February 29, 2016
by dave
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Cats: So nice, we may have domesticated them twice

Illustration of Javan leopard cat from Richard Lydekker's "A hand-book to the Carnivora", 1896

Illustration of Javan leopard cat from Richard Lydekker’s “A hand-book to the Carnivora”, 1896. (Wikimedia Commons)

In 2013, I wrote about the idea that the rise of the housecat was inevitable. A study had just come out indicating that cats were domesticated in China 5,000 years ago. If true, this would have represented a second domestication events for cats, since we already knew they had first been domesticated in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago. And because both events purportedly involved farmers taming local felines and seemed to have occurred twice in such different places and such different conditions, I argued that the rise of farming was destined to give rise to the cat.

But there was one caveat: Back in 2013, researchers weren’t sure what type of cat they had found in the ancient Chinese villages. Did the feline bones dug up from the site (which showed signs that the animals ate human food and were well cared for, hence the idea they were tame or domesticated) belong to Near Eastern wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica), the ancestors of today’s house cat and the first cats to be domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East? Or were they a different species of feline, perhaps one of the small local wildcats such as the Central Asian wildcat (Felis silvestris ornata) or the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)? If the former, the cats likely came to Chinese farming villages via ancient trade routes and were already domesticated. If the latter, Chinese villagers may have embarked on a completely separate domestication of the cat from a local species.

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January 11, 2016
by dave
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FBI changes its approach to animal cruelty: What you need to know

466px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg

For the first time, the FBI will track animal cruelty the same way it tracks other crimes like homicides. The move is the latest example of the evolving status of animals—especially cats and dogs—in our society. But what prompted the FBI’s decision, and how does it change law enforcement’s approach to animal abuse? Here’s everything you need to know:

What was the FBI’s previous approach to animal cruelty?

Animal cruelty is a felony in all 50 states. (South Dakota, the last holdout, strengthened its laws in 2014.) Penalties can be up to $125,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. Yet until now, the FBI didn’t keep specific tabs on these crimes, lumping them into a catch-all category of “other”. Because of this, the agency didn’t have good stats on how dogfighting, for example, varied from state to state, or how often animal cruelty was associated with other crimes like gun violence or domestic abuse. The FBI also couldn’t track the overall question of whether animal abuse was on the rise or decline in the U.S., according to The Washington Post.

What meets the FBI’s definition of “animal cruelty”?

The FBI, according to the Post, defines cruelty to animals as: “Intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly taking an action that mistreats or kills any animal without just cause, such as torturing, tormenting, mutilation, maiming, poisoning, or abandonment.” The agency has created four categories of animal abuse: Neglect (which could include starvation, leaving an animal chained up or in the cold, or perhaps even not providing necessary medical care), intentional abuse and torture, organized abuse (ex. dog fighting), and bestiality.

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December 8, 2015
by dave
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Why don’t our pets live longer?

(Credit: huntingdesigns / flickr)

(Credit: huntingdesigns / flickr)

One of the biggest mysteries of biology is why some animals live longer than others. Of course, we care about our own lifespans, but increasingly scientists (and others) have begun to wonder about the lifespans of our pets. Why do cats and dogs only live a dozen or so years? Why do small dogs live longer than big ones? And is there anything we can do to help our pets live longer?

These questions are the subject of a feature story I have just written for Science, “A dog that lives 300 years? Solving the mysteries of aging in our pets”. Cats and dogs are revealing surprising new insights into how all animals–even human beings–age. Could our pets one day live 300 years? I hope you’ll check out the story to find out.

Also, take a look at this cool video, produced by the digital media team at Science

November 24, 2015
by dave
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New Orleans loses one of its greatest animal champions

IMG_1006One of my favorite reporting trips for my book, Citizen Canine, was my visit to New Orleans in early September of 2012. It was the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and I had come to the city to learn about how the storm had fundamentally changed the way our society views cats and dogs. Nearly half of the people who stayed behind during the disaster stayed because they refused to leave their pets, and in the aftermath of the storm Congress passed a law that impelled rescue agencies to save pets as well as their owners during natural disasters. Katrina helped turned dogs and cats into something more like people in the eyes of the law.

One of my main reasons for coming to New Orleans was to meet a woman named Charlotte Bass Lilly. Nearly everyone I spoke to before heading out told me I had to talk to her, and after spending a few minutes with her I could see why. Charlotte had lived in the city for decades, working for various animal rescue organizations. But when Katrina hit, she took her passion for animals to a whole new level. She stayed behind, wading into toxic waters to rescue cats and dogs, breaking into abandoned homes to save starving pets, and setting up hundreds of feeding stations in the months after the storm to care for the orphans of Katrina. She saved more than 500 pets on her own, and in the aftermath of the disaster, she became the leader of Animal Rescue New Orleans, a no-kill shelter that has adopted out more than 8,000 dogs and cats to date. I chronicled her story in my book and in a recent piece I wrote for BuzzFeed for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

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October 20, 2015
by dave
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Why do people eat cats?

Cats in Madagascar (Credit: Hery Zo Rakotondramanana / flickr)

Cats in Madagascar (Credit: Hery Zo Rakotondramanana / flickr)

You take a fat cat, and cut its throat, and after it is dead, behead it and throw the head away, because it is not something to be eaten because it is said that those who eat the brains will lose their minds and lack judgment.

So begins a recipe in Llibre de Coch, a 15th-century Spanish cookbook and one of the oldest in Europe. Today, most people in the western world would turn away in disgust if they saw cat on the menu, regardless of whether or not they were a fan of the world’s most popular pet. But people do eat cats—millions of felines a year, in fact, and four million in Asia alone, according to a study published this month in Anthrozoös.

Why do they do it? Cats (and dogs) have long been on the menu in China—it’s considered a delicacy by some—though the government has begun to crack down on the practice as both animals have become more popular pets there. But it many places it’s not clear why people eat cats, or even how they obtain them.

To get some answers, the authors of the Anthrozoös study turned to the island nation of Madagascar, home to a rapidly growing—and impoverished—human population. The researchers speculated that given the high rates of malnutrition and the large number of pet and feral cats found across the country, that the Malagasy would turn to felines for food.

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August 9, 2015
by dave
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Hurricane Katrina Forever Changed Our Relationship with Cats and Dogs

(Credit: Best Friends Animal Society)

(Credit: Best Friends Animal Society)

Nearly half the people who stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina stayed because of their pets. Helicopters and boats would come, but the rescuers largely refused to take cats and dogs. So many owners, unwilling to abandon a family member, refused to go — and many of them died. Others did leave their pets, convinced they would be able to retrieve them in a few days. But officials kept them out for weeks, leaving the animals to fend for themselves. Dogs waited on rooftops, cats clung to debris in toxic waters, and pets starved to death in barricaded homes.

Even for a nation grappling with the human tragedy of Katrina, the plight of dogs and cats struck a nerve. The public flooded Congress with letters, and in 2006 the legislature — despite being bitterly divided over war, immigration, and seemingly every other issue — passed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act with near unanimous support. That law, which impels rescue agencies to save pets as well as people during natural disasters, and the public outcry that inspired it, marked a turning point in our relationship with cats and dogs. No longer would we see them as pets or even companion animals. They had become members of society.

For the full story of the largest animal rescue in U.S. history, and how the storm forever changed our relationship with cats and dogs–both in our homes and in the eyes of the law–check out my new article in BuzzFeed: How Hurricane Katrina Turned Pets into People

July 6, 2015
by dave
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Are cats really a domesticated animal?

jezzie cropIf you’re a cat lover, you probably see your feline friend as a love sponge with a wild streak. If you’re a cat hater, you probably see cats as feral and strange. It turns out that this debate has played out in scientific circles as well. Researchers, it seems, can’t agree on whether cats are a domesticated species or if they are instead only “semi-domesticated.” In my new article for Slate, I delve into the legal and scientific history of the world’s most popular pet. So are cats wild or domestic? You’ll have to decide for yourself.

In the meantime, here’s an excerpt to ponder:

Cats are descended from some of the world’s most fearsome predators. They can be aloof and mysterious, and when they go outside they blend into the savage world around them, stalking, growling, and leaping—their eyes wide, their ears back, their teeth bared. They are the kings of their backyard jungles. Yet they give it all up to be with us—a loud, erratic, and sometimes incomprehensible species. When they cross our thresholds, the beast fades away. They tame us, and they are tamed by us. Cats may have retained a bit of their wild ancestry, but they always come home.

Update: And here’s a radio interview I did on the topic on WNYC.

June 22, 2015
by dave
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Citizen Canine is now out in paperback!

CitizenCanine_pbDear Friends, I’m proud to announce that Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs has just come out in paperback! If you’ve been waiting for a soft cover edition, you can find now it on Amazon and fine bookstores everywhere.

Also, in case you missed my “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit, you can find the link to the conversation here.

And for those of you in the Portland, OR area, I will be doing a reading of the book at the world-famous Powell’s bookstore on June 29th.

Finally, a note about the paperback. Although I have updated the book since it was first published, the first edition of the paperback contains the original hardcover text. The updates should appear in the next version of the paperback. Here are a couple of updates and corrections worth noting:

  • Page 73: Marc Bekoff got his MD and PhD at Cornell University Medical College in New York City, not in Ithica.
  • Page 100: The Animal Legal Defense fund did not create an animal law committee in the American Bar Association. This was instead done by animal lawyer Barbara Gislason.
  • Page 122: After the book went to press, South Dakota became the 50th state to make animal cruelty a felony.
  • Page 293: Two updates to the timeline
    • 2006: The U.S. federal government passes the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, which impels rescue agencies to save pets as well as people during natural disasters.
    • 2014: South Dakota becomes the 50th U.S. state to adopt a felony animal anti-cruelty law. The same year, the FBI announces it will begin tracking animal cruelty cases.