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LUCERNE – Had just one of her cats disappeared last October, Isabelle Nydegger would simply have assumed it had lost its way in the nearby forest or been attacked by a dog or wild animal.
But first Zeus, a 2-year-old black tabby, vanished. A few days later it was her 2 -year-old black and white tabby, Zorra. And, finally, the prize of her brood, 4-year-old Merlin, a fluffy white Siberian whose perky visage remains in her mobile phone six months later. All were gone within the first couple of weeks of the fall hunting season.
The cats, Nydegger and others are convinced, were shot by hunters near this central Swiss city and sold to tanners for their fur, which is used in garments and blankets in the last West European nation where such a trade is still legal.
Legal, that is, but increasingly stigmatized — and soon Switzerland is likely to outlaw the practice.
So, you discover “tradition” and “culture” in a cozy Western nation that doesn’t differentiate between companion species and wild animals.
Geez, Cruella de Vil ain’t got nothin’ on these guys.
Gee. Will people show up and demand a boycott of the Swiss Olympics? Or the Swiss anything.
Ah Ha !!! Oswald’s accomplice !!! There WAS more than one shooter !!!
Well we don’t eat Dolphins because we think they are “cute”, but we say yum to a big tuna fish. Guess this is the same thing.
You come anywhere near my cat prepare to get shot and tanned yourself. Even if his fur is soft and fluffy.
Swiss (likely) to outlaw trade in cat pelts
You mean they haven’t already?
“Hunting” cats is barbaric.
Well we don’t eat Dolphins because we think they are “cute”, but we say yum to a big tuna fish.
Well, tuna is an overwhelmingly plentiful fish and dolphins are a mammal with dwindling numbers… otherwise, exactly the same.
If your pussy goes into my yard (where my kids play)to shit all over it… well let’s just say I will not admit anything.
if you let your pussy loose, don’t cry if it vanishes.
This “companion species” vs. “wild animals” argument is nonsense. An animal is an animal. Just because one person may have some cutesy attachment to a particular species, doesn’t mean it should be outlawed for everybody else.
This isn’t about companion vs wild… anyone who would kill an animal for any reason beyond food is a scumbag. Period.
In your opinion I suppose.
And by your own standard then, I assume you would agree that killing dogs and cats for food shouldn’t be outlawed either.
For the love of….
Have you ever swatted a fly?
Come to think of it, ever taken an anti-biotic?
Murderer!
The cats were loose in the woods? The house cat is the greatest threat to endangered species with habitat near human dwellings. It has wiped out several species of song birds and voles already, and I suspect it is the cause of the extinction of several kinds of dwarf cottentail rabbit in the Pacific North West.
Want your cat alive? Keep it in the house. Outside the house? It’s vermin to be shot on sight. Just check with the Australians.
BTW, cat pelts shed too bad to be worth anything.
Yes, I agree, we should boycott the Swiss.
I’m going to start right now by boycotting ‘Swiss Miss Instant CoaCoa with mini marshmellows”
That little Swiss vixen on the box has been bugging me for years!!!
#9 And you’ve never worn or used any item made out of an animal? I hope to hell not or you’d be a scumbag.
OhForTheLoveOf This isn’t about companion vs wild… anyone who would kill an animal for any reason beyond food is a scumbag. Period.
Big fat harry urban balls to that mate! Non-food reason to kills animals include: vermin control, they are suffering, over population (more humane that starving to death, especially when they are living in an already human-engineered world) …. now I am not sure if you count shooting foxes that otherwise kill your chickens or shooting rabbits that eat your vegetables/crops or baggers that spread TB to cattle as ‘for food’ or not, but I count all those reasons and very none-dietary reasons to kill animals.
I get the sneaking suspicion who are living in an urban fairy world where animals don’t have to die so we can live (even vegetarians aren’t going to be short on vegetables if the occasional rabbit isn’t shot and animal habitat isn’t converted to farming….)
As far as I am concerned, the Swiss should continue to shoot as many cats as they can! In fact, it should be legal to do it here. I happen to enjoy swerving into cats with my car. I love the sound they make as they bounce off my fender!
#6–OFTLO==wrong on every count, other than getting your Orders (Phyllums?) correct.
The real sad fact is tuna populations are near unrecoverable levels–but the fishing goes on. Just wait another 5-10 years for total collapse, and “no sushi for you.”
We kill other animals all the time for all kinds of reasons==as we should. Only line I see is we should do it as humanely as possible–but there too, almost more for our own sensibilities as any Walt Disney anthromorphication of the cute species over the ugly ones.
If cat fur sheds, then we should genetically modify it to be more useful as a resource.
Common people, how are we going to grow to 9 Billion if we don’t learn to eat our own?
#14 – Don’t take my statements out to an absurd extreme. I’m not an idiot in PETA.
No… Aside from leather, which to the best of my knowledge comes from the same animal my cheeseburger came from, I don’t knowingly wear animal products. But that’s all strawman bullshit anyway.
I’m talking about individuals who kill animals for fun. What an arrogant load of crap to assume than any living thing that steps a paw (or a foot) on you sacred property… like that’s a concept so valuable that even animals should innately respect it… deserves an automatic death sentence.
People hunt deer. Hopefully culling the heard helps maintain a healthier deer population and the deer that is killed is typically processed into food, the pelts used, and for some bizarre reason the heads often become inexplicably garish and morbid wall decor… but even though a certain percentage of the hunting population are just slack-jawed Bubbafucks who get a power rush from extinguishing life, it still serves a positive end.
We maintain large stocks of chickens, turkeys, cows, hogs, and other animals as food stocks, and for better or worse, modern farming uses the whole of the beast. Eating cats in western civilization is wholly unnecessary.
We are stewards of this planet. Many religions see our role as such, even some Christians. But I don’t think we should act as stewards because of any faith. I think we should because our survival on the only habitable planet we have depends on making sure it stays habitable. It’s a survival imperative.
The only way we as a people do this is to persuade ourselves to rise above our primal nature, our natural lack of compassion, our native desire to destroy, our animal lust for carnage, and decide to treat life as a precious thing, worthy of respect, worthy of being cherished, and worthy of preservation.
And you men’s men need to drop your BS bravado and realize that it is not weakness to choose to value life and to choose not to destroy life.
You (not you Pat, but the universal “you”) can paint me to be whatever kind of tree hugging “librul” Gia worshipping pagan fucktard you want to help you sleep at night, but it will be as far from truth as you can be. Still, if you see a neighbor’s house cat in your back yard and think that is a good enough reason to kill it… then you are sub human. That’s really all there is to it.
#18 – Good enough. You’re 1st post made you look a bit like a Peta (people eating tasty animals) type
#19–pat==what is it “exactly” that you think you are agreeing with????
OFTLO is a master of rhetoric. Read the most excellent post #18 and pick out what it actually says?
It says don’t kill animals we don’t normally kill because–we should be stewards of the planet.
OFTLO–I said, and still maintain, that “good stewards” of the planet would encourage efficient utilization of all of its resources. You want to waste resources. Bad Stewardship.
But reads nice.
BS BS and more BS. First of all anybody that’s hunted will tell you that if you see a cat in the field best shoot it. Not for the chicken change pelts but to keep the cat from killing rabbit nests and ground nesting game birds. Nothing can ruin a season faster than feral cats.
Hey I love cat’s and have a cat named dizzy. But she lives in the house and if I lived in a rural area she sure as hell wouldn’t get out at hunting season, is this woman a dunce or what?
Yes, house cats are wonderful and feral cats suck.
#24–OFTLO===heh, heh, heh.
Gibberish—a general denial without specifics or analysis.
Please identify why killing cows is acceptable but killing cats is not. Assume same circumstances for both species other than cats are often pets while cows less so.
#24 – uh, what’s wrong with circumstances that only include reality instead of dithering off through the underbrush of debating society bullshit?
There are wild animals. There are animals which have been domesticated; but, are raised for the same reason we originally hunted [as a species] = food. There are animals which have come in from the wild and for thousands of years have coexisted, bred and continued to evolve as companion species.
True, human beings excel in rationalization; but, you already know that. The anthropology of humans and companion species varies around the world. Doesn’t make it any less real.
#30–OFTLO==Just took your post #18 apart line by line and then at the end, had to change my mind.
Yea, you do mostly relate the issue of killing cats to peoples pets.
Who could disagree with that???? And I doubt anyone would==so rethinking again, the killing of feral cats TO PROTECT THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT should not be confused with killing cats for fun. You are too bright to do that so anything further on that line would be quibbling.
Good to see us on the same page boringly again.
OFTLO – A cat does not become harmless to the environment by having a home and being well fed.
The argument has been made many times that a well fed cat does more damage because it is usually in better shape, and bored. Killing little things is entertainment for cats.
House pet cats have no business in the woods, and killing them is actually environmentally responsible behavior.
#33–Phillep==yep. Unlike Mustard and Thomas, at least you recognize a poorly constructed argument. For that you deserve at least one feral cat pelt.