You may know "Godwin's Law" which suggests that any discussion on the internet will eventually involve someone or something being compared to Nazis. Well, for those of you who haven't seen it, here's something with the comparison straight out of the gate.
I'll put it in the form of a multiple choice question.
What has Viscount Monckton (former deputy leader of UKIP) recently compared to Nazis. Is it
a) The current leadership of the Tory Party
b) Domestic cats
c) Teachers' unions
d) The organisers of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations
or
e) Pigeons in Trafalgar Square
answer below
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Domestic Cats which, according to him, are killing so many birds that they will soon be extinct. The RSPB begs to differ but what would the experts know? In addition to comparing cats to "Nazis overrunning the Maginot Line" he brands them as "psychopaths", "serial killers" and creatures that kill with "brutal sadism" and "hunt for the sake of hunting and kill for the sake of killing"
I wonder if he understands the term "anthropomorphism".

Oh. I thought it was all of the above. However, feral cats ARE a problem. They seem to have an uncanny ability to kill songbirds whilst leaving starlings alone.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
Oh. I thought it was all of the above. However, feral cats ARE a problem. They seem to have an uncanny ability to kill songbirds whilst leaving starlings alone.

Quite possibly (after all a songbird in a bush is an easier kill than a starling on the wing) but what they are NOT is Nazis, psychopaths, serial killers or sadists. None of those words can be applied to any species other than our own. (And the RSPB say that the number of birds they kill is insignificant compared to how many die through loss of habitat and that most birds killed by cats are old, unhealthy or likely to die soon anyway as the younger, healthier specimens are very unlikely to be caught by a cat.) And the viscount in question was specifically NOT talking about feral cats. He was talking about domestic cats which he says should be muzzled before being let out.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

IMHO, if they're let out they're feral. They just have a sucker who's willing to give them free room and board.

So basically your contention is that all cats are feral (except possibly Schrödinger’s cat as that was locked in a box). I’m not convinced that you have entirely grasped the concept.

Hmm...and I'm not sure they prefer songbirds. Maybe it's just that we can't hear any difference in the number of non-songbirds, so we don't notice?

They don't PREFER songbirds, they're just easier to catch. I asked if this were so at an Audubon meeting a while ago and the presenter of the lecture said that starlings are exceptionally wary, thus the disparity. BUT, I admit to some alternate viewpoints: https://www.washingtonpost.com...eirs-outside-anyway/

Sorry, Bob, to have gone off-point.

I meant that you may not have grasped the concept of "feral".