another home. These things happen as well. This is another reason why it can be difficult to pin down cat killings.

Just before the Covid lockdown in the area he acquired two kittens. Nine months later they've disappeared. He reported the matter to the police but nothing happened. He heard about more disappearances. Reluctantly he felt that he needed to do something as the police wouldn't get involved. This is not untypical of the police forces of any country. They have to prioritise their efforts and cats are well down the priority list. Particularly when it can be almost impossible to find a perpetrator.

Elliott Strange has offered to provide cat owners with tracking collars. Some residents have told him how their lives have been devastated by the loss of their cat companion.

Some residents have even left the town because of it. There's been finger-pointing. The names of four people have been circulated as possible perpetrators. Tensions are boiling over. He said that "Something's going to happen. There's not going to be an official response: somebody's going to teach these guys a lesson."

One of the accused was visibly shaken when interviewed by Stuff (new media website) reporters. He denied any involvement. He said the accusations had made living in the town unbearable and he had called the police about harassment.

Another resident said that the situation in the town had "snowballed [and it was] out of control".

The whole town is involved by it and it's become a bit scary. Two dogs have also died although is not clear that they were killed. There is a witch hunt in the town and something needs to be done about it.

The answer to this problem must be that the police get involved and open a formal investigation. This will ease some of the tensions. I would suggest that residents erect security cameras. If there are enough of them it would deter the cat killer or killers. CCTV cameras are a way of collecting evidence. It is the dearth of evidence which is the problem in this instance.