Moggies have no place in the modern world. We should breed non-hunting cats. Dr Bradshaw, the well-known cat behaviour expert and author of Cat Sense has suggested that there is no place in the world for the outside domestic cat because they are too good at hunting. They wish to hunt. They need to hunt. It is in their DNA and it is part and parcel of the domestic cat. If the domestic cat does not retain his hunting instinct is he still a domestic cat as we know it? Probably not because so many aspects of the cat’s character turns on hunting; even playing with us. All those precious qualities might be lost.
There are some interesting arguments about breeding out the hunting instinct in domestic cats to create non-hunting cats who don’t bring in prey to the house and proudly declare their success to their owner. I’m sure there are many cat owners who put up with their cat’s hunting pastimes but don’t really like it. They accept that the domestic cat is a fabulous hunter and they love their cat and therefore they accept the hunting. However, might it be better if this finely tuned and well-known hunting instinct was gradually bred out of the domestic cat?
John Bradshaw believes that it is time for a change and that the domestic moggy’s killer instinct should be bred out altogether. He says,
“Worldwide, we need a solution to cats going hunting for wildlife when they don’t need to. As the planet gets more crowded it is not an animal that can coexist with wildlife. There’s precious little wildlife as there is.”
One problem cat lovers have is the criticism that their cat’s face from the bird loving public. If there’s one thing which aggravates, irritates and annoys people who are neutral to the existence of domestic cats it is their hunting instinct and their predation of birds (note: cats’ main prey are ground dwelling creatures). People don’t mind the domestic cat preying on rats but when it comes to birds, especially rare and endangered bird species, the neutral public might tend to find a reason to criticise a domestic cat and his existence. As for the people who dislike cats then the incessant hunting of the domestic cat provides wonderful ammunition to criticise the cat and worse; to kill domestic cats who stray outside and to persecute feral cats. This persecution can reach national level as we have seen in Australia.
In addition, there are many people in the West who criticise TNR programs primarily for the reason that it keeps feral cats on the street and in the urban environment where they are able to continue to pray on birds!
The problem is that there are no conclusive studies about the numbers of birds killed by cats. Also humans conveniently forget that they are themselves the greatest killer of bird species through their various activities, in one way or another.
Estimations as to numbers of birds killed by cats are guesswork or guesstimates but they are banded about the Internet and people start to believe them which only adds to the persecution of domestic and feral cats.
In Britain it is believed that 275 million creatures are killed by cats every year including 55 million birds. It is believed by some that the domestic cat around the world kills 3.7 billion birds annually. A well-known cat called Tibbles has been blamed for the extinction of the Stephens Island wren in New Zealand.
Cats are scapegoats for declining populations of birds. Humans don’t know for sure that cats contribute to the declining population of certain species of birds but they conveniently like to blame the cat. I, for one, do not like to see the cat being blamed and therefore I wonder whether it might be useful if, over a long period of time, the hunting instinct was bred out of the domestic cat. I’m not saying I’m for this idea, I’m just thinking about it and looking at the positives and negatives.
Dr Bradshaw said:
“Cats are always going to be scapegoats for this kind of thing. You can turn down their hunting by feeding them good cat food but you can’t turn it off. It’s too few generations since they were valued for hunting for it to disappear.”
Dr Bradshaw suggests that the idea of a cat without a hunting instinct is not as odd as it might initially appear. He spoke at the Cheltenham Science Festival and mentioned that there is evidence that there is already in existence genetic variation in individual hunting abilities with some cats being better at it than others. Cat owners can verify this. It is certainly true that some individual cats are much more committed to hunting than others and indeed some cats are much better at it as well.
It is said that there are only a dozen or so genes that differ between domestic cats and wildcats. Compared with dogs, cats are considered to be only partially domesticated. The clue he says to tamping down their hunting ability will most likely lie in changes among the small group of genes which separate the wildcat from the domestic cat.
As mentioned, if we are able to breed out the hunting instinct would that remove an essential part of the domestic cat and what makes the domestic cat what he/she is?? Will we lose the essence of what makes cats cats?
Dr Bradshaw says that that is unavoidable and he accepts the possibility. Nonetheless, he believes that many cat owners would welcome the possibility of owning a domestic cat who does not hunt, bringing in a mouse onto their bed at night and dragging it across the duvet, then eating it with great glee while they are trying to get to sleep. People don’t like the sight of blood or the sound of crunching bones and the shearing of a mouse’s flesh!
The final question that I have is this: how are we going to breed the hunting instinct out of domestic cats? At present the domestic cat is essentially a moggy, a random bred cat in the UK. There are more purebred cats in America than in any other country but still by far the majority of domestic cats are non-purebred. Moggies are very rarely deliberately bred. If not neutered/spayed they select their own mate – there is no human intervention.
If we are to breed the moggy deliberately than it would require a mass-market in registered cat breeders which I think is untenable and unworkable. In addition, once you start breeding cats you start introducing other potential problems such as inbreeding and with inbreeding you bring into the equation detrimental health issues of which we are now well aware. Do we want non-hunting, potentially unhealthy domestic cats? No.
My conclusion, therefore, is that reducing the hunting instinct of the domestic cat is possibly a reasonably good idea but achieving it is unworkable. Also over 10,000 years of domestication the cat is losing its hunting desire anyway. What are your thoughts?
Articles referring to Dr Bradshaw
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Eventually many critters will learn to avoid your yard because of Monty. Only mice will continue to invade. When a cat eliminates a mouse it’s killing all the future generations of that particular vermin. Rabbits breed like rabbits but mice populations can explode leaving homeowners with little choice to resort to either poisons.
I have some cottontails living on the property. I thoroughly enjoy watching them as do my housecats. But if not for some predators I would be overrun.
A cat bred not to hunt would not be a cat anyone would want because part of what makes it fun living with a cat is playing with your cat. If the cat lost hunting instincts it would also lose the desire to play with toy mice, feathers and other cat toys.
My cat Monty has been hunting like crazy in his enclosure. It is designed to keep him in and keep him safe. The modifications to the fence to seem to be keeping out larger creatures like other cats, raccoons, skunks and possums. But rabbits, mice, birds and chipmunks can still get in. And Monty’s favorite thing in the world is to stalk and kill these creatures. Being out there with him to scare away his prey saves some critters. Keeping him in when I spot a large bunny hopping around near the door is good. But his kill total since the snow melted is now up to three mice, two chipmunks, two birds and one bunny. He has not eaten any of these kills, so I buried them near the fence in shallow graves with stones on top of them. The animal cemetery is growing and Monty is unconcerned.
On one hand, it does seem like there is an overpopulation of mice and chipmunks right now and no one really wants those critters in their house or doing damage to their house. So maybe he is performing a public service. The two birds he got were obviously older birds, huge robins with white feathers mixed into their red breast feathers. I could be wrong, but I think those were birds for whom nature would have taken its course shortly anyway. So Monty has mainly been keeping down the mouse and rodent population and has most likely taken out only aged birds who would have died soon anyway. He seems to prefer to go after the ground creatures.
On the other hand, I don’t like that he is killing and not eating his kills. Seems like a waste. And the carnage is a bit upsetting, although he has at least started to kill his prey immediately. He is fast and he is lethal. Maybe this is because he has more opportunity to hunt and does not feel the need to delay the kill. He knows he can just catch another one. He even got two kills in one day this week.
But he is still killing innocent creatures who love their lives just as Monty loves his life. I try to explain this to him, but he just looks at me and purrs. Or growls if he still has the animal in his mouth. I know better than to approach him if he has prey.
In some ways I regret giving him access to the outside if all he wants to do out there is kill. It’s like I live with a furry serial killer and it is my job to dispose of the bodies. On the other hand, he does exercise his claws quite a bit on the trees out there which is good for him and good for my furnishings. And I enjoy watching him out there while I am out getting some exercise. He makes my morning exercise a lot more pleasant as I get to watch a stunning mini-panther prowl my back yard.
My friends who have dogs who kill feel similarly– uncomfortable with the killing but unwilling to confine their dog to the house all the time. They bought homes with fenced yards so the dogs could be out, just as I want Monty to be out sometimes. I don’t see how there is any difference between a dog who hunts and a cat who does, and it would be unfair for one to be allowed access to the outdoors and the other confined for the same behavior. My cousin’s dog Fuzzy’s kill total is much higher than Monty’s and includes primarily mice, a squirrel and even one bird.
I think the fact that we live with animals who are also predators cannot be changed. We can understand it and accept it, but we aren’t going to change it. Monty would not want to be changed. He is happy exactly the way he is.
I haven’t told him that Fuzzy is a better hunter than he is.
Genetic modification is like a menu in a cheap restaurant, you order the main course but inevitably they serve up a side you don’t want. Now consider this isn’t just a physical trait but one that is hardwired into the species. It’s even plugged into how their muscles react to sight stimulation. Which is tied into scent, hearing and vibration. It might be easier to think of your cat as a T-rex. They were 100% evolved to do one thing. It’s bad enough there are people out there creating mutant cats from genetic misfits and selling them for big money suggesting that anyone has the audacity to try and change the very nature of these creatures is an insult. Breeding out their prey drive is no different than saying to you want to de-purr them.
Again the real issue of feral cats and where they come from is not addressed. It’s simply blamed on the creature who had no say in being born. I find the idea subversive.
Agreed. Hunting is cat’s nature, without it, the cat isn’t a cat – cat’s behavior, anatomy, etc. is all for hunting. Also, I think that at least in Europe, European wildcats were far more ubiquitous than they are now. While there were probably fewer of them than domestic cats given their once-a-year mating habits and high kitten mortality and they only hunt for food, they are more efficient hunters. But not all domestic cats even hunt. Incidentally, it’s purely anecdotal, but I didn’t notice any significant decline in Roman dove population, there are still plenty of these guys around.
Besides, I like the idea that my home is protected against mice.
I agree with you ME. I think Bradshaw has decided that the hunting instinct is a free-standing characteristic but it is not. It is so integral to the domestic cat that if it is bred out we will lose what love about the cat.
That said he is writing about “tamping down” i.e. reducing the hunting instinct so his idea is not that radical.
I’m appalled at the idea. In fact the suggestion to breed the hunting instinct out of cats shows how very little this person understands how it would work. The cat IS a hunting machine. And people who hate cats will still hate cats they’ll just find another reason.
I would think the time would be more well spent breeding the bark out of dogs. There they would all have tiny pin hole mouths through which they would suck nutrients through.
Because pointing the finger at negligent owners is just mean and hating cats is OK. And the reason we are overrun with feral cats is human caused. Just like my idiot relatives next door are the most likely source of yet another cat dumped outside living under my shed. Just like their dog standing in the road at 2 AM yammering it’s head off is not the dogs fault it’s the shiftless humans who won’t get off their buttcrack and take care of their own pets. So by all means lets suggest completely modifying a species because humans are too lazy to take care of what they are responsible for.