Catster Article is Fiction and Biased Against the Cat
Stray or feral cat. Photo by sakurai_dayo
I would like to put my spin on the Catster article entitled: “People Who Feed Stray and Feral Cats Make Me Mad” written by Meghan Lodge. The article makes a good fundamental point but it is written in a way which is very biased, inaccurate, and I say it is fiction. We should never make biased statements to support the point which we wish to make.
In my honest opinion, Meghan has made up a fictional story about a feral cat colony based on bits of information she has read on the Internet. She writes the story as if it were true.
The point she makes is that people who feed feral cats are a damn nuisance. She says that she regularly drove her car past a colony of 20 feral cats that were fed by “a local woman”. No names are mentioned and no photos taken. She says that she never hit a cat with her car but “plenty of other people did“.
So, according to her, plenty of drivers ran over or hit feral cats with their cars, at that point. Can you honestly believe that? I can’t. It is highly, no totally, unbelievable. It is fiction.
It does not stop there. She says that the woman who fed the cats provided little homes for the cats and just fed them and that she trapped and neutered a “couple” of cats! Come on Meghan, stop telling porky pies.
Meghan then says that the gene pool of this colony of feral cats resulted in “kittens with missing eyes, ears, and limbs“. That is a ridiculous statement, Meghan. There is a picture of feral cats feeding that accompanies her article and the picture is from an image library Shutterstock. The cats looks healthy. Meghan you are grossly exaggerating and you have lied.
She also says that all of the cats were anemic and infested with fleas. That might be possible for some cats but you are simple regurgitating the standard stuff you have read on the internet and fictionalized this account.
Meghan says that the number one reason why people feed feral cat colonies is because they don’t want the cats to go to shelters where they will be euthanised.
My reading of the Internet is that most people who feed feral cats do so as part of trap-neuter-return programs. If that is true they are treated for standard illnesses when they are neutered.
TNR works and it is the only viable way to mop up the mess created by irresponsible cat owners who let their cats go feral and breed.
Catster.com is owned by an advertising agency, “Say Media”. The only adverts on Catster are Say Media adverts. The site has become highly commercial at the expense of the truth.
I am not saying that Catster is a bad site. I am saying that they are pushing the expansion of their website too hard at the expense of truth and fair play and it can hurt the cat.
Read Meghan’s article if you wish.