Cats Are Not In The Food Chain
A person said on the radio that as cats are not in the food chain they are of no use to people and can be killed. A number of others agreed. What he meant was that if animals are not serving people (in the form of food) then they are no use. To people like me this mentality is unfathomable. But it is not that uncommon. Where does it come from?
Many humans are disconnected from nature to a large extent. A substantial percentage of people think that the planet is theirs and that nature is there to serve the human. Some believe that God created the earth as described in the Bible. Some disbelieve the theory of evolution. Fair enough, each person can believe what they like as long as it doesn’t cause pain to others including other animals. These people are disconnected from nature and in being so, they lack empathy with other animals and often the landscape too (witness rampant deforestation in Asia for example – causing the loss of many wild cats incidentally).
It is a disconnect that says that all creatures other than humans are here on earth to support and feed humans. It is a disconnect that disconnects actions of humans with the pain and suffering that some cause to cats. I am thinking of cat cruelty and recklessness towards to the keeping of cats. I am thinking of an attitude to cat keeping that is not sympathetic towards the cat.
It takes an emotional disconnect from the pain caused and moral wrong of these sorts of activities to be able to do them. Animal cruelty is another example. For some, hurting a cat is unthinkable because they can feel the pain that the cat will feel when it is hurt (or declawed for example). This empathy is a barrier to carrying out these acts.
But if the person thinks that the human is king on earth and the other animals are “just” animals and cats are “only cats” then it becomes really quite easy to kill cats and hurt cats. The perpetrators are disconnected from the consequences. When people hurt other people without feeling or relating to the consequences they are called sociopaths. I think people who have no feeling for the consequences of hurting cats are similar and that it comes from an arrogance supported by an ignorance that all animals are so much lesser that humans that they can do as they please with them. There are laws against animal cruelty even in some third world countries but enforcement is the big weakness.
This means that these people who are disconnected from their actions in relation to animals are never or rarely punished and the situation never corrected.
I prefer to think that we are all here on a more or less equal footing and that we should seek ways to share the planet harmoniously and in balance. High minded stuff but it is the only way in the long run.