A Michael Broad Blog
I’ve got some personal views about this. We’ve got to be careful not to stereotype people; pigeonhole them into one bracket or category for the simple reason that the answer to the question in the title is not black and white. There is a spectrum of personality types providing care for their cats and …
To be honest, this topic is a bit of a minefield. It is very complicated. It is hard to find clear cut answers. And there is a distinct lack of good science on it which surprises me as it is a topic that is made for scientific research. It is almost as if the …
A study from Australia that criticises TNR (to be expected from Australia where they prefer to kill feral cats by any means legal or otherwise) actually provides some nice snippets of useful information which I have converted to a list of recommendations on making TNR effective. I welcome comments of all kinds even those …
The RSPB say that domestic cats do not cause bird populations to decline. A bold statement that requires serious consideration. I remember addressing this issue a dozen years ago when the RSPB said the same thing then. For those who are unsure, the RSPB is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It …
The question is asking whether domestic cats can help a person get over PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). And the answer is going to be a qualified yes. The reason why I have introduced the word “qualified” into the last sentence is because people reading this want hard evidence through a scientific study that cats …
COMMENT: This is a ridiculous study dressed up in overly complicated scientific language to try and equate domestic cat behaviour with psychopathy, deviant behaviour exclusive to humans. It’s completely idiotic. It’s click-bait science. When you read the study, it appears to be deliberately dressed up in almost unintelligible language to try and give the …
New Scientist reports on a study which tells us that scented human objects alone do not reassure domestic cats when their caregiver is away. I’ll explain what that means. There is a general belief that if you leave an item of used clothing with your cat while you are away it can reassure them. …
The news media is having a field day in declaring to the world that we now know how tabby cats get their stripes. And they give thanks to the team of scientists at the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama, USA who conducted the research. I am sure, like me, the science journalists …
