Should we hide from the truth of cat abuse?
I get it: nice people become sensitised to uncomfortable pictures of abused cats. They don’t want to see them anymore and they complain if such a picture is presented to them either deliberately or accidentally.
It is so much more pleasant to not see and read about cat abuse of any kind. But is it the right way to behave? Let’s take it to extremes. Fictionally every cat advocate refuses to read about and see cat abuse pictures. For them the problem has gone away; brushed under the carpet, problem solved. Not solved. Problem gets worse.
Hard to look at. We need to remind ourselves.
Cat advocates who refuse to get involved in cat abuse stories are thinking of themselves rather than the welfare of cats. You could argue that it is a selfish decision. A cat advocate’s role is to try and improve cat welfare. You can’t do that effectively shutting yourself away from reality and looking at the world of cats through rose tinted spectacles.
The Cat’s Whiskers
The Facebook page, The Cat’s Whiskers does this. They refuse to allow posts of reality. It is all fluffy pink. Charming personal tales of how beautiful my cat is followed by chat about the wonderful world of domestic cats.
Even when it is essential to get a message out to Facebook users about the evils of declawing they refuse to discuss it. My post was deleted in 3 minutes. This group is failing as cat lovers.
We have to steel ourselves to face and fight cat abuse if we are warriors in the fight for cat welfare. And cat welfare must come first. We must do our bit for cat welfare before we have fun chatting about cat appearance.
PETA
This is why I admire PETA. They relentlessly turn out articles about the most unpleasant animal abuse. They don’t shy away from confronting it head on day in and day out. It is difficult to face and even put up with as I receive post notifications. I delete some of their emails before reading them because I don’t want to see anymore animal abuse. But I have to steel myself and deal with it again. Humanity needs people like PETA. Unchallenged animal abuse can only lead to its escalation.
Without cat advocates being strong willed and persistent the welfare of cats would be in a much worse state than it is today. Humans have short memories. If we don’t see cat abuse pictures for a while we forget it. We forget it and it will never go away. Let’s occasionally discuss cat abuse and not bury our heads in the sand.