Why Would Anyone Cut off a Cat’s Whiskers?
October 22nd 2007 22:36
This is probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. I was flicking through the November 2007 issue of Cat Fancy magazine and there was a story telling people not to cut off their cats’ whiskers. But why would anyone want to do this in the first place? Cosmetic reasons? Because they think it makes the cat feel more comfortable? I say, if it ain't broke, don’t fix it.
So why do cats have whiskers? According to The Idiot’s Guide to Getting & Owning a Cat by Sheila Webster Boneham, it’s because they help the cat navigate so it is able to work out whether it can fit through that narrow cranny or to move around in the dark. Whiskers enable cats to sense objects without having to touch them. Whiskers are attached to muscle which enables the cat to move them back and forth. This is useful for feline body language: when a cat is defensive or angry it will flatten them against its cheek and point them forwards when it is feeling aggressive. On the other hand, when a cat is relaxed it will point them outwards and downwards.
So to cut off a cat’s whiskers, depriving it of one of its main navigational tools, is downright cruel. And pointless, too. Not only that, it can cause sensitivity as, according to the Cat Fancy story, whiskers have blood sinuses connecting them to a nerve bundle. For more information, check out the links below:
www.Yahoo.com answers link
www.funtrivia.com link
Wikipedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Licence link
So why do cats have whiskers? According to The Idiot’s Guide to Getting & Owning a Cat by Sheila Webster Boneham, it’s because they help the cat navigate so it is able to work out whether it can fit through that narrow cranny or to move around in the dark. Whiskers enable cats to sense objects without having to touch them. Whiskers are attached to muscle which enables the cat to move them back and forth. This is useful for feline body language: when a cat is defensive or angry it will flatten them against its cheek and point them forwards when it is feeling aggressive. On the other hand, when a cat is relaxed it will point them outwards and downwards.
So to cut off a cat’s whiskers, depriving it of one of its main navigational tools, is downright cruel. And pointless, too. Not only that, it can cause sensitivity as, according to the Cat Fancy story, whiskers have blood sinuses connecting them to a nerve bundle. For more information, check out the links below:
www.Yahoo.com answers link
www.funtrivia.com link
Photo by Emelie Schäfer. Photo used according to the conditions contained in Wikimedia Commons' Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Emelobi at http://flickr.com/photos/44083147@N00/13437947.
Wikipedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Licence link
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