[swader999]

We need lock downs, a wall, 100% containment. Full vaccine mobilization. Starship must be expedited. A world without cats is not a world at all.

[croes]

A world with cats is a world with billions of dead birds and small mammals.

Without them we will have even more insects.

So this time cats won’t protect us from diseases by killing the carrier, these time they help the carriers

[hsbauauvhabzb]

Wouldn’t we have less insects because of increased bird, rodent and spider growth?

[zeristor]

Less insecticide is probably the key thing.

Driving in the eighties with windscreens full of insects, and now hardly anything, and a lot less of the things that lived on them.

[themaninthedark]

Sometimes I wonder about that. The measure is number of insect impacts on windshields but is the car the same?

If we use a more modern care would the increased aerodynamics prevent impacts as instead of punching through the air you are cutting through it?

Have never read the full experimental setup and assumptions... I do know that I have less dead bug then when I was a kid...

[ai_]

Ever since I started riding a motorcycle I've started to believe this to be the case too. I get so many bug splats on my helmet, jacket, and motorcycle that I'd never have if I was driving a car. By the end of most rides out in the country on the highway I'm covered in splats.

[diegolas]

i've noted less bugs on the windshield but about the same on the optics and the radiator screen, so i go with the aerodynamics explanation as well. bugs are there because i see the bug swarms around the road too.

[croes]

"Them" refers to birds and small mammals and "even more" refers to the consequences of climate change where insects have more habitable areas.

[mb_thd]

They still kill carriers for other stuff. Pick your poison, I guess.

[throwaway173738]

Or killing them in the US will allow bird populations to recover, leading to birds killing more insects. Cats are not native to the Americas.

[esseph]

Cats are very native to the Americas.

Just not housecats.

[nosioptar]

Humans aren't native to the Americas either.

[aa-jv]

Pets are slaves. Stop trying to own emotions.

[tonyedgecombe]

Dogs have owners, cats have staff.

[SJC_Hacker]

More like cats enslaved humans

[nosioptar]

My cats prefer to say they domesticated the damn dirty apes, enslavement makes it sound too much like we deserve the same freedoms as the cats.

[Guthwine]

Genuinely curious - are sheep kept for their wool also slaves in your opinion?

[voakbasda]

There is a ballot measure this Fall in Oregon that would ban pet and livestock ownership in the state. The backers got over 100,000 people to sign the petition.

There are people that either simply do not understand the natural order that the majority of humans want to eat meat and keep pets, or they do not care about other people enough to respect their lifestyle choices.

[dguest]

Citation:

- https://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Criminalize_Hunting,_Fishing,...

- https://www.yesonip28.org/

[aa-jv]

Yes, for sure. Any animal kept from its natural environment and harvested for its material resources is a slave.

Doesn't matter if humans thing they're cute, tasty, or necessary. We literally enslave other living beings in order to feel good about ourselves.

Pets are emotional slaves. People keep them because of the emotional value they provide to their lifestyles.

[Guthwine]

In the past, though, dogs (domesticated wolves, however you want to look at it) were more akin to 'hunting partners', wouldn't you say? But for you the line is crossed when we start keeping them in kennels/breeding them, I guess?

[aa-jv]

No, actually the line is crossed when people who keep slaves are dishonest about it.