Cat Lovers United
Will cat lovers – let’s go wider and say animal lovers – put aside their differences and collaborate for the betterment of all animals including companion cats?
When things get difficult humankind tends to work together. All the silly little differences look silly all of a sudden. They lose their importance and people can then get on and focus on the real issues, the things that matter and which can improve our world. We can work together.
Cat lovers can be vegetarians. They can sometimes be strict vegetarians. They can hate the idea of meat. But cat lovers can also be meat eaters as long as it is not cat meat. And as long as both parties truly respect the cat then they should work together to improve the welfare of cats. A meat hating cat lover should not be angry at a meat eating cat lover. Each should respect the other for what they have in common.
The Cat Lover
Bird conservationists tend to criticise the cat for decimating bird life. Some want to kill feral cats. It is not sensible for two groups of people who wish to work on behalf of different species of animal or families of animals to fight each other. The answer to conserving bird species is not to attack people who keep cats or the cats themselves, but to work with people who keep cats in the common goal of preserving cats and birds in an oganised balance.
The cat fancy tends to work disharmoniously as far as I can tell. There is a lack of coordination amongst the cat associations and it appears a lack of agreement within certain cat associations. This can leave the cat exposed to poor breeding practices to the detriment of the purebred cat.
There is much to do in respect of cat welfare. If we are honest with ourselves, we have gone astray in our 10,000 year old relationship with the domestic cat. There are two many downsides – for the cat, not us.
Even in cat rescue we have fundamental differences of opinion and working methods. Some shelters are positively no kill. Cats are not killed – period, full stop. In others the management see no alternative to killing a large percentage of cats brought to them as there is a lack of homes. Why are these views so disparate? Can’t one management team work with another to reduce the killing?
PETA is known to favour killing unwanted cats. It may be a misconception that I have but I read about it all the time. This causes consternation amongst cat lovers. Yet PETA stands for ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’. The basic objectives of cat lovers and PETA management should be the same. Can’t we find common ground and work in a coordinated manner to improve the welfare of cats?
We need to focus on common, primarily causes and put aside secondary differences. We will then be able to make a real impact. There is a great need to make an impact on cat welfare. Taken as a whole I am disappointed at the development of our relationship with the domestic cat over the past 150 years (declawing, devocalising, mass killing of unwanted cats, the ‘feral cat problem’ etc.). It is time to reassess and renew that relationship by working together.
Oh yes I do agree with the general idea behind your post Michael, we cat lovers must forget our differences for the good of our cause which is making this a better world for all cats.
I do understand too why you eat chicken, being the same generation as you, as a child I’d never even heard of vegetarians, we were brought up to eat everything we were given and told how lucky we were that we were too young to remember the hungry years of WW2.
I get made to feel guilty for not being vegan and get pressured to do it from vegan pals but I honestly feel it’s a step too far at my age, I’m no saint, only a human being and in my opinion we can only do what we can and think that every little thing we can do helps. It’s no good making our lives a misery denying ourselves to the point where we get no enjoyment out of life and lets face it, doing so wouldn’t be enough to stop all the abuse going on. Every single person would have to do the same to stop that and that’s never going to happen is it !
Ruth, completely agree with you. We can’t deny ourselves everything that comes naturally to us. As long as we try our best to help those less fortunate, make the best we can of life and in our case try to improve the welfare of cats we have to be satisfied.
Hi Ruth, I agree being a vegetarian is preferable. Very preferable. Pretty much the only meat I eat is chicken. This is because I have the habit from an early age of eating meat. And being a cat lover and vegetarian is a perfect combination. Well done! I hope you agree though with the general idea behind my post.
Most people will never agree so we can only agree to disagree and keep on doing our best, not only for cats but for all animals.
It’s very hard for a flesh eater to think of life without eating it.
I know this because although I felt guilty calling myself an animal lover yet still eating them, it took me a while to actually stop doing it. My sister felt the same way and one day we just said let’s do it! We haven’t eaten the flesh of an animal, bird or fish since that day in January 2001, Our only regret now is that we didn’t so it sooner. But it’s no good trying to force your own views or lifestyle on others, they have to come to it in their own good time or they won’t be successful. I don’t hate meat eaters,I only hate the fact that because they do, many animals suffer pain and fear as they die, also that those people will never know the clean wholesome feeling of never eating dead flesh. We all need to work together for the good of cats, they need us to fight their battles for them. I do love all animals and do what I can on their behalf but I feel my mission in life is to put cats first because many peoples concept of cats badly needs to change, they need to be regarded as highly as dogs are and not as some creatures which in the history books have often been persecuted so that makes it OK for them to go on being persecuted.
I expect in thousand years time we will be looked upon as barbarians…….. if the human race still exist that is …..
Progress takes time.