Animal Grief

[bunn]

I just read Cat Confidential by Vicky Halls, a book about the behaviour of cats, kindly lent me by chainmailmaiden.

It had many interesting points to make, but my attention was caught by one line that was almost an afterthought, about cats that appear to grieve for companions that die:

"Whether it can truly be evidence of a grieving process as we understand it is debateable...are we merely seeing a withdrawal response to an addictive relationship that has suddenly ended?"

You get this kind of thing quite a lot in pet behaviour books. The writer is aware that they are dealing with a different species with very different behaviours and capacities, does not want to be accused of over-emotional response or projecting human behaviour on an animal, so from time to time during the book, they put on a sort of little virtual scientific tin hat and come out with this sort of thing.

I think it's a bit silly. Do we have some sort of British Standard Grief Unit? Is grief (or joy, or love) measurable in any meaningful sense in human beings? I don't think so.

People react to these emotions very differently, mean different things when they say those words.

Grief is an english language word: of course it's not going to mean exactly the same to me as it does to my non-English-speaking cat, but dressing it up as a 'withdrawal response' - how does that help?

Grief is the word we use to describe that sort of behaviour: it is not a precise word, and it's not suitable for detailed analysis. People grieve for objects, sometimes. If an old man grieves for his dead wife, having not having shown the poor woman any overt affection for the last 20 years, is that not "a withdrawal response to an addictive relationship that has suddenly ended"?

Talking about animals as if they were human beings in little fur suits is not a good idea. But talking about vague human concepts as if they had a precise definition and were consistent across all human cultures and individuals is equally silly, particularly when it's done in the interests of a sort of faux-impartiality.

Actually, while we are at it, almost all animal behaviour books I have read tend to assume that the animal has a 'state of nature', a 'natural' behaviour structure - while totally ignoring the fact that an animal's natural environment is shaped by other inhabitants of the ecosystem. Surely the ecological niche inhabited by the cat or dog is shaped by the fact that they live within a human culture?

Comments

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

I have kept mine indoors since one got run over and I found out that Magnus was crossing the main road several times a day. I decided that I couldn't deal with the stress of worring about him getting run over and decided to keep them in.

I know that he misses going out and that he would be happier if he were allowed to do so. I feel as though I'm being selfish in not letting him out.

I am also pretty sure that if I had continued to allow him out he would have been run over by now.

Mikka adjusted immediately, but he doesn't have as strong a hunting drive. He couldn't catch a cold..

Mechtilde has never been allowed out. We do have a litter tray problem with her. Mind you she also gets broody and starts yowling and carrying thins around as though they were kittens. Rolled up socks and cuddly toys I can understand, but a live mouse????? I wonder sometimes if they left something in when she was neutered.

I strongly suspect that indoor cats have more problems. Equally I can understand why in the States they are more concerned about allowing cats outside, especially are there are more species of animal which are willing to eat them, not to mention the way that Americans make their cats defenceless by amputating their toes. Thank goodness that is illegal here.

What I don't get is the unwillingness to neuter pets. I just don't understand why anyone would want an intact cat wandering around, calling, marking, trying to get out to mate etc.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Vicky Halls, who is a UK cat behaviourist, seems to think that keeping cats indoors only is more likely to produce behavioural problems, presumably based on her own practice: most of the cats she talks about in the book are indoor-only.

What I've been vaguely wondering about though, is whether British cats (at least the general moggy population) are actually the same, on average, as US cats. Obviously, as your experience demonstrates, individuals vary a lot, but presumably there is a norm.

I have no evidence at all on this, but here's my woolly and unproven theory:

The British moggy population has been more or less isolated for over 100 years by quarantine regulations and being an island. So, this is a population of cats that has developed in in environment where the 2 major risks are being run over and not being able to find enough to eat. You might expect that to produce a population of particularly active cats that are good at hunting and foraging, as well as smarming up to people for food, and maybe even have some sort of learned car avoidance.

In fact, because we do have quite a strong neuter/spay culture here nowadays, in evolutionary terms, being good at hunting and foraging might even be 'better' than being good at being a pet and getting food from people, for a moggy, because owned moggies tend to end up neutered moggies and don't get to hand their genes and learned behaviours on.

Now, assuming that much of the USA is as hostile an environment to cats as I'm told, could it be that might actually favour the development of a different sort of cat, a more house-favouring sort of one?

Maybe a cat that isn't quite so much of a pain to live with during heat, that mostly prefers to stay inside the house, apart from one or two dashes out to have sex, would have a real advantage? That sort of cat would be better adapted to take full advantage of the niche offered by people and their houses and their tins of cat food.

Cats rearing kittens inside a house are presumably much more likely to raise a successful brood than ones doing it in a shed or something, if there are wolves or coyotes about. Cats that get their food from people would be at an advantage over hunters, if hunting is a more risky task in that environment...

I think a comparative study might be enlightening. Maybe whoever did it would want to also look at cats in a relatively backward rural African setting as well, or the big urban colonies you get somewhere like Istanbul...

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a follow-up project for the Watching the English writer: Watching the English Cat. I'd certainly read it. It had never remotely crossed my mind that national differences in personanility and behaviour might extend to pets. Now you've suggested it, I'm fascinated with the idea.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I reckon there must be potential for an absolute shedload of similar cultural animal things. For example, I *think* all our herding dogs are true herders, not flock-guardians, because we have no wolves. Our dog-walking culture is different to countries where it is simply too hot to walk far during the day, or where there is thick snow on the ground for months, and I think that makes it easier for our herding dogs to be kept as pets.

I have also wondered if dogs and cats that come from places where the human diet is low in meat may have developed an improved ability to survive on a low-meat diet...

If I ever become an eccentric millionaire, I shall investigate these matters.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

That study could be fascinating.

I think that indoors only cats do have more problems with behaviour, but I just daren't let mine out any more. I am fully aware that I am being selfish, but this was a decision I made for me, rather than my cats.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

We had a cat run over once, so I do understand where you are coming from on that, and sympathise. Everyone has to make their own decisions for their own situation.

Henning is allowed outdoors, but he still has a bunch of odd little issues that have to be managed, like comfort eating and bullying and scraping things obsessively with his paw, so I don't think it's a fix-all.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Magnus is a bit of a fruit cake too.