Outdoor Cats and Epistemology | Hacker News Reader

Outdoor Cats and Epistemology

omarshehata.me

2 pointsOmarShehata5 comments

The contrarian is not wrong, but neither is the OP. At least from my perspective.

When we moved to our current semi rural property there were birds and squirrels even flying squirrels all over. Our property is a ranch but out house sits in a woodlot.

Then a new neighbor moved in next door. I use that term loosely, but close enough that their 3 outdoor cats were frequent visitors. Now we have no squirrels but we also have very few birds that visit.

I did not mind the squirrels aside from thier attempts to get in the house. Before our new neighbor we would pay a trapper to come get them a few times a year. Since the cats though we no longer see any squirrels or chipmunks at all.

> I think they BOTH have reasonable ways of finding truth.

I disagree. One party has obviously decided to substitute "authority" for thought; which is not conducive to civilized co-existence with anyone who even interprets the Authority differently, much less with anyone who actually disagrees.

Finding an external force that you think is always right and cannot disagree with isn't a "reasonable way of finding Truth"; its religion where Truth is just Revealed to you.

I find it very interesting that the anti-outdoor-cat arguer had nothing to say of the fact that the humans inhabiting the same area are also an "invasive species" heavily impacting the relevant ecosystem. To me it doesn't really seem like something that matters, assuming the cats are neutered.

Props to the pro-outdoor-cat arguer for not devolving to the same negative attitude brought on by the anti- arguer.

I don't buy their invasive species argument, however I can think of three reasons not to let your cats outside.

First, I would not want to resk my cats to predation. Fisher, coyote, and eagle all would make a meal out if a beloved pet and crossing a country road where there is long grass and fast pickups seems like a recipe for disaster.

Second, if I let my cat out there is little chance I can train it not to go on your property. I should respect that yours is yours just as I expect you to respect what is mine is mine. You would not let your cattle graze on my land right? Good fences make good neighbors as they say.

Finally and admittedly the weakest argument is that Joe down the way has no clue your cats are fixed. He just sees they you let them roam and it normalizes this for the community.

We have cats and dont let them outside. We dont have a rodent issue either though as our neighbor let's their cats outside and I recognize the hypocracy there.

I completely agree with all of your arguments there. Those would have been far more meaningful than the arguments made by the anti-outdoor-cat argued in this post.

I'm of the same camp. We live in a very rural area, and none of our cats are allowed outside. Primarily, our concern is with the potential for getting hit by a car or killed by a coyote.

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