I’m not sure I understand - did your cat kill and eat the chipmunk, or not?
But whichever, something about your story somewhat turns me off. It would surprise me if (m)any predators in the wild take the effort to “toy” with their prey. I would think most predators’ existence too precarious for them to waste energy doing so - unless it were a situation where easy prey were superabundant for some reason. Perhaps your barn is such a situation. But in my less rural experience, most of the household cats that are out there killing birds and small mammals are able to fill their bellies at home.
Killing more than you need to eat, or toying with/torturing your prey, is not something I find it easy to respect in any animal.
I stopped filming before she killed it, eventually I walked away and let her do her thing.
It’s not about your respect. Cats are gonna be cats. Sometimes she would kill it instantly (a bird), sometimes she would play with it first. Most of the time she ate what she killed, other times she would drop it on our doorstep (like if she was already full or if she didn’t like how they tasted, as was the case with moles). She was a domesticated hunter, she wasn’t thinking about respect or ethics or empathy. She just did what her animal brain told her: hunt, play, eat, share.
There are actually lots and lots of examples of cooperation in nature, both within and between/among species.
That doesn’t, of course, make nature “nice”. Sometimes they’re cooperating to kill something else. The manners of death, and sometimes of reproduction, can be highly unpleasant; and absolutely everything living lives by eating something else. But it isn’t all a matter of single individuals against every other single individual on the planet.
Thanks for the clarification. I was confused about whether your filming or the toying stopped.
Well, your word was “impressive” - which seems to imply something similar to respect.
Yeah. But my point is, a creature that engages in unnecessary killing of other creatures is - IMO - kinda shitty. Like a family dog that runs deer or kills sheep/chickens. Do wild cats toy with prey they don’t intend to eat? I don’t think so, but I’m no expert.
I think I’ve heard of weasels and such killing more chickens that they would eat. Do other animals? ON EDIT - I see orcas.
BTW - I think I’ve also heard that ounce for ounce, weasels and shrews may the the most formidable predators around.
I had a fox in the chicken coop one night. He killed every hen but one and the roosters. Bit their head off. Ate a couple eggs and left.
We determined it was a fox by the footprints.
Yeah animals do what animals do.
We live on this earth with them, we must respect their abilities whether we like seeing it or not.
They’ve managed to evolve to this point.
I’ll let it drop, after I observe that I perceive a possible distinction between domesticated and wild animals.
I’ve always been a dog person rather than cat. Knowing that my pet needlessly tortured/killed animals would not endear me to them. Or, I’d keep it insider to prevent it from happening. A barn cat for pest control is likely a special case. All just MHO, of course.
It does not sound like it would be fun to watch. Especially if I’m actually right there, rather than, say, on TV where I’m more removed from it.
But I would probably just avert my eyes, and overlook it to enjoy the rest of the trip.
That is, unless it starts making me sick to my stomach. That feeling lasts past the cause, and hampers my enjoyment immensely.
Regardless, I don’t think poorly of the guy in the OP. You can’t control how you react, and this isn’t the sort of thing that is a common enough sight for most of us that it would be worth desensitizing yourself to it. You’re on vacation. If it’s not fun, why do it?
I remember back when I was in college, we had a couple of big hawks on campus. Once, there was a crowd gathered outside the student union: One of the hawks was chasing a squirrel through a tree. I was one of a very few folks rooting for the hawk, because it had more at stake than the squirrel did: If the hawk wins, we lose about 0.01% of the local squirrel population, but if the squirrel wins for too many days in a row, we lose 50% of the local hawk population.
It’s possible folks are putting too much emphasis on the word “traumatized” itself. The guy who used the word might not have meant much.
Would it bother me to see what the safari guest saw? Dunno. Maybe. Probably.
Would the sight inflict deep and permanent psychological damage on me? I hope not.
Would I say I was “traumatized” by the experience? Half-ironically? Maybe. I wouldn’t mean much by it. I get “traumatized” by all kinds of things – a heavy commute; snow; nothing good on TV – but I don’t bother to tell my shrink about any of that. Maybe the guy didn’t like what he saw, he invoked a term that sounds like way more than it is, and then he moved on.
It’s true. Many people throw around those terms. PTSD, Triggered, Traumatized. Even OCD.
But you can’t know how they really feel. Unless you really know them.
I would tend to let them have their moment, not judge them and go on about my own business, if they were just acquaintances.
when we were in a foster home in a rural area they had rabbits and chickens … one weekend when the Mrs was away Mr walked up and said " hey boys how about I fry up some chicken for dinner … Bro and I were like yeah… cool … We thought he meant KCF or pioneer … so as we’re talking about it we stop by the chicken coop … and he casually asks "so which one of these needs to go? and we picked the mean fat hen that always pinched and scratched us whenever she could … he walks over corners her grabbs her by the legs flips her over to the stump and dispatches her … grabs the legs again lets it flop around puts it in a tub full of boiling hot water and hands us the pliers and how to pluck it …
Racoons are nasty. They get in the hen house, kill everything in sight and maybe eat part of one. Hate those little fuckers. Basically, rats with a “mask.” Not cute in the slightest.
Kidlet’s covid cat caught a rabbit, brought it inside, and my ex freaked out. Neighbor, who happens to be a reasonably successful director and a producer in China, came over to help. He had no cat experience. Fascinated, he whipped out the iPhone and filmed the entire devouring on top of my tribal hand woven rug in the entry way. My ex freaking out in the background. Especially when the cat chomped through the head in a couple of bites.
I don’t enjoy seeing any animal suffer, especially when it’s prolonged, but I do marvel at the athleticism of predators on the hunt. I’m equally impressed by the agility and speed of prey that manage to escape. Unfortunately, nature often involves suffering, but animals have to eat, and predators aren’t exactly vegan.
In a more perfect world, more predators would kill with the speed and efficiency of jaguars. Jaguars often dispatch their prey so swiftly that the victim barely has time to react, delivering a lethal, bone-crushing bite to the skull.
I wouldn’t say I’m traumatized by animals preying on each other, but nor do I really enjoy seeing them die and/or suffer either.
That said, I do think nature is fascinating and fun. I saw this guy having his breakfast in my driveway one morning in August, and thought it was super cool.
