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Do cats kill for fun?

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TheDanger

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We have this cat in the neigborhood, she leaves mice, rats and birds everywhere, but they are pretty much untouched, especially the rodents.

She is well fed and doesn't eat her prey, so she just does it for fun?
 
No. It's their instinct. They are predators. The 'fun' is just their way of practice and reinforcing those skills.

Edit: And dogs do something similar. It is their instinct to chase prey. But we didn't keep dogs around for thousands of years for their ability to kill small pests, so we've bred out a lot of the aggression that causes them to aggressively kill. Cats on the other hand basically lived alongside us as a means of pest control.
 
It is a gift for you. They just want to contribute to the household. Just fucking eat the rats and say thank you once in a while for godsakes.
 
Do house cats kill many more animals than they eat? Yes.

But do they do it for fun, malice, a mindless compulsion, or practice? No way to know.
 
If by 'fun' you mean 'keeping their hunting skills sharp' then yes. It's where the term 'cat-and-mouse' came from.

Cats routinely 'play' (catch and release, rinse, repeat) with their prey before finally killing it.
 
Mice run around, cats think they are toys. they kill the mouse, get sad cause their toy broke, so they bring it to the nearest human in hopes that they can fix their toy.
 
TheDanger said:
We have this cat in the neigborhood, she leaves mice, rats and birds everywhere, but they are pretty much untouched, especially the rodents.

She is well fed and doesn't eat her prey, so she just does it for fun?
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"fun" may not be the word for it, but sure, cats often kill for no other reason than to kill.
 
nel e nel said:
If by 'fun' you mean 'keeping their hunting skills sharp' then yes. It's where the term 'cat-and-mouse' came from.

Cats routinely 'play' (catch and release, rinse, repeat) with their prey before finally killing it.
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Basically this.

It's not for "fun" in the same way as a person hunting for sport.

It would be like if you just had a reflex when you saw something small moving quickly around you to go after it.
 
I imagine it would be hard to try and define and quantify if cats on the whole are "having fun" when they kill prey. They are for the most part simply following their instincts, the same way many bugs and small critters you keep as pets will only eat their food if its still alive for them to kill.

I do imagine some cats enjoy it more than others
 
Absolutely do. Cats love to kill things, and draw it out as long as possible.

They're so fluffy and cute though.
 
Ryouji Gunblade said:
No, but apparently they can bully other cats.
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I Stalk Alone said:
It is a gift for you. They just want to contribute to the household. Just fucking eat the rats and say thank you once in a while for godsakes.
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Not quite a gift. They bring you food beause they consider you too incompetent to hunt yourself. Just like a bird bringing worms and pre-digested food to it's youngs.

Aside from that, they just kill by instinct. Their definition of "fun" is just sleeping.
 
Yes, they do.

In fact, out on farms and such, feral cats are a must to control mice populations. It has come to the attention of most farmers that keeping the cats well fed actually incites them kill more. When they are hungry, they hunt only for food, and conserve energy. When they aren't, they hunt for fun, and hunt a lot more because they aren't worried about conserving energy.

themoreyouknow.gif
 
Cats aren't moral actors so it doesn't matter.

Fun is also a human concept. Judging cats using human ideas like entertainment and morality is silly.
 
I don't really believe the do it for fun or malice. Typically they are just trying to their part and support the pride. I use to love to watch barn cats on the farm as a kid and they rarely leave dead animals around. Especially in summer when there are plenty of rodents to eat. Typically barn cats are not fed, regularly. When they started to look too lean in winter they would feed them and then occasionally they would leave a dead rodent around. I think its purely a social behavior. House cats are pretty fucked up and do weird shit but that is not representative of cat in its normal social group.
 
entrement said:
Cats aren't moral actors so it doesn't matter.

Fun is also a human concept. Judging cats using human ideas like entertainment and morality is silly.
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Do you think any animal can be a moral actor? (serious question)

If fun is a human concept, what about when young mammals play with each other for no apparent reason? We explain it as "play for the purpose of developing social/hunting skills" but it's not like they're doing it with that in mind. Who's to say they're not experiencing "fun"?

I mean, I basically agree with you but only because the human brain is a little more complex. It's just a question of scale, not ability.
 
Patryn said:
Hunting instincts are ingrained in cats.

It's why they go after things like laser pointers.
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Yeah, fun seems like it's much more likely a byproduct of the hunting instinct than the primary motivation. Reward systems across species (meaning some form of 'enjoyment') is probably pretty consistent, while the capacity for actual goal directed behaviours has to vary wildly.
 
clove said:
Do you think any animal can be a moral actor? (serious question)

If fun is a human concept, what about when young mammals play with each other for no apparent reason? We explain it as "play for the purpose of developing social/hunting skills" but it's not like they're doing it with that in mind. Who's to say they're not experiencing "fun"?

I mean, I basically agree with you but only because the human brain is a little more complex. It's just a question of scale, not ability.
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Morality has it's roots in rationality, which isn't based on instinct.

Humans have a frontal lobe that has been identified with long term and rational thinking. Other animals do not have this, so judging animals on human terms is silly.
 
Could be fun, or could be that the cat sees those things as pests. If I saw a spider, I'd kill it. I wouldn't enjoy killing it. It wouldn't be fun. But I also wouldn't eat it.
 
entrement said:
Morality has it's roots in rationality, which isn't based on instinct.

Humans have a frontal lobe that has been identified with long term and rational thinking. Other animals do not have this, so judging animals on human terms is silly.
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Human frontal lobes are especially large, but other animals have them too. Like I said, a question of scale. And if "instinct" is "whatever we do naturally" then you can explain the whole range of human behavior as "instinct." Even murder is explainable as a credible threat of retaliation to prevent further damage to a person.

Do you consider it "morally good" that society generally grieves for its dead? Then what about when elephants do it?
 
clove said:
Human frontal lobes are especially large, but other animals have them too. Like I said, a question of scale.

Do you consider it "morally good" that society generally grieves for its dead? Then what about when elephants do it?
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How is grief related to morality? None of these questions make any sense.
 
MattKeil said:
How is grief related to morality? None of these questions make any sense.
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Look at it the other way. Would you think a kid was fine if he legitimately felt no grief after his mom died?

Or imagine a hypothetical race of people who ate their dead (Stranger in a Strange Land...). Is that thought disgusting? I think that's part of morality.

Grief is absolutely within the realm of human morality. I think it's part of animal morality too.
 
My cats hunt each other for fun. They're both aware that they're not going to be killing and eating each other. Acting out hunting behavior in non-critical situations (with other cats or with toys) is the definition of play.
 
Patryn said:
Basically this.

It's not for "fun" in the same way as a person hunting for sport.

It would be like if you just had a reflex when you saw something small moving quickly around you to go after it.
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why do people desperately try to make it seem less bad for saying they "probably dont like it! they do it because they have to!"
they probably do get some kind of enjoyment out of it. a natural reward system thing.
 
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