Well the girl who told me this believed it as fact and said it was her uncle that did it. Said the orange ones work the best (Im assuming along the same concept of using that orange wool looking stuff Ive seen used as bait).
I ve seen them using small fish and frogs live, and didnt like that, at all but for some reason the thought of using kittens just really offends me.
At least they’re not rabbits.
Did you not know that the best bait for catfish is cat? I have had similar luck with puppies to catch dogfish and parrots to catch parrot fish. Cathode ray tubes from old TV sets make the ideal bait for thornback rays!
Apprently there’s a catfish can eat a dog, so using a cat as bait is not completely unthinkable. Also Snopes says these photos of giant catfish are real.
Still… It sounds very much like a UL. I’m not ready to believe it without more proof.
It would, but for crabs, you just put 'em in a bait holding cage - no need for hooks.
Seems odd to me. Those huge fish taste terrible. It’s like using ice cream to fish for brussel sprouts.
You mean you’d rather just eat the kitten?
NPR did a story on this practice, in 1986, but it was about shark fishermen off Florida.
It seems kittens take a long time to drown, so they’ll keep bleeding and kicking and attract sharks better than most other bait.
I’ve baited a hook with live worms before without a second thought. The worms didn’t seem really happy with the idea.
Admittedly cats are biologically closer to us than worms, but I don’t see what the big fuss is about.
Well… no, no. Must. resist. joke. Must. resist.
>> fish taste terrible
>> You mean you’d rather just eat the kitten?
Definitely. Even if the pussy tastes like fish 
Ok, I am willing to concede the photos are legit. And I am willing to concede some assholes is Italy may have used kittens as bait just like it could have happened anywhere else but I am not willing to concede it is acceptable or common there.
I have seen too many cases of things exagerated in the reporting and even ULs taken from the Net reported as true and even things taken from The Onion reported as true so i take it all with a grain of salt.
BTW, I posted that link after a few seconds of googling. I dont know myself if it is true or just an UL, but I did hear a talk show host mention a news story about it so I just did a quick search.
PS The part I dont know if I should believe is using the kitten for bait. I know that catfish can easily grow big enough to be interested in one. I have pulled in a 50 pounder out of a small river here in kansas and his mouth was big enough that you coud use both hands to hold him up by its mouth.
I think you’re thinking of this case, where an Animal Control supervisor in Detroit was fired for allegedly feeding puppies to a snake. (Charges weren’t filed, due to lack of evidence.)
Nope, not that one look!ninjas! But thanks; I didn’t know about that one.
The case I’m thinking about was specifically kittens, a pet shop, and a child witness.