alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (05/21/84)
More people die in/by car accidents each year than do cats. If you are one of those who won't let his/her cat outside because you grieve every time you see a dead one on the road, do you also grieve every time you hear of a person killed in a car? If we are not going to allow cats outside because it's too dangerous, than we, ourselves, can certainly not be allowed to go outside. I'm not being cold. I am also sickened when I see dead animals on the road, but that doesn't give me the right to take away a part of my cat's life.
zzz@mit-eddie.UUCP (Mike Konopik) (05/25/84)
> More people die in/by car accidents each year than do cats
I'll bet if we licensed cats to drive, their auto-accident death
rate would climb, too. This argument is just absurd. If you look
at it logically, animals aren't equipped to live in our unnaturally
designed lifestyle (i.e. in the city/suburb). If you choose to look
at it sentimentally, one might say "ohhhh, they should be freeeeee",
but then again, I'd rather say "ohhhh, I don't want my negligence to
kill my beloved and very naive cat." But I am sure everybody's had
quite enough of this argument...
--
-Mike
genrad!mit-eddie!zzz (UUCP) ZZZ%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC (ARPA)alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (05/26/84)
``the hunting instinct is as much a part of the cat's life as being outdoors.'' True, but there's not much here to hunt. My cat, though, has not suffered in respects to his hunting abilties, though. He has killed a couple birds, mice, etc. The normal for a cat (my late cat even got a baby rabbit once). In the house, he kills insects (walking, crawling, AND flying (he jumps)). He probably would not have kept this skill if we had not let him out, so letting him out keeps our house rodent free.
rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (05/30/84)
>More people die in/by car accidents each year than do cats. Adam, you've got to post some source for this - I just don't begin to buy it. I know that, for example, Colorado's auto-death toll works out to one or two people a day for the entire state. There are probably more than two cats killed per day in our town (of <100,000), let alone the rest of the state. And how about keeping the analogy correct - how many people are HIT by cars. If you've got some figures, let's see them. >If you are one of those who won't let his/her cat outside >because you grieve every time you see a dead one on the road, >do you also grieve every time you hear of a person killed in >a car? Objection! Again, you changed the analogy, from "see" for the cats to "hear of" for people. If I restore the analogy, I emphatically answer "Yes - I not only grieve but am sickened when I see a dead person on the road killed by a car." >I'm not being cold. I am also sickened when I see dead animals >on the road, but that doesn't give me the right to take away >a part of my cat's life. Your cat's life is what you make it. Do you feed your cat? I hope not - for the hunting instinct is as much a part of the cat's life as being outdoors. Sure, people and cats both can get hit by cars. But we can train people, while cats are very hard to train (in general; there are exceptions). -- ...Stop to smell the flowers. Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303) 444-5710 x3086