Istanbul street cat is feed with a knife and fork at a restaurant

Istanbul street cat gets his way at a restaurant. Screen grab.

This is what I like to see only street cats can have fleas and sometimes very badly but this fella seems very healthy so perhaps he is looked after. I think he is a bit of a feature at this Istanbul restaurant and in being known he manages to get his way which is great.

The Turkish are pretty sensitive to the needs of stray cats which are often better described as community cats. Turkey (Türkiye) is the land of community cats.

This is a nice guy. The person with whom he is eating predicted the cat would arrive as they have their camera ready.

Street cats in Istanbul be like
byu/ledim35 inMadeMeSmile

In Istanbul, street cats are a bit of a feature and there are several reasons for this. I can think of three or four. Firstly, Turkey is an Islamic country and you probably know that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats and this has fed through over the centuries to the 21st century. 

His love of cats helps to protect stray cats today across the world where the Islam faith is predominant. Although it doesn't completely save them from being abused because even within the Islam faith you will find good and bad people and some people liking and some disliking cats but there's this background appreciation of the cat thanks to the Prophet.

Secondly, there are lots of tourists and visitors to Istanbul which is situated on the Bosphorus Strait. Tourists like to interact with the cats and feed them. In fact, the man in the video might be a tourist but I don't think that he is.

And perhaps the cats have become a tourist feature of Istanbul, part of the attraction of the city for tourists.

And thirdly, it's probably fair to say that Turkish residents might have a less than optimal attitudes towards spaying and neutering cats and therefore when they become strays they procreate. Although the municipality of Istanbul has implemented various initiatives to control the population with TNR programs.

And fourthly, Turkey is quite a warm place and this helps to foster the procreation of street cats because they are protected by the climate.

----

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.

Well known American animal advocate is conned into believing that the Greeks are kind to their street cats

Nathan Winograd and his wife went on holiday in Greece. He is a great American animal advocate and an expert on no-kill animal shelters. I can visualise his visit now. The warm balmy evenings, the white buildings and the deep blue sky reflected in the sea. And in Greece there are lots of street cats. 

It seems that all the domestic cats are on the street joining with the stray cats and the feral cats. I guess we call them community cats. But in Greece the domestic cats live outside which contrasts with the 50% in the US who live inside 24/7. But there are too many stray and feral cats in Greece.

Nathan Winograd in Greece interacting with a dark tortoiseshell street cat and enjoying himself. Perhaps this little fella will be poisoned like many thousands of others in October. Picture by Nathan Winograd's wife (believed).

The feral cats are quite friendly because the meet with the tourists who like to have them around. Just like Nathan Winograd they enjoy interacting with the street cats of Greece. He wanted to help them, to feed them but was told that they are fed and well looked after.

He asked a restaurant owner to give him some food to feed the cats but he insisted there was no need. He was told not to worry. They are taken care of.

The street cats of Greece are tourist attractions which brings me to the next point. When the holiday season is over in Greece sometime in October, the local people poison the street cats. They put down poison in water or in food. It might be weedkiller it might be antifreeze. You name it they use it.

They rely on the dustbin men to pick up the dead bodies and throw them away. It's as simple as that and its mass cruelty. It is mass animal cruelty and, in the UK, and in America I suspect there would be mass prosecutions of these friendly Greek locals who think nothing of poisoning the charming street cats of mainland Greece and the Greek islands. But not in Greece. It is simply accepted as normal.

You don't have to research very hard to find out that what I have said is true. It appears that the Greeks don't like to neuter their animals which is why there are hundreds of thousands of them in the street. And it also appears that they don't like to operate TNR programs. This implies to me that they are lazy about looking after these cats. They say it's easier just to put down poison and kill them at the end of the season.

It doesn't seem to be a very good relationship between humans and cats, does it? It is not the way it is meant to be. It's not part of the unwritten contract between cat and person.

The Daily Mail online recites an interview between a visitor to Greece and a local. And the visitor asked why aren't the cat poisoners caught? He said no one's bothered. They aren't bothered about catching the poisoners. They know who they are but nothing is done. "It's just the way of things here".

It's the attitude and the attitude is that the cats are expendable. They have zero value. It almost seems that they believe that the street cats of Greece are not sentient beings; just decorative objects to add a bit of colour to the streets for the enjoyment of the tourists.

I'm afraid that Nathan Winograd, the great man he is, was conned mercilessly by the locals when he was told that they looked after the cats. I guess that was partly true because during the summer months they are looked after by the residents and by the tourists but come October, the cats that Nathan Winograd saw and interacted with will be dead, in a landfill site, out of the way.

And then in the spring of next year more kittens will arrive to live their short lives as entertainers to the unknowing tourists.

Photo of street cat in China should leave us feeling concerned

This is a straight forward photograph of a street cat in China, somewhere. It should not worry us but it concerns me because I've just been reading and writing about a monstrous individual who likes to torture and kill street cats in China. You can read about this man if you want to buy on this link but it's unpleasant although there are no photographs which might harm you psychologically.

Street cat in China. Image: What's on Weibo.

The picture that you see on this page accompanies an article written about 3 years ago which tells the story of a Chinese security guard pouring scalding water over a pregnant cat. another psychopathic individual who gets kicks from extreme violence against cats. 

The story went viral on social media and there was a call for animal welfare legislation in China which trended on Weibo.com.

It takes extreme animal cruelty to provoke Chinese citizens to demand animal welfare laws which should be entirely acceptable and which should have been in place donkey's years ago.

China is out on a limb in respect of animal welfare. All abandoned or homeless animals - almost always cats and dogs - are highly vulnerable to becoming the victim of extreme torture or turned into a meal in China.

There is no value in street cats or sensitivity towards their sentience in China. They are garbage. Rubbish. Trash. You can do what you like with them.

Although there must be many Chinese who love cats and care for them well. It's just that there are far too many who are the opposite. And no protection for them under the law.

Cats living in the Palace Museum grounds, Beijing, China (video)

Here's a short video of cats living at the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is situated in the heart of the city. A record 17.5 million people visited the museum in 2018. It is within the Forbidden City. Entrance tickets currently cost $9.11. It is open between Tuesday and Sunday, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM. You can buy tickets on TripAdvisor. It gets a 4.5 out of five rating on their reviews (14,103 reviews).

The cats of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Screenshot.

It is one of the most comprehensive museums in China. The Forbidden City is nearly 600 years old. Construction was completed in 1420.

It is nice to see semi-feral or perhaps domestic cats inhabiting this venerated and famous museum in the Forbidden City. It indicates a tolerance towards street cats in China which I believed or still believe are generally badly tolerated. Although things are changing, I believe and hope.

I remember just before the Beijing Olympic Games when the authorities cleaned up the city by brutally rounding up and killing all the street cats with a complete disregard for animal welfare. 

They wanted to present a nice clean and organised city to visitors to the games from all corners of the world. At the same time, they brutally eradicated street dogs. This is in complete contrast what we see in this video.

I do not know the relationship between the museum management and these cats. It may be a gentle one with respect. I have no idea. Perhaps they cull these cats in the off-season as occurs in Greece but that is speculative and there is no evidence that I have found to state that this happens.

Why are some street cats afraid of humans while others are friendly?

This is a question asked on a social media website and it is an easy one to answer so I can be brief. It is all about socialisation. The street cats, or let's call them feral or semi-feral cats, who are afraid of humans are those that have not been socialised to humans. It is likely, therefore, that these feral cats have been born in the wild and never had the chance when they were newborn kittens to interact with humans and learn that humans are friendly and not to be feared. 

That, of course, is provided that the humans with whom they interact are indeed friendly! And there is also the issue of the personalities of the cats. Some are more confident than others. Timid cats are more likely to be fearful of strangers. But the biggest factor by far is socialisation.

It is part of a cat breeders job to ensure that this process takes place. Without it a cat cannot be a human companion.

Child protects a street cat from the rain. Image: Tumblr.

The way you socialise any cat to a human is to ensure that they are around humans and are interacting with humans as much as possible when they are very young and then they learn quickly that they are safe to be in the company of humans. It is quite likely, too, that some feral cats have the exact opposite experience and are therefore justifiably afraid of humans. That's because a lot of humans dislike feral cats.

RELATED: Kitten development – comprehensive discussion.

Those street cats who are friendly to humans are probably stray domestic cats who have been fully socialised to humans (stray domestic cats) or semi-feral cats that are part of a TNR program during which they interact with volunteers who care for them and ensure that they are spayed and neutered. So, it is all about early interactions with humans which if good ensures that the cat is unafraid when in their company.

RELATED: Sensitive Period of Socialisation for Kittens.

In some countries, there are street cats which are in between true feral cats and domestic cats. These are semi-feral community cats who are looked after by people in the community such as shopkeepers. The trouble is that they're not looked after in a complete sense. They are fed but the caregiving does not extend to veterinary treatment and therefore they must have shorter life spans on average than normal domestic cats.