Wheat Litter Produces the Least Amount of Dust

16th June 2014 -- You will have to check it out for yourself. There is, though, anecdotal evidence which suggests that wheat litter produces the least amount of dust.  This is a timely post because I have recently written an article about a cat litter product that could be described as the cat litter which produces the greatest amount of dust.

Dust from cat litter is a genuine hazard to both the cat and the cat's caretaker (especially if the person is susceptible to asthma). Cats sniff their litter. They are prone to inhaling dust and the dust is a chemical (silica dust or sodium bentonite) which absorbs moisture. Imagine what that does in the moist cavities of a cat's lung. As I said, this is a genuine health hazard.

Wheat litter,  specifically SWheat Scoop,  gets a good write-up from a person who appears to be very sensible writing on the Yahoo website. It's quite expensive but as she states you can't spend your money more wisely than in the furtherance of the health of both yourself and your cat. In addition to being virtually dust free it appears to be highly effective in suppressing odour.

There will be negatives. One user says her dogs liked to eat it. What about clumping? Appears to be poor according to some - it clumps but in a bad way. It may be good but how does it react if left for a day? Odour control? Less good than some it seems These are things that a buyer will have to check out themselves in use. There are pros and cons for all cat litters. The key is to decide the most important features and prioritise. Clearly the health of your cat comes first.

This is an American product which is only available apparently at PetSmart but I would check that out. Only a few supermarkets sell it. If perchance you have used this product it would be very nice of you if you could leave a comment reviewing it.

Kenyan Government Protects Poachers: What Happens to the Wild Cats?

Elephant Serengeti. Photo: Feans

Richard Leakey, one of the world's best known conservationists tells us that the Kenyan government is working with (yes, not against) poachers. This is a classic example of the well rehearsed dark-side of governments the world over which continues to have a catastrophic impact on wild species living in the wild.

Leakey refers to the ivory of elephants and the horns of rhino which feed the insatiable market in China but it could equally well be the bones of a lion from the plains of the Serengeti. The body parts of these glorious and increasingly precious species of popular wild animals are desired by many people. The more they are killed the rarer they become and in turn more desirable; one of the distortions of human existence.

Richard Leakey is the founder of the Kenya Wildlife Service. He says he is convinced that the Kenyan government knows who the criminals are.

The "last great wildlife species" are being slaughtered because of corruption in high places. Wasn't it ever thus but it won't change. We read these stories year-in-year-out and nothing changes in the long run, which tells me the end of poaching can only happen at the end of these species in the wild.

The reason why governments are involved in poaching themselves is because either (a) they are the poachers or (b) they get a skim-off from the profit of the poachers.

There may also be a link between wildlife trade, corruption and terrorism as the funds generated might be supporting terrorists groups says United States Trade Representative Michael Froman.

Leakey took an uncompromising stand against poaching in his role as the former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service. For example, he persuaded the then president of Kenya to burn their 12 ton ivory stock pile. They used to shoot at poachers on sight. Not anymore.

Leakey is the victim of a plane crash in 1993. He lost his legs. Was it sabotage? He has enemies. These criminals will stop at nothing. The money is big. The devastation to wildlife is also big.

It seems that Leakey doesn't know who the perpetrators are otherwise he would have gone to the police. Perhaps he knows that it is pointless because the police are corrupt as well.

John Scanlon of CITES states that the African elephants are under threat of extinction in the wild. Shocking isn't it? This is an iconic creature. The world just watches and waits for the inevitable. We are too wrapped up in our own mess i.e. the rise of Al Qaeda terrorism, which will affect us all even if it is thousands of miles away from people in the West.

Big business pays poor Africans a pittance compared to their profits to poison elephants and wild cat species. Most of the ivory (a better description is the tusks of an elephant) is shipped to China.
If we are honest the corruption almost certainly runs through every aspect of government; local and national, police and customs. It is so deeply entrenched it is impossible to stop and therefore it is impossible to stop the demise of the iconic wild species of Africa.

Pet Therapy For British Prisoners

16th June 2014 -- Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Oakwood, near Wolverhampton which is managed by G4S plc have introduced "pet therapy" to try and calm down the inmates. For some reason cats are excluded. The inmates can be responsible for the care of dogs, rabbits and hamsters but not take them to their cells.

There were riots at this prison fairly recently, I recall. I suppose this is a novel attempt to try and stop future discontent and rioting. Do pets calm people down? Well, yes, quite definitely. It has been proven scientifically as far as I remember.

G4S have a poor record. They messed up recruitment when they were contracted to manage security at the Olympics. The army had to step in in their place or in support.

Is pet therapy at a prison a hairbrained scheme? It depends how the prisoners respond. If they embrace it seriously and don't abuse it, it will help I believe.

This is the first scheme of this type in a British prison as far as I know. Let's hope it works but why were cats excluded? Probably because the cat is unsuited  - LOL. Obvious reason. Cats don't like change and some cats won't like the male criminal because they are probably a bit clumsy and insensitive towards a cat. Dangerous for the cat. Also I am sure that most prisoners will be dog types. That is the stereotype.

Chinese Dog Meat Festival

Animal advocates protest against dog meat festival.

Photo: screenshot from Weibo. I have not chosen a dog photo
as they are too disturbing.

Fifteenth of June 2014: The annual dog meat festival is about to take place in Yulin, Guangxi province. This article, then, is not about cats. However, it is very closely related to cats because in this part of China they also consume cat meat, a cultural practice which many people in the West find extremely distasteful. This is a cultural issue.

However, it is more than that because gradually a section of Chinese society are beginning to discover the distasteful nature of eating dog and cat meat.

Up to 10,000 dogs are expected to be eaten during next weekend's festival.  The festival is timed to coincide with the summer solstice and the dog meat is washed down with lychee wine.

Despite this being a long-standing tradition and widely accepted, the event, nowadays, is causing controversy within China. The actress Yang Mi made a plea on China's version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, to the government to ban the festival to which 72,000 people commented. You can see that it is a hot topic with very polarised viewpoints.

Dog lovers are bombarding some restauranteurs with threatening phone calls.  One restauranteur mentioned that she was receiving up to 30 threatening phone calls per day.  There have been attempts to free the dogs from their cages. Some protesters have been detained by the authorities. About 400 dogs were bought by animal advocates with money donated by animal lovers. These dogs have been resettled in Shangrao, Jiangxi province.

Some restaurants are responding to the pressure from animal advocates by substituting dog meat with donkey meat but it is unpopular with their customers as half of them refuse eat it and walk out.

The argument within China for eating dog meat is that they are stray dogs and therefore without an owner (although that need not necessarily be the case), therefore what difference is there between stray dogs and pigs (which no one complains about). The manager of one restaurant says “their protest doesn't make any sense".

I understand the argument for eating dog and cat meat. On the face of it there is little difference between a stray dog or cat and farm livestock.  However, the counter argument is that there is a difference.

Farm livestock is reared to be consumed whereas the role of the cat and dog in all societies is primarily as a companion to their human caretaker - this is an un-written agreement because, let us not forget that, the domestic dog domesticated him/herself in a mutual understanding between the grey wolf and ourselves about 30,000 years ago. To kill the dog for human consumption is seen by some as reneging on an ancient agreement.

Article by Michael. Sources: Times and South China Morning Post

Cats and Mirrors: Signs of Cat Self-awareness

There is a debate going on about whether the domestic cat can be self-aware. The question is whether domestic cats know that they exist and one way to measure this is to look into a mirror and recognise yourself. Humans do this instinctively. We don't question it. We know we exist. We recognise ourselves. In fact it causes lots of problems because many people don't like the way they look or themselves at all. So self-consciousness is a potential problem. Does the domestic cat know he or she exists?

The video above hints at, and some people will say that it is evidence of, cat self-awareness. I am undecided. This beautiful black-and-white cat raises his paws while looking in the mirror apparently to check whether what he is looking at is himself. That is the impression that I get. He's certainly interested in what he's seeing in the bathroom mirror. Perhaps he is unsure what he is looking at but his behaviour hints at the fact that he is questioning whether what he is looking at is, in fact, himself. If that is the case then he at least believes that it is possible that the cat he sees in the mirror is himself.

If a cat sees an image of himself in a mirror believing that it is possibly him then it could be argued that the domestic cat is self-aware.

There is, in fact, a mirror test which is an experiment developed in 1970 by a psychologist, Gordon Gallup Jr. Certain species of animal passed the mirror test including: bottlenose dolphins, European magpies, elephants, killer whales, gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. The cat is not included in the list. In the test, the animal recognises the mirror as an image of him or herself.

The jury is still out on this but one thing is sure as far, as I am concerned, and that is this: we are gradually learning more about the mental and emotional abilities of domestic cats and all animals and discovering that there is a lot more going on in the brain of animals than we had previously given credit for.