Greece exterminating cats (and other rants)

[RedRiver35]

Hello:

I seems like it is not too difficult for people to decide not to externimate
dogs as a bothersome vermin, but when it comes to cats it is apparently a
completely different issue - any compassion and common sense flies out
the window.

People will go out of their way to run over a cat on the road BUT --
I watched a state highway with a speed limit of 65 mph come to a
screeching halt (both lanes) at 2:30 p.m. while a dog with a rabbit in his
mouth
walked back and forth several times over both lanes trying to decide
which way to go.

Seems like the dog has graduated from the status of "the dog is not property,
but the dog is still always wrong" to "the dog has the right-of-way" while cats
are
still "property," i.e., trash. I have never understood the down right HATRED
and FEAR that fully grown and supposedly well educated people display when it
comes to cats.

It's not that I don't like dogs or anything, I just don't understand the
mindset.
Any ideas?

Michelle A.

[[email protected]]

In article >,
(RedRiver35) wrote:

> I have never understood the down right HATRED and FEAR that fully
> grown and supposedly well educated people display when it comes to
> cats.

Michelle, I understand where you're coming from, but my experience here
in the San Francisco Bay Area is worlds different from what you're
experiencing. Can you say generally where it is, geographically, that
you see this kind of attitude?

Here, there are plenty of people with bad intent toward cats. They
justify their animosity with all kinds of reasons, but I believe it's
just a basic antipathy for the animal. But there are far more people
around here who not only like cats, but view colony caretakers as
heroic.

I'm willing to bet that location plays a large part in peoples'
attitudes toward cats, especially ferals and strays. I know it
predominates in determining cultural mores and values, with undeniably
basic points of view resulting therefrom. Not only about cats, but
animals in general and a whole host of other routine interactions.

This doesn't just apply internationally, either; any given individual
in rural Alabama would likely feel and behave much differently toward
animals than any given individual in downtown Seattle, for instance.

The hatred and fear you experience from others (toward any animal, not
just cats--reptiles are another mistreated example) is almost always
learned behavior in adults. In children, it's usually the result of
ignorance and lack of experience.

I don't know how to deal with it when it comes to adults, but I've had
some experience with kids and critters, which is to let them _grow_
into the great rewards of kindness toward animals. For all the kids
I've met who were initially cruel toward the cats I care for, once they
got a first glimpse of the benefits of compassion, the internal doors
that opened...well, they were hooked.

Although it's a natural reaction to cruelty, you can't teach compassion
with rage and fury.

[Ray Ban]

(RedRiver35) wrote in message >...
> Hello:
>
> I seems like it is not too difficult for people to decide not to externimate
> dogs as a bothersome vermin, but when it comes to cats it is apparently a
> completely different issue - any compassion and common sense flies out
> the window.
>
> People will go out of their way to run over a cat on the road BUT --
> I watched a state highway with a speed limit of 65 mph come to a
> screeching halt (both lanes) at 2:30 p.m. while a dog with a rabbit in his
> mouth
> walked back and forth several times over both lanes trying to decide
> which way to go.
>
> Seems like the dog has graduated from the status of "the dog is not property,
> but the dog is still always wrong" to "the dog has the right-of-way" while cats
> are
> still "property," i.e., trash. I have never understood the down right HATRED
> and FEAR that fully grown and supposedly well educated people display when it
> comes to cats.
>
> It's not that I don't like dogs or anything, I just don't understand the
> mindset.
> Any ideas?
>
> Michelle A.

Michelle, it may be as simple as: hitting a normal-sized dog at x
miles per hour could likely damage the vehicle while running over a
cat would most probably not cause any damage; or running over a dog
causes more mess than a running over a cat. Yes, it's sickening.