Yes, I agree. I don't think you can blame cats for having natural instincts, I wouldn't trust my JRT with small animals that make squeaky noises as I have seen her getting immense pleasure from ripping her toys to pieces. I can understand people getting upset at seeing animals hurting other animals. A few years ago I saw one of my rescue cats chewing a mouse to pieces and it was repulsive but he lived on the streets for a while and he did what he had to do to survive.
Unpopular Opinions Society
- Thread starter Spang
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Yes, I agree. I don't think you can blame cats for having natural instincts, I wouldn't trust my JRT with small animals that make squeaky noises as I have seen her getting immense pleasure from ripping her toys to pieces. I can understand people getting upset at seeing animals hurting other animals. A few years ago I saw one of my rescue cats chewing a mouse to pieces and it was repulsive but he lived on the streets for a while and he did what he had to do to survive.
Seriously, I'm at a loss to understand why you think it's childish to not get upset about a cat's natural behavior. Animals do what animals do. You may not like seeing a cat eating a pretty songbird but in real life that's what they do. It's one of those life lessons that seemingly we've gotten far away from in recent decades. There was no name-calling whatsoever.
Blobbenstein
.......
if people get upset by something, they get upset........are they supposed to pretend not to be?
hungryraccoon
Forum Legend
I agree that it is a cats natural behaviour - that is just how they are. However, Alice-Bee is entitled to dislike whatever she wants, as is anyone else.
Also, you can't really control panic attacks. Telling someone to 'not have a panic attack' over some thing is a bit a silly.
Also, you can't really control panic attacks. Telling someone to 'not have a panic attack' over some thing is a bit a silly.
FortyTwo
Custom Title
The equivalent of name-calling. You poked fun at someone who had just divulged the fact that she was having an anxiety attack about something that in all honesty is upsetting. I don't hate cats but it's not a stretch to see why someone might be a bit irked at the idea of, you know, animals being in danger.
Just because animals do what animals do doesn't mean that their actions won't ever have terrible consequences. I don't blame that orca at Sea World that attacked and killed its trainer a few years ago - hell, it probably has gone through some terrible treatment, knowing how performing animals are typically dealt with - but the fact that it killed that person is not changed by the fact that the orca can't be held morally accountable.
And that's just my opinion. The argument itself has nothing to do with the aspect of making fun of someone. I couldn't care less if you believe that cats have a natural right to eat all the birds they want and then turn into robots and fly to the moon on rockets made of cheese. That's not what my issue is. My issue is with the shallow attack.
Now can this argument just be done with already before mods end up getting involved? That's never fun, and it's best to preserve posts as they are IMO.
No... but are we supposed to kowtow to everyone who gets upset about every little thing? My god, vegans are already portrayed as being overly sensitive... are we now supposed to be upset even about natural animal behavior?
OP
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It isn't written anywhere that we all must be upset at the same stuff.
kibbleforlola
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Haven't we already had the "telling someone to 'just get over it' is not productive" conversation? Cause I feel like we have, a lot. Also, just because it's what a cat does naturally doesn't help. Look at it this way: cats get little animals because that's instinct, they can't help it. Couldn't the same logic be applied here? Anxiety may not be "instinct", but it's something just as ingrained and difficult to control. So, if you wouldn't tell a cat to just stop killing birds, it follows that it'd be just as useless to tell someone to just stop having anxiety over cats killing birds.
Also, taking passive aggressive digs about how "it's not as emotionally fulfilling" isn't productive either; somehow suggesting that Alice-Bee wanted to start drama and needs attention or something like that. I guarantee that that wasn't her intention, and this is the unpopular opinions thread, she just wanted to have a gripe and get it out of her system. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean she isn't allowed to feel that way.
Also, taking passive aggressive digs about how "it's not as emotionally fulfilling" isn't productive either; somehow suggesting that Alice-Bee wanted to start drama and needs attention or something like that. I guarantee that that wasn't her intention, and this is the unpopular opinions thread, she just wanted to have a gripe and get it out of her system. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean she isn't allowed to feel that way.
You know, the problem with attributing moral/ethical motivations or attributes to nonhumans when they do what their instincts tell them to do is that it makes it all that much easier to *punish* such animals. There are already a lot of people who are poisoning, etc. cats (for example) because they're considered "bad" for killing birds, etc.
Surely, as a veg*n forum, people here don't want to reinforce that kind of thinking (that animals are bad when they engage in instinctual behavior)? I certainly don't, and I will continue to speak out when I encounter that kind of thinking and that kind of rhetoric.
Surely, as a veg*n forum, people here don't want to reinforce that kind of thinking (that animals are bad when they engage in instinctual behavior)? I certainly don't, and I will continue to speak out when I encounter that kind of thinking and that kind of rhetoric.
kibbleforlola
Lola Worshiper
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If by "kowtow" you mean "be respectful of other people's feelings even if we personally don't feel that way"; then yes.
FortyTwo
Custom Title
^ This.
If you don't want to be portrayed as overly sensitive, then don't be what you consider overly sensitive and let other people be sensitive to whatever they feel sensitive about. You don't need to be upset about cats being predators. That doesn't make the emotions of those who are bothered by it any less valid.
I agree that people do this sort of thing. At the same time, you won't find many of these people here, and Alice-Bee has even stated that she plans to use a non-violent or harmful deterrent to help with her cat problem.
In any case, the point of my post was not to attack the mindset which holds the behavior of cats as natural instinct, but to point out that Digger was becoming wrapped up in the clique-ish practice of poking fun at someone who had a gripe that was totally legitimate (to them - whether it was legitimate to you or not does not matter).
Well, that post about having an anxiety attack and the part that she put in the spoiler tag about actually knowing that it's instinctual behavior for which a cat can't be blamed could have come in response to my first post, now couldn't it have?
That being said, I'm concluding that this isn't primarily a veg*n forum.
[quote="FortyTwo, post: 110730, member: 77
I agree that people do this sort of thing. At the same time, you won't find many of these people here, and Alice-Bee has even stated that she plans to use a non-violent or harmful deterrent to help with her cat problem.
[/quote]
This is a public board on the internet, and if you don't think it matters what is said about animals on here, then I think you need to think a bit further.
I agree that people do this sort of thing. At the same time, you won't find many of these people here, and Alice-Bee has even stated that she plans to use a non-violent or harmful deterrent to help with her cat problem.
[/quote]
This is a public board on the internet, and if you don't think it matters what is said about animals on here, then I think you need to think a bit further.
Well then you and everyone else here will be quite overjoyed to know that I have asked Karl to delete my account again. Best of luck to you and all of your exactly like-minded thinkers.
FortyTwo
Custom Title
So feeling upset about a cat attacking and killing birds in one's yard due to the consequence of its owner not being watchful enough, expressing personal disdain for that animal (while still acknowledging that the animal is not at fault for its actions), and then suggesting a solution that doesn't harm the animal isn't vegetarian?
What's being said about animals? That someone doesn't like cats?
Jeez, people receive less outrage than this when they post about killing pests like flies and even mice. I don't see why this is worse than that.
FortyTwo
Custom Title
Oh, more drama. Just what we need! Ah, whatever. If it brings you happiness to not be here, then best of luck elsewhere.
There's no drama, honestly. You're just so young, you're still following the herd. I look forward to seeing you break out on your own someday.
That's not what I was talking about.
The value to me in a veg*n board is the sharing of information about veg*nism, to learn, and hopefully to change the way so many people view animals.
My comment was a general one about the direction the board is more and more taking, which is basically a social support group. I actually have that IRL, with a whole lot less drama and dysfunction than is the norm for so many people here.
Which is why I asked IS to delete my account a little while ago.
