By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Intro: Please note that this article was written by a guest writer. These are her personal views and they are not necessarily shared by Michael Broad, the website’s owner.
A drawback of having a very popular website about cats must be visiting cat haters who surf the internet looking for articles on which they can vent their hatred of cats and of cat lovers too. What pleasure do they get out of this?
Hatred harms only one person and that is the person doing the hating! Some of these trolls boast that they kill cats as if this is something to be proud of, they try to make it sound as if they are doing a good deed, they have no concept that taking the life of innocent creatures is wrong.
They make inflammatory comments, insult the writer of the article and any cat lover who comments on it and they sound quite desperate to convince everyone that cats are horrible creatures who don’t deserve to live. They call cat lovers crazy psychopaths or sociopaths, insinuating that they have no life beyond their computers, that they are miserable and lonely and have only their cats to care about and to care about them. How wrong can such people be? VERY wrong!
Our own cats are part of our lives, homes and families and we love and care for them just as we do any other family member. Having cats in our homes makes our lives complete, they bring us love and amusement and the pleasure in their company and caring for them makes us happy.
But we also care for all cats worldwide, we try to educate about cat welfare and to stop the abuse and killing of cats. What is wrong with that? It doesn’t mean we can’t care about people, other animals and the environment too, we can and we do, but first and foremost we care about cats. It would be a dreadful world if every person cared about the same thing and it wouldn’t work that way.
I’m afraid it’s the desperate trolls who call us lonely and say we have no life who are in reality the lonely ones themselves because of their bitterness and hatred of cats and cat lovers. Why else would they sit at their computers looking for cat sites to make unpleasant, unkind or unjust comments?
Then when other visitors point out the error of their remarks, the cat haters often come back and insist they are right and there is no more to be said. Of course there is more to be said and the cat lovers say it. Then what happens?
The cat hating troll slinks away for a while, he can’t believe everyone doesn’t agree with his point of view, he can’t understand why everyone doesn’t hate cats too after reading what he wrote. He looks for another article to try to taint with his hatred.
Maybe the best solution would be to ignore these trolls but on the other hand, if it’s a young ignorant person, being set straight might just stop him from doing this anymore. Education is very important.
Are there many of these people or do the same few come back time after time under a different name? Are there dog haters who troll on dog sites? Baby haters who troll on baby sites? We are all different and cat haters need to accept us as we are, not to try to force their dislike of cats onto us. Cat hating trolls need to get a life, do something useful and learn to live and let live!
Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.
“animal extinction by cats is written by cat haters so yours is a circuitous self-serving argument and therefore hopelessly invalid.” You wrote this, if it was a quote then please state that. If you think cat haters cannot speak the truth, then by the same standards cat lovers cannot. If the extrapolations are wildly exaggerated then 10% of this is still 140 million which is still unsustainable for nature. And as for my “third” mistake , I never even suggested your cat was free to roam, my statement was about your attitude. If you honestly think you can defend cats and extinction of endemic species you should change your name from Broad to narrow, like your mind and field of knowledge.
Now I’ll finish there, as you don’t seem to be able to communicate on an unbiased level.
Don’t bother replying as I won’t be revisiting your ridiculously blinkered website again!!
Good – F*** Off
Your attitude is fueling the fire of cat haters. I too am a cat lover with respect for nature and I find your attitude Mr Broad to be completely stupid, if you think all studies that criticize cats to be written by cat haters and therefore invalid. Are you so blinkered? The Smithsonian Institute, The Australian Wildlife Organisation and IUCN are cat haters?. It is estimated that in America alone between 1.4 and 3.7 BILLION animals die due to cat predation. Since 1948 it is also thought cats are completely or partially responsible for the extinction of 33 species of bird and another 30 or so mammals.
My cats have a large enclosed area in my garden (12m x 8m) before you tell me that it is cruel to enclose my cats, i will explain why I do this as seems you are too narrow minded to understand. Firstly I don’t expect my neighbours to clean up the mess MY cats make in their garden and secondly last year a nearby cat killed the parents of 9 young Marsh tits nesting in my garden leaving the young to starve to death. Which is more cruel?
Your attitude is similar to that of dog owners of the last century who thought it was acceptable for their pets to foul pavements, parks and children’s play areas.
If we cannot control our pets then sooner or later the governments will or worse still vigilantly cat haters as recently reported in the British press.
Cats are not the problem, irresponsible, ill informed and biased cat lovers are the problem.
Enjoy cats and love nature.
Susan, the article was written by Ruth aka Kattaddorra. You seem to think I wrote it. That’s your first error. I don’t believe that all studies critising cats are by cat haters. But some studies are written by cat haters. There is no doubt about that. The estimates on cat predation are just that: estimates. They are extrapolations from small studies and are not necessarily accurate. They are always ‘estimates’.
I too enclose my cat! That’s your 3rd mistake. I’ll stop there.
I am not a cat hater I think they are beautiful creatures, I myself have two. I also have respect for wildlife. If you think all articles concerning extinction and cats are written by cat haters your are blind or foolish. So pull your head out of the sand and try to look at the problem from an unbiased position. My post was in response to Leah who thinks feral cats are of no concern to cat haters, they are a concern to us all.
Just search animal extinction due to cats on the web. No more to say
Yes but…..animal extinction by cats is written by cat haters so yours is a circuitous self-serving argument and therefore hopelessly invalid.
Brilliant article Ruth I quite agree when will these people actually realise that feral cats are non of their concern and they should live and let live! There’s very likely a lot of people who don’t like Woodsman and idiots of his ilk and want to kill him or do him harm yet they leave him alone because he’s quite clearly deranged and thinks feral cats are going to take over the world and its up to him the super hero to stop this! Ha ha get a life Woodsman!! live and let live I hate spiders with a passion however I would never kill one.
Has she been peeping in our windows lol the woman could be me except I don’t have green hair lol lol
Great poster Ruth,I particularly like Micheal fast asleep in his bed with Charlie beside him lol
I don’t know why but I always get a bit of a shock to read something nasty,sometimes I feel quite sick at the venom in the comments so how must the person feel who writes such stuff,his insides must be molten lava.
It’s like in real life,if I see someone with a mean expression I avoid them as nasty peoples nastiness shows up on their face just like happiness,kindness,and sadness do.
You can’t hide what you are inside that’s for sure as it comes out and if you are nasty you’ll end up eaten away with it inside and outside.
That picture is absolutely modeled on me and Charles. He’s a bit younger and has more hair but who cares about that.
Intolerance is antisocial. People who cannot tolerate society and all it’s likes and dislikes should go and live far far away from it. They have no right to come and make a mess of something because they cannot tolerate it. It;s actually really that simple. The sad truth is probably that they can’t live without it because hating is what they are good at. That’s why I always think it’s sad and incredibly small to spend your life hating – what a stupid pointless life that would be. Go and live far away from the things you hate. If people like cats then go and live away from people. Hating cats is about the most stupid thing you can waste your life on. Its not about the cats, its about the people who like cats. They do. And wherever you choose to live near other people you will live where there are cats. That is not the fault of the cat. So it comes back to the same thing, if you cannot tolerate society and people then don’t live anywhere near them. Go away and you will have nothing left to hate. Methinks that would defeat the purpose of some peoples lives since they love to hate.
Yes, I agree. Some people feed on hate. It keeps them alive and a reason to live. It seems to be distortion of the usual motivators to survive. Or perhaps it’s a sort of throwback to caveman times. Woody is a caveman in a pickup truck 😉
He may think he is a caveman but in reality he is probably a very inadequate, lonely and bitter person with no emotion other than hating.
How very pathetic is that.
“Pathetic” is the correct word to describe Woodsman.
Destroying cats is neither hating cats nor a fear of cats…..THIS IS YOUR FAULT and THE FAULT OF EVERYONE JUST LIKE YOU. You have NOBODY but yourselves to blame. You can take that all the way to the very last shot-dead cat’s grave.
Note from Admin: I have deleted the remainder as they are the ramblings of a cat hater called Woodsman who is actually scared of cats, poor thing…He doesn’t realise it but he is:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/Why-People-Hate-Pigeons-and-Feral-Cats.html
Good on you Michael! This just proves the point that these cat hating trolls have nothing better to do than lurk on cat sites waiting for the chance to say the same thing over and over again, how it’s OUR fault THEY have to destroy cats.
Does this one think he can convince people to destroy every last cat in the world?
Yes he does need psychiatric treatment and urgently!
I love that poster, well said Ruth and Michael, I never can think what pleasure these people get from deliberately trying to incite or upset other people, but I suppose such folk are there in real life as well as cyber life. One should feel sorry for them they must be miserable inside, but I feel only contempt.
Well said Ruth.
It is remarkable that technology has the ability to track and cancel out these trolls. And, the administrator (Michael) is remarkable in his ability to maintain a very beautiful website, clean and concise, free of nasty comments in general. It allows intelligent cat appreciating folks to share their views without having to sort through garbage. There is still divisiveness amongst cat lovers, but we all have one thing in common. The love of cats. Most of us have love for all the creatures we know about roaming the world we share. Some of us even like, and forgive humans their stupidity. But that is a stretch most of the time.
Thanks Michael. Thanks Ruth, and all the rest.
Thanks Dorothy. I had the idea that I should do a post on all the emails and IP addresses I have that have been used by Woodsman on PoC and ask other website owners to use the same techniques that I use to block him. He should, in time, be blocked out of almost all cat website. He would silenced.
One hidden reason for letting Woodsman make the odd comment is to force him to use different IP addresses. I can then block the new ones and gradually exhaust his supply. You have to have different computer to get a new IP address.
I think you are right Michael to allow some comments through, because as I said if it’s an ignorant young person thinking it’s clever to troll, the comments they receive back MIGHT just get through to them to show them what a stupid waste of time trolling is.
I had a feeling you must have held some of the nastier ones back! It must make hard work for you checking them all.
I really don’t see what hardened cat hating trolls get out of it, they can’t see the reaction of readers, does imagining their anger give them a thrill?
Some of the stuff Woodsman writes is pretty manic and mad. I know he needs treatment. You could just image him in a doctors surgery ranting along while the doctor takes notes. At the end of the session the doctor says:
“Thank you mister Woodsman, I’ll call the ambulance now. You’re off to the nearest psychiatric unit…”
Feeling empathy for fellow creatures was a major factor in the survival and prosperity of the human species. Dogs provide warning of intruders, help in hunting, and a certain amount of vermin control. Cats were and still are invaluable in vermin control which enabled farmers of the fertile crescent to keep their grain stores intact after much long labour. Not to have recognised these benefits selflessly provided by cats and dogs would have seriously jeopardised the survival of those early communities. Not to inherit this empathy is a sign of an aberrant mentality.
Thank you Harvey. “Aberrant” is a good word to describe the mentality of these people.
PoC blocks, through the use of software, known trolls. Woodsman comes to mind. He changes his Internet Protocol address (IP address) all the time but PoC updates the block. He also changes his email address and name but I block these too. Without these blocks there would be a lot more unpleasant comments.
I let him make the odd comment to remind us that cat haters are out there. It is not all goodness, light and love.
Yes, there is a segment of society who are cat haters. They make rude, violent comments. I doubt whether they make comments on cat websites that are less into cat welfare. Some cat sites are designed for middle of the road visitors. They are less outspoken in favour of cat welfare and avoid the more difficult subjects. These sites are less of a problem for cat haters.
If, as is the case on PoC, the site supports TNR and humane treatment of stray and feral cats, the cat haters tend to turn up. They hate feral and stray cats. They like to shoot them or kill them in any way possible. Extermination is on their mind. It does not matter that it is completely ineffective, cruel and violent.
I find that trolls are unthinking people. They are damaged, angry people. Their opinions are not worth listening too.
Did anyone ever tell you you’re a genius! A CAT genius! And people like that don’t deserve a cat. I just sik Karma Klaus on people like that and continue writing. It must be horrible to be a hater with nothing better to do with their time…