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by trhway 3737 days ago
i wonder why "animal" surfaced here at all. Animals kill for food or self-defense, it isn't a voluntary act, it is what they have to do. Killing for other reasons, voluntary killings, murders - it is all almost exclusively human trait. In particular, animals don't do murders, it is human invention.
2 comments
EliRivers 3737 days ago
Some animals kill far more than they need to for food. They kill one, and instead of eating it or leaving with it, kill many more and then just leave the fresh kills behind. That's not for food, and it's not for self-defence.
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trhway 3737 days ago
and just naming such an animal would advance this debate a great length ...
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EliRivers 3736 days ago
Foxes.

I think you could have looked that up yourself, but you're not here for answers. You've already made your mind up.

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nommm-nommm 3737 days ago
Cats kill for fun.
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trhway 3737 days ago
>Cats kill for fun.

urban legend (the same type of BS like cats decimating bird population in Golden Gate park when it is mostly people who gather the eggs, and sometimes rats who proliferate when cats population is actively controlled).

Instead of eating prey himself, a cat may bring prey back into the den/house for the rest of the pack/pride (which in case of a house cat may be the humans living with the cat instead of other cats like it would be in wild). Just observe a pack of feral or wild cats. Obviously such behavior has nothing to do with "fun". And the killings here about prey. There is nothing about killing other cats. Btw, know any animal who developed cannibalism?

That is one of the main problem with attempts to address violence in human society - the typical starting point is thinking about it as a lost control over "animalistic urges" and having such a 110% wrong starting point it just goes nowhere. Like in AAA, the very first step is to recognize the truth - the violence has been natural driver and result of the development of our brain (chimps for example also demonstrate some types of "human" violence) - and from here we could finally start to move onto the next steps.

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EliRivers 3736 days ago
Cats leave behind about half of what they kill. They don't eat it. It's not self-defence.

http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/research.html

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nommm-nommm 3736 days ago
>Btw, know any animal who developed cannibalism?

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/animal-cannibalism/

Do cats bring home prey as gifts? Yes. However, kitty cams have shown they also often kill and leave their prey.

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