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Cats make everything better (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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…except the local bird population.

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[+] -9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (35 children)

And feed them sustainable, vegetarian food?

Edit: I see the word "local" was added before "environment" later... To be clear, I'm not advocating keeping cats inside and feeding them vegan food. I was just stating their food has a significant impact on the environment, also if you keep them indoors.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago (11 children)

    Cats are obligate carnivores. Feeding them vegetarian food is literally animal cruelty.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    Then there is no animal friendly way to keep cats without damage to the environment

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (7 children)

    Oh so I guess if we cannot be perfect we should just stop caring. Blocking people who cannot be communicated with on here requires way too much effort and yet I persist...

    Like what the fuck is the point in pretending people need to know that nothing is perfect? Everyone obviously already gets that

    You're implying something and it's not good. Pretend otherwise all you want, I won't see your messages

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago

    Everyone obviously already gets that

    The first comment of this chain literally says:

    easily prevent all the damage to the local environment by just keeping your cat inside.

    So no, mybe it's not obvious for everyone and maybe even obvious things need to be said occasionally for oblivious folks.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

    I'm implying cats have an effect on the climate because they eat meat. Not telling anyone not to have cats. I'm not sneakily implying anything else. I'm also not saying anything remotely controversial.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    I get that there's a difference with farmed meat and all, but you may as well argue natural wild predators are bad for the environment

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    That's honestly an awful comparison. Wild predators don't consume more than the environment can sustain, domestic cats represent either an artificial demand for farmed meat, which is bad for the environment, or they hunt themselves which is awful for the environment as well as they're an invasive species everywhere and already the cause of dozens of extinctions.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    Wild predators don't consume more than the environment can sustain

    Sometimes they do

    Wild animals aren't less taxing on the environment per se, they're just differently taxing. Long living ecosystems are likely to be closer to balance. But never perfectly balanced.

    Domestic cats are just cats same as the wild ones, but in different numbers and locations

    For example, people like to talk about beavers as good for the environment. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1wwtGgnzg4

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (7 children)

    Then you might as well off yourself too because there’s no way for you to keep living without destroying the environment either… And don’t tell me that you can do it by eating sustainable vegetarian food because we both know that you live somewhere and you clearly have some piece of technology capable connecting to the Internet so you’re just as guilty of environmental destruction is my cat is.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago* (6 children)

    No, the difference is that cats are kept as a fun companion. It's a choice. The choice of killing yourself is a bit different I'd say. That's a false comparison.

    I'm not advocating for anyone to have or not have cats because of the environment. There's no problem with any single individual cat, just like there is no problem with an individual owning a car. It is every household having one that is causing problems. But no one is going to forbid a certain individual from owning a car, neither am I judging anyone for owning a cat.

    For a choice of having a pet it's worth considering the effect on the environment I'd say. Albeit on a different level than whether one should consider killing him- or herself.

    And again, I'm merely replying to a statement made above. I'm not telling anyone what to do.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Look, you’re being an ass and I wish that you would just admit that you’re being an ass. My cat eats in a week what I eat in a meal. There is no comparison and unless you are actually saying that cats should be euthanized then there is no fucking choice but to keep them either.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    No you only had the choice before you got the cat, I agree it's a bit late to kill it now.

    But also: I'm not even telling you to kill your cat, that's your doing.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (9 children)

    their food has a significant impact on the environment

    What is anyone supposed to do with that information? Ie what is your point?

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

    The point is keeping them inside doesn't prevent all damage to the environment, as a reply to what is said above. Is that not how this works?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    But it does prevent huge amounts of environmental damage which can be helped, while we cannot help that cats require food. The only thing we could do about that is farm chickens for them or something.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    We absolutely could help by not fucking spreading an invasive predator to every corner of this globe just because we find them cute. That's morally reprehensible considering how dangerous cats are to local fauna:

    https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1602480113

    "Introduced rodents and cats are major agents of extinction, collectively being listed as causal factors in 44% of modern bird, mammal, and reptile species extinctions."

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (4 children)

    Well fed cats allowed to roam still stalk and kill prey, it's both instinct and play. Keeping them inside (or under control/on a leash) does prevent damage to the environment.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    Yes it prevents some damage, but not all. The pet food industry is resource intensive.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    doesn’t prevent damage to the environment

    Yes it prevents some damage

    Ok

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  • [+] -13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

    And de-claw them presumably, in the states that still allow it.

    Edit for people who didn’t get the context:

    I’m not advocating it! I think it’s barbaric, our country made it illegal years ago.

    But I also think trapping them indoors and feeding them vegan food is wrong.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Most cats are quite content being indoors, it's certainly better for them and the world to keep them indoors. They live much longer as indoor cats as well, and could always still go outside for supervised outside time.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Yep, indoor is much safer and healthier for the cats. It's not like cats have goals and ambitions out in the big wide world. They spend most of their time laying around and doing that on a couch vs under a bush is only meaningfully different in that one location comes with a much higher risk of parasites and being eaten.

    Not to mention that it is much easier to monitor the health of indoor cats. Tracking weight, litter box usage, and food and water intake can easily add years to the life of a cat. Though, outdoor cats probably need to worry more about cars and bobcats than kidney disease.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Keeping cats inside is more of a challenge, for sure, but not an insurmountable one. You have to put more effort into enrichment for them, or they'll get bored and destroy everything. We have two VERY active cats we're keeping indoors, and we have to play with them a lot (oh no). We'd like to build a catio, but space is limited.

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