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If humans really treated cats the same as humans, you'd get jailed for petting random kittens on the street that you don't know. (piefed.ca)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Judge: You have been charged with First Degree Kittenphilia. Several witnesses claim they saw you approaching kittens and acting suspiciously... they're KITTENS! How do you answer to these charges?

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[–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

On a tangent,
what's your stance on various people on YT 'domesticating' feral cats and other semi-wild and wild animals by wearing heavy gloves, then repeatedly invading their personal space over a course of days (like a month, typically) and then triumphantly showing that the animal is much-less stressed, and much-less freaked-out by petting, at the end of the video?

I mean, I guess I'm pretty much answering my own question above. I.e. I don't like it in general, but it does leave some Q's about what exactly those people are doing in such cases... like, what's being triggered... what's being normalized... and all that stuff. It almost kinda seems like a form of slavery and Stockholm syndrome, altho I'm just an amateur speaking.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    It's the equivalent of grooming. So yes, it is morally questionable. But so is every "training someone to do a thing". People just accept it with animals as long as in the end the animal seems fine, because it's only ever about what seems normal and not about the actual impact. And I'm not saying it's all a horrible moral crime, just that it's a large grayscale and can't be painted as good or bad blankly.

    Doing that to random wild animals for no reason does feel rather fucked up to me because until the end point (which in that case is likely just the realization that there's no danger) it puts the animal under a lot of stress. Not to mention the potential issues with wild animals losing their fear of humans.

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