Mumbai: medical student beaten up by a group of thugs for feeding cats

NEWS AND COMMENT - MUMBAI, INDIA: A 25-year-old animal-loving medical student, Moin Asif Darvesh, agreed with his father's request to feed stray cats outside of Sir Elly Kadoorie school at 7:30 PM in the evening. It was something that they did regularly and have done for 7 years.

Unbeknownst to the 25-year-old, his father had been threatened 4 days earlier by a few people who objected to him feeding the cats. It appears at the same people approached Moin and insisted that he stopped feeding the cats with chicken. There appears to have been a short discussion at the end of which Moin refused to comply with their demands.

Medical student Moin Asif Darvesh. Image: Mid-day.com

Four more people approached him and allegedly started to kick and punch him. The attack continued for 15 minutes. Onlookers gathered to watch. Police on patrol rescued him.

He sustained injuries to his face, elbows and forearms. He was taken to a local hospital and treated. He later attended the police station to register his complaint and provide evidence.

His father then confessed that he had been threatened 4 days earlier and told that he would be taught a lesson for feeding the cats. He didn't argue with them and went home. He said that the attack on his son was planned for him. He had not told his son to miss that feeding session at that spot.

He accuses a politician for backing the thugs who attacked his son.

The Byculla police recorded a series of offences against the alleged attackers including: voluntarily causing hurt, voluntarily causing hurt by weapons and means, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon, rioting and every member of unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in prosecution of common object. These are crimes specific to India. The description of the crimes is different to those in other parts of the world including the UK.

Two people have been arrested concerning the incident and the senior inspector said that there was a search on for the others.

Comment: this is not the first time and it won't be the last when a person is attacked for feeding stray and feral cats. It has happened in America. On occasions the violence escalates. I can recall one cat feeder being shot dead by a murderer.

The animosity can become severe between those who don't like stray and feral cats and those who feel sympathy towards them and want to help. Stray and feral cats polarise the viewpoint of society probably in almost all countries of the world along the lines indicated.

Extraordinary but sad picture of 47 cats inside a car

NEWS AND COMMENT-MINNESOTA: This is a story about a person who must have been made homeless. We should always be sympathetic towards homeless people even if they are homeless because of what they've done. And in the photograph, you can see there are 47 cats inside a car in which he was living. 

Or in which the cats were living because there was no space for a person to live with them. And if you look carefully you will see that they are all ginger tabby cats. There is no doubt in my mind that this person allowed his cats to breed to the point where the whole situation became completely unmanageable. He may have been evicted by his landlord. 

47 cats before rescue. Note: ginger tabbies all. Image in public domain.

Clearly, he must have been desperate to put 47 cats in a car to try and continue to care for them. And sadly, this photograph was taken on a day when the temperature outside was 32°C (90°F). The temperature inside the car would have been higher.

And this is why he apparently sought help because the cats were rescued. The local Humane Society spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, with the heat yesterday he recognised that it was above and beyond what he was capable of at this time. And he let us help them out."

We are told that he had previously given up 14 other cats that had been living in the car. Does that mean that there were 61 cats living in that car at one time!?

Fortunately, the cats were in reasonable health implying that they weren't in the car for very long. They will be sterilised and made available for adoption.

This is obviously a sad story both for the cats and the person to be in such a difficult predicament. The good point is that he sought help. If all cat orders sought help many more cats in hoarding situations would be saved from a premature death due to neglect; neglect through starvation or ill-health.

The man deserves credit for that. It is an admission to himself that he has failed. Not many hoarders have the courage to admit to themselves or the necessary enlightenment and awareness to realise that they are in trouble and need help. This is because many cat hoarders have borderline health problems.

Secondly, this man must really love cats. He wants to help cats. He failed because he allowed them to breed and in doing so, he achieved the opposite almost to what he desired because he has made their lives very difficult and jeopardised their health.

I would suggest that he requested help because he realised that he was harming his cats. This is indicative of a person who has his heart in the right place.

You're in the top 1% of the population if you can spot two cats in this picture

Somebody on TikTok said that if you can spot two cats in this picture, you are in the top 1% of the general population. I don't think it is that difficult and I don't regard myself as massively observant. I saw where they were even before I opened the page because I saw the image on the Bing news listings. I think this is easy unless I am fooling myself!

Can you spot to catch in this picture? If you can you are said to be in the top 1% of the general population.

I have decided to tell you where I think the cats are because, why not? This at least gives you the opportunity to criticise me and tell me that I am wrong if you disagree with me. Please leave a comment if you do.

The key to losing weight both for owner and cat!

Important note: this is not a lecture. I have no right to lecture anybody. I'm just passing on what I believe as it may help somebody. If it helps one person so much the better. If it helps one cat the same benefit applies. Everyone should have the courage to pass on what they learn if they believe that it is useful to others. Note 2: It is very satisfying to lose weight and maintain a correct BMI. That's a motivator and you'll feel better and good about yourself.

After years of managing and stabilising my weight as an old man (going on 74) and avoiding a pot belly, I think, this morning, that I have figured out the key in one sentence to losing weight and stabilising it. And this key must also be applicable to the domestic cats that we look after them. 

It is as simple is this: you have to feel hungry and you have to feel that hunger for an hour or two a day daily before you eat. And that should apply to every meal you eat. If you use that trick - and it requires self-discipline to quite a high level - you will lose weight and eventually stabilise it. Guaranteed. What percentage of people in the West only eat when they are hungry? A very low percentage is my guess.

Pic: Pixabay.

And if your cat feels hungry, they will be less picky. I am not advocating that you starve your cat. Far from it. I'm just advocating that you should ensure that both cat owner and cat go hungry for a while. My belief is that if you feel hungry you are then ready to eat. If you delay eating when you feel hungry you will burn fat. Fat is a good source of energy. If you don't satisfy that desire to eat which you obviously feel when you are hungry the body turns inward and starts to burn fat as energy.

And when you eat you should still feel a little bit hungry when you finish eating. In other words, you should stop eating when you want a little bit more. This, once again, requires quite a lot of self-discipline. There is no escaping the need for self-discipline when losing weight and stabilising weight. But you can't overeat after you have been abstemious in your diet otherwise you counteract all the hard-fought gains.

There is a natural propensity for elderly people to put on weight. This is because their metabolism slows down but they continue to eat at the same level they ate at when they burned more energy and their metabolism was faster. It is about habit formation. If you don't eat until you are hungry and if you delay eating when you are hungry for an hour or so you create a new habit. Little by little it requires less self-discipline but it will always require a certain amount of self-discipline.

We need to impart that self-discipline to your full-time indoor cat who ends up eating for pleasure. We all know that people eat for pleasure which is entirely understandable. I am very sympathetic because I eat for pleasure too. However, the pleasure I get out from not having a big pot belly is greater than the pleasure I get from eating! And that probably, too, is another key to keeping your weight down.

Ultimately, if you enjoy eating more than you would if you were slim then you won't be slim. You will put on weight to the point where you become desperate enough to stabilise it. And this is the irony of being overweight.

People who are overweight often don't keep on putting on weight. They stabilise at an obese level so why not stabilise at a slim level! Stabilising at an obese level requires a certain amount of self-discipline because you aren't putting on weight anymore and therefore you have cut back on what you're eating. Why not lose some weight and then at that point stabilise it by eating a bit less?

But ultimately, if you want to lose weight you have got to be hungry and you've got to get used to being hungry for a short while until you satisfy the urge to eat.

Girlfriend kicks out boyfriend's cat so he kicks out his girlfriend

This is a story on Reddit.com under the banner "Am I the A**hole?" subreddit. The man explained that he agreed to let his girlfriend of 2 years move in to live with him a few weeks ago. It was quickly apparent that she didn't like his 3-year-old black cat, Raven. They carried on and ignored the problem until not long after he was horrified to discover that his cat was missing. As Raven is an indoor cat this was astonishing and unprecedented.

Girlfriend kicks out boyfriend's cat so he kicks out his girlfriend. Image: Pixabay.

The man's friend then spotted Raven a couple of blocks from his home and brought the cat home. The next step is predictable: the man confronted his girlfriend about what had gone on and she admitted that she'd kicked Raven out of their home.

He wrote on Twitter: "I was furious, saying she had no right to kick him out and told her that since she thought she had the power to kick my cat out, I wanted her out of my house by the end of the month."

She cried and said that she had nowhere to go and that she would have to live on the streets. In response he said that he didn't care but gave her until the end of the month to leave his property.

RELATED: Pretty Cat Amongst Ugly Human Behavior.

He was asking Reddit.com users as to whether he was too harsh because his friends think that he is being too harsh. He says that his cat could have died because of his girlfriend's callousness. Also, he could not trust her anymore and had to stop her trying anything else.

In a little twist to the story, she kicked out Raven around Halloween. This genuinely did put the cat in danger because we know that black cats are vulnerable during Halloween in America. Some shelters don't allow people to adopt black cats during that holiday period for fear that they are going to harm the cat.

RELATED: Human behaviour beneficial to cats.

One Reddit user said that Raven is lucky to be alive. Another Reddit user said that he would have kicked her out on the same day that she admitted throwing out Raven. And the argument is that the man is being more generous than she was towards his cat.

What do you think? Was he too tough or not tough enough? By her actions she is effectively telling him that the relationship is not going to work. You don't unilaterally do something like that which puts a pet cat in harm's way. It was highly irresponsible and something which was bound to upset a boyfriend substantially enough to quite possibly break the relationship which is what happened. 

On the basis that the relationship is broken she might as well leave immediately. And I think she was trying it on when she said that she would become homeless. She was just trying to get some sympathy. But if she was genuine then I would try and help but I would insist that she leaves immediately or as soon as possible.