Trusting friendly domestic cats tortured by US Government in experiments

OPINION AND COMMENT: I am referring to animal testing, specifically cruel experiments on friendly domestic cats in a government facility. Animal cruelty funded by American taxpayers' dollars. The research was carried out by the Department of Veteran's Affairs at three labs one of which is in Los Angeles.

Cat used in animal testing in a US gov facility for VA
Photo: CBS LA.

The Metro online newspaper refers to one friendly little cat, Artemis, who was aged one at the time; a young cat with his life ahead of him. He was inexperienced and expecting his humans around him to be as friendly as him. 

The cruel so-called scientists, more like torturers and abusers, drilled holes in his head to implant electrodes to analyse sleep patterns. He endured three years of tests and was killed at the end and dissected. Difficult to comprehend how educated people could do this. 

Other cats were kept in small cages, it is reported and injected with chemicals. They were eventually asphyxiated and killed. Animal advocates argue that the experiments were pointless and useless in terms of understanding human physiology. 

Madeleine Bernstein of the LA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said: "It blows my mind that we can fight a pandemic with a code, but they have to bash a cat in order to come up with some sleep pattern. It really doesn’t make sense in 2021."

The experts say that experiments on cat's brains don't really assist humans. In 2020 the LA lab spent $5 million on torturing cats in experiments.

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) claim, as expected, that the experiments were designed to improve treatments for veterans injured in combat.

They say they'll end the experiments in 2021 but there seems to be some distrust over their word. White Coat Waste Project (a taxpayer watchdog group) say the VA can't be trusted.

A bill is in Congress appropriately called CATS. It will end the torture if and when it is passed into law. 

I have written about this sort of thing before on another website. Click here to read it if you wish.

Pet bobcats instinctively like to use human toilet to poop and pee

This is a story from Melissa, Texas, USA of a couple of pet bobcats adopted quite recently by Mick and Melissa. They have made a video of their experiences of living with the bobcats. Melisssa says that bobcats like to hide the smell of their feces and urine when living in the wild. They do this by using a pond or a stream. This is why they took to using the human toilet so naturally. 

Melissa play-fights with one of the bobcats. Watch those hands. A bobcat bite can break the
bones of the hands according to Melissa. Screenshot.

My research indicates that bobcats don't normally hide their feces in the wild. In fact they create a bobcat feces toilet! I visualise mounds of poo at an important place in their home range. They tend to mark territory at the boundaries of their home range using poop, pee and scraping the ground. This contradicts Melissa but I sure that she is correct in saying that the bobcats used the toilet naturally.

So what is going on? It seems that they want to hide the smell of their poop. Sometimes in the wild bobcats need to be invisible. Perhaps it might be a female with her cubs. Or a juvenile bobcat. My reading of the situation is that Melissa and Mick's bobcats are feeling a little anxious and don't feel confident enough to mark territory.

Pet bobcat instinctively pees and poops in human toilet the owner said. Screenshot.

They probably don't feel that it is their territory but the territory of their owners. Perhaps as they become more bold and older their toilet habits might change.

Melissa does not say if the bobcats have sprayed urine against the walls as is commonplace in captive medium-sized wild cat pets. The serval is another example.

There are many cases of serval owners giving up and abandoning their exotic pets to sanctuaries because it all becomes to much hassle.

Bobcats can live long lives at about 30 years in captivity. They are the longest lived wild cat species in captivity. If Melissa and Mick are around 40 years old they'll be looking after these gorgeous bobcats when they are approaching 70. Can they do it? Will they tire of it or will their circumstances change so that they can no longer care for the cats?

Melissa admits to getting scratched and even suffering from broken bones in her hands because the bite of these cats is very strong. Not many people are able to accept that. Some delcaw their exotic pet cats. I can't tell if these bobcats are declawed. I don't think they are and I sincerely hope not. It is a very cruel operation.

Bobcat peeing and pooping in a human toilet. Screenshot.

As you can see, I am against wild cats as pets because ultimately it works against conservation of these animals. So much better to let them live out their lives naturally in the wild and allow them the space and peace to do it.

Ginger tabby helps guy recover from drug addiction

He said, on Reddit.com, that Pete, his ginger tabby cat companion, has "been the best emotional support kitty that I could ever have."

Ginger tabby, Pete, helps guy recover from drug addiction. Photo: Reddit.com

He said that he is an addict in long-term recovery and his beautiful, laid-back, ginger boy is helping him on that long road. It's a great story for both of them. I've always thought that ginger tabbies are perhaps the best for this role. They tend to be a bit alpha-male, and in control. They are also laid-back. That, of course, is if you believe that a cat's coat type can be linked to their character and I think it can.

You know what they say about tortoiseshell cats having catitude! What I think the opposite cat character applies to ginger tabbies. Some people refer to them as red tabbies and others as yellow cats. I think technically the better description is red but then a lot of other people call them marmalade cats! You pays your money and you takes your choice.

I'm just very pleased for this guy because he's using his cat in a way that a domestic cat should be used. Just being there they can be so helpful emotionally. It brings to mind a recent study about domestic cats and dogs which has been used by some people who dislike cats to denigrate them. One journalist on the Gizmodo website said that cats are disloyal.

I don't think we should get into a discussion about disloyalty or loyalty of domestic cats. They play a role of companionship. That is their major purpose and through their companionship they help people to recover like this guy from drug addiction or they make people happier and keep them company when otherwise they would be lonely and melancholy.

P.S. Pete is a good name for a ginger tabby - cocky and confident.

90 per cent of animals interred at an ancient Egyptian pet cemetery were cats

A recent archaeological dig in Egypt confirms what we probably already knew, namely that the favoured companion animal by far in ancient Egypt was the domestic cat. The archaeologists have dug up the remains of pets at what is considered to be the world's first pet cemetery. And they say that the vast majority of the skeletons, more than 90%, were cats although there are also dogs, baboons and 2 species of macaque monkey.

Remains of cat at world's first pet cemetry in Egypt. Photo as per photograph.

In all they exposed 585 animals. They were laid out carefully in individual graves which indicates to the archaeologist that this was a pet cemetery at a remote seaport on the western coast of the red Sea, Berenike.

Some of the animals were wearing collars and some showed evidence of illness indicating that they were companion animals. As the animals had not been mummified and there was no sign of a sacrifice at this 2000 year old site, this further supported the view that this was a cemetery.

Berenike was a busy Roman port at the time and founded in 275 BC. They also uncovered remnants of goods from India and other luxury items from across the Empire including fabrics, spices and ceramics.

The scientists, Marta Osypinska and her husband Piotr, who are called 'archaeozoologists', first discovered the cemetery in 2011 when they were excavating a Roman trash dump on the edge of this ancient town.

Apparently some experienced archaeologists said that they were wasting their time in digging up the pets but it has proved enlightening they say.

The research is published in the journal World Archaeology. The site existed as a pet cemetery for about a hundred years from the mid-first century to the mid-second century.

Comment: There was a time when the experts thought that the first domestic cats in the world were pets of the ancient Egyptians. However, it is now believed that the first North African wildcats were domesticated around 10,000 years ago which, as I understand it, is before the Egyptians adopted them as pets as long ago as 3700 BC. 10,000 years ago is about 8000 BC.

It is believed that the domestic cat went through a golden era of adoration as pets of the ancient Egyptians because they created gods in their likeness. I think this is a misconception because many kittens were deliberately killed as sacrifices to the gods. It is believed that these kittens were bred for the purpose of sacrifice.

As is always the case there are those who abuse animals even in countries where a particular animal appears to have been worshipped. My clear impression is that there was far more abuse of animals in general and cats in particular in Ancient Egypt than people care to reflect on. Not a cat loving society if you dig deep.

However, the fact that 90% of the skeletons at the cemetery were cats clearly indicate that they dominated the pet marketplace and were far more popular than dogs at that time.

What is the cat fancy?

The cat fancy is that group of people who breed purebred pedigree cats for adoption and for showing at cat shows and it also includes those organisations called cat associations which govern cat shows and provide guidelines in the form of breed standards for breeders to follow.

Lynx point Siamese cat at a cat show. Cat shows are part of the cat fancy. Photo: Pixabay.

In short, it is that group of people who are involved with showing, selling and breeding purebred cats. The word "fancy" is an interesting one because you may have also heard of the phrase 'pigeon fanciers'. These are people who breed racing pigeons. There are other fanciers concerning other animals. The word 'fancy' in this context means 'to like', to put it simply.

So cat fanciers are those people who like purebred cats and therefore they like to breed them. And if you breed purebred cat you want to breed the best purebred cat you can. This means that you want to win a cat show or win a category at a cat show. 

You do this by making sure that the cat that you breed fits in as near as possible perfectly with the breed standard as provided by the cat association to which you are affiliated and where your purebred cat is registered.

All purebred cats should be registered with a cat association. In some countries you will see purebred cats, often Persian cats, for sale which probably are not registered with any cat association and therefore you can't be sure that they are genuine. Their appearance may be slightly dubious as well.

A lot of countries do not have a cat fancy. The biggest cat fancy is in America and the idea of a cat fancy was started in England in the late 19th century. The largest number of purebred cats are in America. America is a nation of cat lovers with the world's largest number of domestic cats and the highest number of purebred cats. However, like all nations there are those who dislike cats of which there are many millions in America.

The most popular purebred cats in America are probably the Persian, Siamese, Bengal and Maine Coon. You can find out which are the most popular by finding out which cat breed sells the best and that information should be available with the cat associations and if not they can at least tell you the number of cats that they register of each particular breed. That is an indirect way of finding out which breed sells the best.