This is a “cat thought” for Sunday 22nd June. It is a great day weather wise and I am in the garden. It sounds odd but the truth is that the domestic cat is ill suited to domestication unless he/she undergoes surgery. In other words the domestic cat, as born, requires modification. That is what we, the humans, insist on.
It is universally accepted that a male cat should have his testes removed (castration) and the female should undergo a far more serious operation and have her ovaries and uterus removed (“ovariohysterectomy”).
I should be emphasised that when the cat behaviorist says there are no negative behavior traits to neutering and spaying she means from her perspective and not the cat’s perspective.
If a person does not physically modify her/his cat (s)he is deemed to be irresponsible. We all agree that these operations should be mandatory – an admission that domestication is not wholly successful without surgical intervention. Just a thought.
We don’t just have to physically modify our cats, we have to mentally modify them too. This is called socialisation. Without being socialised a cat is not fully domesticated. Cats aren’t born fully domesticated. They inherit some domestic traits in their genes but they can go either way: into the wild state or become a house cat. It depends on socialisation.
Perhaps this is a strange way at looking at what we take for granted but to me it sheds some light on the whole project that is the domestication of the cat.
It also sheds some light, I believe, on why the declawing of cats exists and I am sorry to constantly bring it up. The advocates of declawing use many arguments to justify it and one of them is that if we have to surgically modify or remove our domestic cats’ reproductive organs why aren’t we allowed to modify their toes too? What is the difference? I see the reasoning but it is not good reasoning.
The difference is this. If we are to have domestic cats then spaying and neutering benefits the cat. It is a surgical procedure which is essentially therapeutic but I have to confess it is done for our benefit. We insist on spaying and neutering. The cat wouldn’t agree to it because it goes against nature, the survival of the species. All animals are hardwired for that. However, it is therapeutic because it makes the cat fit in better with the human’s lifestyle and there are direct and indirect health benefits.
Whereas declawing is also for the human’s benefit and is also designed (but often fails) to makes the cat fit in better with the human lifestyle (no scratched furniture), it is at heart non-therapeutic. There are no benefits whatsoever but there are plenty of negatives. You can see the stark difference immediately.
Yes I will do it too 😉
Ok that was seriously funny – my day just got different lol. I think I’d do the same.
I agree that our need to neuter is partly practical and I agree with Michael it’s a failure that we need to do it for practical reasons, in particular because of it modifying the nature of the cat.
In Slovenia, in the countryside, there are many farms and peasants (that’s what they call them, not me) and they all have un-neutered animals. The neighbours out in the nature there have an un-fixed (there’s the pun, very telling that we ‘fix’ our cats) cat who would come and stalks all our neutered lady cats and sniff them. He was nice. He was clearly different though because of it. I’m not sure having un-neutered cats would be at all bad in the context of a couple necessary conditions.
Firstly they must be ble to roam freely in and out. They will spray your house and get very frustrated otherwise. Secondly, there can not be too many of them. If these two requirements are met I’d happily live with unfixed cats. The lady up the road has unfixed ladycats and they are fine, except that they have kittens twice year but from a practical point of view it’s really not a problem having them around in a typical household in my opinion.
Perhaps the fixing thing also came about more when it became acceptable to have cats indoors only – and yes, all of this is a kind of failure really. That we need to do all these things.
Thanks just waiting to hear back. Doesnt seem to be many around at the moment does there?
You’ll be brilliant at it Kylee, good luck x
Yea that be about right. Its just sad that’s why it annoys me so much. It used to not annoy me but as i become more aware it upsets me more. I got word the other day that sometime soon the SPCA in my town will be reopening where i hope to volunteer.
I could write the script for those here. They’ll want Cats Protection to take the litters of kittens if they can’t find homes for them and then they’ll expect the mothers all spayed for free, won’t be able to afford even a donation!
All very predictable.