this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
891 points (96.5% liked)
Memes
45665 readers
935 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You can like it, but the hard truth is that cats were never domesticated. They can leave anytime they want and would be fine. Humans would never be the same, though…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_of_the_cat
Indeed. I'm a little disappointed that wp doesn't mention that other than in the naming and talk.
A link from there:
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/are-cats-domesticated
I think that's because the narrow scientific term domestication is used in casual speach with a shifted meaning. And that's because we don't have any other expression for animals that you can be friends with that would sound as cool as domesticated (taming is too tame).
Edit: Sorry, got lost in the threads. I'll leave it here because it is still kind of on topic. I guess I should also add that domestication is a process and the line where an animal is considered domesticated is arbitrary.
This only works for outdoor cats and in areas with plenty of prey. Most indoor cats don't do well if left on their own and outdoor cats often struggle too.
My cat would die in seconds if I let him outside. He's too dumb to live.