A recent article in the Washington Post might, on the surface, seem to be good publicity for PETA, but anyone who reads the article between the lines can see what is really happening. The article talks about the fanatical lives of PETA interns. You know, how they stuff envelopes, hand out pamphlets and umm cover themselves in fake blood.
Not exactly a normal job, and certainly not something any sane human being would undertake. Luckily, most people only have to deal with them in passing and can choose whether to patronize or ignore, but some aren’t so lucky. According to the Post, “Lydia Netzer lives next door to the PETA intern house down in Norfolk.”
Once upon a time, she lived a nice life with an indoor/outdoor cat named Hoity. That is, until her new fanatical neighbors pestered her into keeping the cat indoors. This went against the cat’s nature and drove the poor feline crazy. Although PETA people purportedly protect animals, they essentially forced Netzer to go against the cat’s nature. Stuck inside, the little Hoity lost its mind and Netzer was forced to put it down.
Just another casualty of PETA’s war against nature and balance in the world.
(Via the Washington Post)
As someone who has worked in the animal care industry for 12 years (and is not member or even a fan of PETA) and who has been the owner of several indoor cats for much longer than that I can tell you for a fact that the assertion that keeping cats indoors is against their nature to the extent of being harmful is absolutely ridiculous, and is an incredibly irresponsible statement. Cats don’t lose their minds from just from being inside and “lost its mind” is not a recognized diagnosis from any veterinarian. If this woman truely received this diagnosis, and the treatment was euthanasia then she went to a quack doctor who should not be in the business. If we’re talking wild cats like bobcats or manx, then psychosis may be possible, but is still a huge stretch. At my facility are two bobcats who have been with us for 6 years, and while their enclosure is roomy and located outdoors and we strive to have their diet and activity as close to what they would experience in the wild as possible, they lived for the first 4 years of their life as pets where they were declawed and had their teeth filed. So fortunately they were removed, but unfortunately they now have to remain permanent captive residents in my Sanctuary. But even with all those years stuck in that trailer they are both still very much in possession of their “mind”. And this is a species who does not have generations after generations of adapting to domestic life alongside humans. Current domestic cats have been living alongside us for thousands of years, and living indoors with at least since the Egyptian Pharaohs. It is now its “nature” to share homes with humans. Cats allowed to run free outside not only are faced with many dangers to their own well-being like traffic, disease and attacks by dogs, wildlife and other animals, but are also responsible for the decimation of many bird populations, going so far as to be the official cause of extinctions for at least seventeen species of ground-nesting birds in the country of New Zealand, plus many more in other countries. Having an outdoor cat is a danger not only to itself, but to the other creatures that it hunts for fun. These assertions in the article above are laughably false and blatantly untrue.
I am certainly not in any position to question you, however, the true point of the article is that PETA has no place telling that woman what to do with her pet. It is great that your bobcats have been able to thrive within your sanctuary, however, they have no knowledge of any other life. The cat, meanwhile, had previously been allowed to go outside and then that was taken from it. I do believe the woman was pretty ridiculous for putting that cat to sleep, but again, the real question is who gave PETA the right to tell her what to do and to pester her?
Also, I know that introduced species such as foxes have decimated populations of ground-nesting birds in Australia and New Zealand, but never cats specifically. I’d actually be very curious to read that information if you could send me a source.
I won’t argue with you on the point of PETA shouldn’t be able to tell a person what to do with their pet. On that I agree.
I’m sorry but I am kind of Science dork, so if you can locate the document ICBP Technical Publication issue 3, published in NZ in 1985, is the report of study which concluded domestic cats responsible for the extinctions of the Stephens Islands Wren, Chathan Island Fernbird and and Auckland Island Merganser. And in fact the current tally of species wiped out by domestic cats there has risen from the seventeen I previously quoted to 41. A quick google search also brings up quite a few records with similar findings though islands populations have taken the brunt as islands are where many migratory birds choose to raise their young.
Crazy, thanks for the info! It’s definitely not a good idea to bring an invasive species of any ecosystem, especially one as fragile as New Zealand.
Uh… anyway, yeah my points were made already. It is not in a domestic cat’s “nature” to be wild, hence the term “domestic”. It does suck that the cat was used to a degree of freedom which was then taken away by this stupid organization, but it would never cause a cat to “lose its mind” to the extent of requiring euthanasia. And, domestic cats are a danger to other wildlife populations.