I suspect it is a bit of both - that the subspecies of wild cats from which domestic cats were bred were inherently more susceptible to domestication; and of course there was a constrant interbreeding anyway - “domestic” cats often being really no more than “barn cats”, free to interbreed with their completely-wild cousins. In the beginning there would not have been much distinction between them.
I know that there are modern breeders who attempt to make “exotic” pets, and what they typically do is attempt to create hybrids of various wild species of cat with domestic cats - because the purebread wild cats are a lot less tame-able (excluding the African/Near Easern wildcat), even when hand-reared from kittens. This indicates that there is a genetic component to tame-ability, and it would make sense that this genetic component, if not inculcated by humans, has been enhanced by millennia of human selection.
I’ve had dogs that climbed fences. My dad’s lab would be perfectly content unless a thunderstorm approached, and then would do miraculous things to get away. Like mangling a chainlink fence trying to chew through it. I’ve had dogs that could unlatch the gate. So you get a lock on the gate, right? Except someone forgets the lock and leaves the gate unlatched, and the dog gets out.
The dog did not chase a fast-moving child, it stalked up behind a toddler who was practically stationary and then mauled him from behind. And then bit the mother.
True. You are responsible for the actions of your pet.
I HATE when they do that crap :mad: Leave the poor cat at home, she’ll have no clue why she’s there, she doesn’t care about accolades, all she wants is her territory and her people.
I agree, but money is involved; people will come to the game just to see the poor cat.
They said “The cat and her owner”, so I suspect the kid will be throwing the ball anyway. Leave the cat at home.
I got it, too.
Did the “Save the Internet” bastards share my name with every other petition on the web, or did someone get our names from the SDMB? I only use this email account for the 'Dope, so I suspect the latter.
That turned up in my spam folder this morning. I knew it was spam because it started, ‘Dear Saje Lipshitz…’ Actually, it had my name. I could not remember ‘signing’ a petition, nor even reading one. If carnivorousplant’s email address is only used for this site, it sounds like this site may be the source for the spam. I wonder if it has anything to do with the current malware issue?
Do you think those dogs should be put down, or do they also deserve a second chance?
Do you have a cite for that, or is your “clearly” based entirely on the attack? Because training an animal isn’t an instantaneous thing. The dog may very well have been receiving training, or the owners might have planned to, but the attack happened before it started.
It’s also not clear from context what behavior the dog had exhibited before. The owners say he “didn’t like kids or bicycles,” but there’s no indication of what that means. I’ve had more than one dog who didn’t like mailmen. They never attacked one. They’d just bark and growl when he was at the front door. If the owners had seen the dog bark at the window every time a bike went by, that’s a far cry from expecting the dog to try to kill someone.
You know what that dog was?
Vicious.
Have you ever actually owned a dog? I had a dog chew its way through a hollow-core door to get out. My friend has a dog that would build itself steps to get over a fence by dragging around patio furniture - he’d then walk two miles to my parents house, because he knew they shamelessly spoil any dog they get their hands on.
And, of course, making sure a dog never escapes requires being on alert every single time you enter or exit your house, everyday, for years. Making one mistake when trying to get in the house with an armful of groceries does not an irresponsible pet make.
That said, the dog is still their responsibility, and they’re on the hook for its behavior, even if they’d taken reasonable precautions to keep the dog contained. They should be on the hook for medical expenses at the least, probably some emotional damage, as well. And, of course, it’s completely possible that there was genuine, dangerous negligence going on there. It’s not possible to determine that just from this article.
No, it absolutely was not, and dogs that do behave this way need to be destroyed for the safety of the community. There were no existent circumstances here. It was an unprovoked, potentially deadly attack, and there’s no excuse for that sort of behavior in a dog. None whatsoever.
Now that’s what I call “stinking outside the box.”
I Am Not A Cat, but I’m a lifelong cat person. I love cats the way most people love children, but even I have to say the sentimental silliness being spouted all over the news and webs is making me cringe. Tara was defending her property against a trespassing dog. “Rescuing” the child was not her objective. In my opinion.
Sure, could be. Or, Jeremy might have been a person who is allowed on her territory, or belongs on it, and was more or less irrelevant to Tara’s police action. Either way, regardless of her motives, she saved the boy from far worse injury than he ended up with. I’m not convinced that a human person (even a mother in full attack mode) would have gotten the dog off that leg so quickly.
Yes! My wife and I watched the video half a dozen times, practically cheering Tara’s body blow and follow-up chase to the frontier.
Some of my favorite youtube clips are the ones where people take a video of cats fighting and edit in light sabers with sound effects. Probably won’t be long before this vid gets edited for fun.
When I was four my parents were perfectly fine with my visiting my friend three doors down in Clairemont (San Diego). I was told not to go into the street, and I didn’t.
