Would you eat your pet cat?


I read this article to my pet cat, Sam.  

 His response?  

 A cold stare as if to say, "You unspeakable animal."

 As distasteful as it sounds in both meanings of the word, there are areas in our world where hunger is such that pet cats are consumed as food.  If we're hungry enough, we'll eat anything, including each other.  In many parts of the world, hunger is a daily ordeal.  In the developed world, we look at this practice as pitiful and disgusting - until our food supplies run out.

 Even if you or I are well prepared for a disaster, food and especially water supplies are limited.  I remember reading one estimate that in a power failure a community will run out of drinking water as soon as the municipal water system runs dry in a day or two.  Food supplies will last a bit longer, in most communities between three and seven days.

 And then what?

 Survival of the most willing to do what must be done to survive?  Probably.  I doubt that most people ever consider how fragile our food and water systems are.  Without nightly deliveries of foodstuffs to supermarkets, the shelves would be bare in two or three days.  Without electric pumps, water will last a day or two.

 Something to think about.

 Here's the report with a link to the full report in the attribution.
*  *  *  *  *

In most Western cultures cats are simply feline pet companions eager to greet us at the end of the day. In continents such as Asia and Africa, the social norms surrounding cats are very different; our furry friends commonly double up as dinner for a number of reasons ranging from food insecurity, simple preference or superstition. It is estimated that 4 million cats are consumed annually in Asia alone. Raymond Czaja et al recently conducted research on cat consumption in Anthrozoös. Their study reveals motives for, prevalence and methods of cat consumption in Madagascar and resulting public health implications for Malagasy citizens and beyond.

The Unthinkable:
Who Survives When
Disaster Strikes - And Why

by Amanda Ripley

Purchase new or used from
Powell's Books
Cats and humans have interactions dating back 8,000 years. From ancient civilization until today they have served many and varied roles; deity, devil, pest controller, status symbol and straight forward household pet. Cat consumption though known is little understood, Czaja et al set out to illuminate causes and practices of eating cats in Madagascar. This Indian Ocean Island has weathered a HIV epidemic, a coup d'état and widespread economic instability within the last decade. Nevertheless the population steadily rises and malnutrition and poverty are rife. Cats are widespread across Madagascar and have few predators, indicating them as a good protein supplement for the economically challenged population.

Food insecurity as motivation for eating cat
Czaja conducted interviews on 512 randomly selected Malagasy citizens. They were questioned about general meat consumption habits to assess food security and more specifically about cat consumption, if they'd eaten it and if so when and why. 34% of interviewees had consumed cat, though none stated a preference for it. Most had eaten their household pet cat because it was old, fat or naughty, a high percentage trapped and ate cats and a few ate road killed cats. Few cited food insecurity as motivation for eating cat, suggesting opportunistic reasons prevail; cat is a cheap source of protein. A minimal few preferred not to eat cat due to taboos, distaste or for ethical reasons.

Though cat consumption provides useful protein supplementation in poor diets, it has major public health implications.

  1. Dead and road killed cats are perfect hosts for parasitic diseases such as Lyme disease or relapsing fever, a real mortal danger to pregnant women and infants. 
  2. Cats are primary hosts to the parasite causing toxoplasmosis; a fatal disease to immunosuppressed HIV infected patients and threat of serious deformities in infants. 
  3. Cat meat also threatens transmission of bacterial infections such as Clostridium botulinum. 
With such high stakes, the authors urge for further research on consumption of dogs, as few are vaccinated against rabies. They conclude "widespread though infrequent consumption of cat meat in Madagascar, coupled with the likely heightened susceptibility of the population to disease, suggests a need for further study into the public health consequences of handling and consuming cat in the country."

Related stories:
Story Source:  Materials provided by Taylor & Francis. Raymond Czaja, Abigail Wills, Sahondra Hanitriniaina, Kim E. Reuter, Brent J. Sewall. Consumption of Domestic Cat in Madagascar: Frequency, Purpose, and Health Implications. Anthrozoös, 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Being Humble: E.B. White was Right in Charlotte's Web

Image
It seems the best authors have a knack for accurately describing the personality traits of their characters.  For example, the character change experienced by Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens A Christmas Carol is considered by research psychologists to be spot on for how the process of change works. How true to life was Scrooge's change? Is this ability to describe a character strictly from watching others?  Business writer Peter Drucker says in his semi-autobiographical book, Adventures of a Bystander that he and many of the other writers he knows are essentially bystanders, observing what is going on around them. Another example of a writer getting it right is E.B. White's popular children's book, Charlotte's Web.  Research psychologist Peter Samuelson and his team are researching the deeper meaning of humility.  Among their conclusions?  E.B. White displayed insight into humility and its underlying attributes. Here's the story : *  *  *  *  * The Two
Read more

Workout supplements: An emerging eating disorder in men?

Image
therewontbeanydoves.wordpress.com When developing a fictional character, you may not think about the character using large amounts of over-the-counter dietary supplements.  Especially a man who uses large amounts of workout supplements. While there has been widespread publicity on the dangers of the non-prescribed use of anabolic steroids, not much is said about legal, over-the-counter supplements.  Are there risks?  And if so, what are they?  There are several things the writer should consider. Supplement use is becoming an eating disorder with many men who use them to prepare for and recover from a workout. There is growing evidence of a link between muscle-building supplements and testicular cancer. There is evidence that over-the counter medications and supplements are the most common causes of drug-induced liver failure (a rare event, but still a risk.)  There is even evidence that, “certain popular herbal and dietary supplements can also cause liver damage,"
Read more

The Downside of Being 'Class Clown'

Image
Source:  Bart's Blackboard Down side of being dubbed 'class clown' Class clowns' off-task antics amuse and delight their classmates during first and second grades, making them the most sought-after playmates on the playground in early elementary school.  But by the time these mischievous boys are promoted to third grade, they plummet to the bottom of the social circle as classmates' disapproval of their behavior grows, a new study found. Perhaps most worrisome is that by third grade, playful boys may be internalizing others' negative assessments and begin viewing themselves as social failures, possibly setting them on a course for a host of poor academic and developmental outcomes, said researcher Lynn A. Barnett, an educational psychologist and professor of recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois. These sudden reversals in playful boys' social fortunes from first to third grade may be classmates' mirroring of teachers
Read more

Remember faces but not names? You got it wrong.

Image
Source:   Daily Excelsior So, you think you're good at remembering faces, but terrible with names? New research has revealed we are actually better at remembering names than faces The cringe-worthy experience of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name leads many of us to believe we are terrible with names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. With the Christmas party season fast approaching, there will be plenty of opportunity to re-live the familiar, and excruciatingly-awkward, social situation of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name. This cringe-worthy experience leads many of us to believe we are terrible at remembering names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. The authors of the study, from the University of York, suggest that when we castigate ourselves f
Read more

How laughter leads to love.

Image
James Cagney rubs a grapefruit half in the face of Mae Clarke  in the classic flick, Public Enemy (1931), written by Kubec Glasmon and John Bright, adaptation for the screen by Harvey Thew.  Funny? Yes.  A rom-com?  Not really.  Great scene, though. Between romance novels and rom-com movies and television, there is a never ending, ever growing market for romance.  So what leads to romance?  Of everything, it is laughter.  Not at, but with.  So here's how it works:  Boy meets girl.  Boy gets the girl to laugh.  (Add a few tasty comedic or dramatic interludes), and viola, girl catches boy (after boy makes a complete horse's ass of himself,) and the happy couple goes giggling into the sunset.   Formulaic?  Very much so.   Greatly entertaining?  Very much so. Until kids, mortgage and divorce. . . but that's a story for later. Here's a report on laughter in romance, with a link to the full study in the attribution. *  *  *  *  * Laught
Read more