this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 121 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Somewhat related, there is a vaccine for cats in the works meant to prevent feline chronic kidney disease. If successful it could massively increase the lifespan of domestic cats.

https://www.boredpanda.com/medicine-cats-live-longer/

[–] [email protected] 53 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That killed my childhood cat. Would be awesome for future kids to not experience what I did.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Kind of seems like losing a pet is an important part of growing up tbh.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I dunno accepting death as an inevitability seems important since since we otherwise struggle hard to ignore it in western culture and by extension can create a lot of suffering.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

A pet doesn't need to die for that. If you look around... Death is everywhere!

[Starts singing and dancing a musical number down the street]

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

What a heartless thing to say.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Accepting death is an important part of growing up, but no animal deserves to die just to be a goddamn teachable moment

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago

That would be amazing. They can already live so long. To think, you might be able to have a cat with you for most of your adult life.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Unpopular opinion: There are already way too many domestic cats and they are responsible for the extinction of various species, mostly birds. They are amongst the most problematic invasive species in the world. Its probably not a good idea to increase their lifespan...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Popular opinion: I love cats

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

In your country perhaps, cats aren't a problem everywhere. Even the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds maintain that cats are not a major cause of bird decline (in Britain).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I'm not only talking about my country, but you're right: The location matters. It's a fact that cats have a noticeable impact on global biodiversity. There is an interesting article on the matter here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42766-6

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Forgive me if I don't treat Britain as an expert on biodiversity, given their history of hunting most of their wildlife to extinction.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Well the RSPB shockingly are quite against hunting animals, who'd have thought it? And careful throwing stones from your glass house, didn't your lot hunt the bison almost to extinction the moment they landed?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

You can get them fixed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

The reason birds are going extinct is humans. Hunting, habitat loss, and climate change are far, far more impactful than cats. As much as they kill, cats shouldn’t even be making a dent in bird populations in most of the world (yes, there are islands and a few microbiomes where they have an outsized impact, and that is an issue that needs to be addressed).

Cats only have such a big impact because we drove those species of birds to the edge of extinction already.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

This makes me very happy, thank you for sharing!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

One of my family cats is currently at the end of her life due to kidney disease. It really sucks, glad they're doing something about it. Now if only they could do the same for dogs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

If successful it could

Wanna bet what capitalism is going to say about that?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm literally having my 19 year old cat put down tomorrow due to kidney disease and I very much wish for him to feel young and healthy again. It sucks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Sorry for your loss mate