Do cats hate cameras? Taylor Swift’s cat Meredith does!

Whether or not cats hate cameras depends on the individual cat. However, I believe that there is a potential issue for cats with cameras being placed in front of their faces. But what is interesting, based on personal experience, is that domestic cats can equally dislike conventional looking cameras such as SLRs with a lens at the front and smartphone cameras that don’t look like cameras at all. Neither do smartphones look like human stares.

I mention this because one reason why cats might not like cameras is because it is as if they are being stared at. And the stare is the beginning of something potentially hostile in the world of domestic cats. It is part of the sumo-style pre-fight standoff when one cat slowly walks away.

Taylor Swift’s cat Meredith

So, I not sure that the ‘camera stare’ is the reason why some cats hate cameras. But some cats do hate them or dislike them and my cat is one of those cats and so is Taylor Swift’s cat Meredith. She has admitted this in explaining why Meredith has been featured less than her other cats, Olivia and Benjamin Button, over her period of ownership.

She said: “The truth is, Meredith just HATES having her picture taken…She’s just a really private little cat…She doesn’t like a camera shoved in her face. And really, who can blame her?”

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So the great and famous can live with cats who are camera-shy? Cats can’t understand what taking a photograph means. They don’t understand photography so what they hate must be the presence of the object in front of them be it a smartphone or a SLR camera.

And this is the answer, I believe. Cats don’t hate cameras per se, they dislike UNKNOWN OBJECTS being placed in front of them, near them. It could be anything. And the reason for this is the same reason why cats are scared of cucumbers being placed surreptitiously behind them. They don’t know the object. It could be hostile and dangerous so they scram when they suddenly see it. The cucumber analogy is not entirely accurate because all cats hate that experience but not all cats hate cameras.

It is a personal trait. It is part of a cat’s character as is timidity and confidence.

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