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From: duhon@ihuxj.UUCP (duhon)
Newsgroups: net.pets
Subject: Re: who says pets should run loose?
Message-ID: <505@ihuxj.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-May-84 08:42:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxj.505
Posted: Fri May 18 08:42:03 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 19-May-84 00:07:35 EDT
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Some thoughts on cat "cages" and cat "freedom."

Some have said that cats should be allowed to "roam free" and not be
kept in "cages" (houses/apts). This is not "freedom" and is unnatural.
They mention that people are free and so should be their "pets."
I hardly see the American people as free, we live in insulated boxes with
artificial environments. We travel "safely" in metal boxes with engines
and wheels. We work in boxes, safe from the real world. We can neither
feed nor clothe ourselves. We depend on a multitude of other specialists
for everything. We are trapped by our society. Try isolating yourself
from society. You won't be reading this if you are.

As for keeping a cat in a "natural" way. If you offer any help to any
animal (food, shelter) you are conducting an unnatural act. Wild animals
do not need human help. It is human domestication of animals which
brings cat, etc. into our lives. It is selfish to take an animal from
the wild to amuse one. Cats or chickens, both domesticated, one to feed
the emotions and one to feed our stomachs.

As for domesticated cats. They don't have a knowledge of what the world
is. Each cat learns its own world. There is no preset "world size."
Cats spend their entire life learning about their world. It's instinct.
If one keeps a cat on 100 acres or more, the cat is still being kept
caged if one feeds or otherwise provides "security" for it.
If you thinks that the animal should be free, leave it free.
Don't pretend that the small world near your home is freedom or in any
way more natural than another small world free from many dangers.
Many cats are very happy with small worlds. I've seen hundreds and "own"
a few. Two in particular have a dread of the world that is outside of their
own. Their own includes a small four bedroom home with room to play chase.
They have spent their lives exploring their world and continue to do so.
Given a larger world they would eventually explore that, too. But they
would continue to return "home."  They are domesticated and not "free
and natural" and can never be. I selfishly have deprived them of that.
I can only see two conditions for an animal: free and domesticated.
Anything less of total freedom is some from of slavery.

One last statement -- I admit that I don't know what a cat thinks, feels,
or wants any more that any other creature which isn't a cat.

			Joey Duhon
			ihnp4!ihlpm!duhon