Researchers performing an experiment to observe how the human body decomposes ended up uncovering a surprising scientific truth that turned out to be more than they bargained for. As The Daily Mail reports:
It seems maggots are not the only creatures with a taste for human flesh – cats also enjoy dining on the dead.
While studying how human bodies decompose, researchers observed two feral felines feasting on the corpses left outside Colorado Mesa University’s Forensic Investigation Research Station for nearly 35 days straight.
Although the pair had more than 40 different bodies to choose from, they returned to the same body each night – one was a 70-year-old man and the other a 79-year-old woman…
‘The main theory is that cats are, like, picky eaters. Once they find a food that they like, they’ll stick with it,’ said Garcia, the lead author on the paper, which was published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
A cat researcher at the University of Colorado commented that the behavior observed was not at all unusual for domestic cats, who have also been known to feed off of their deceased owners.
Why not, they are already dead
I’m betting on some planet maybe not so far away the loved ones have their deceased for the funeral dinner. After I’ve passed away I dont care that much what you do with my body, just be sure I’m dead and not feeling anything.
If I’m dead and they are trapped in the house they are carnivores and predators so I would expect it – besides I’ll be dead ! Keep in mind cats are the only “pets” that if they are released to the real world will survive because they are are the few “pets”
that can still survive. Dogs can’t, gerbles are probably in trouble, turtles would have to escape the cage and fish are stuck in a fish tank. Cats are NOT domesticated and probably will never be. Unlike dogs they retain their “wildness” and haven’t “sold out for kibbles and bits”. In some ways that makes them more interesting because that is part of their independence. Cats – unlike dogs – have to accept you first and not all giddy when the meet just anyone. They are far smarter and just know how to conceal it for their own purposes.
As for the forensic studies they are for the benefit of everyone and the “bodies” ARE DONATED FOR THAT PURPOSE. And again you are Dead and these are simply the
remains of your earthly existence. I know people who run such tests and the bodies ARE treated with respect and properly handled under controlled conditions.
I like cats but let’s face it, beyond simple pets they are quite worthless to people. Dogs have always been enormously beneficial to humanity in many ways and have well deserved the label “mans best friend”.
No news to me. Cats were often seen eating human cadavers during the World War Two. During the siege of Leningrad, people ate human cadavers too. You would be surprised at what you would eat peradventure you were hungry enough.
So what if cats might eat dead mammalians, including humanoids?
So will dogs and other humans when they are hungry enough.
I think that most people who dearly love their dogs or cats, live with daily fear of what will become of their pets if they should die suddenly. I suspect, if they think it through, that they would be okay with their pet surviving by eating some of their body, if they would die otherwise because the body was not found. People have been known to survive by cannibalism, even of their loved ones, so what difference would it make it the situation were reversed. I read a story once about a man and dog lost together, both starving. The man couldn’t bring himself to kill and eat his dog, so he cut off the dog’s tail, boiled it, and both he and the dog lived off the broth.
Here, kitty kitty kitty…
I can’t imagine a single cat or any other animal for that matter, being the least bit interested in eating the likes of Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer, or any other dim politician for that matter. I think this might the exceptional case where a cat might forgo the meal, and choose to starve to death. As the article notes cats have discriminating tastes.
Good observation, Walkin, I, too, believe Nancy’s “familiar” would never turn on her that way
On the other hand, some dogs do eat shlt.
Ho ho! That is what I think, too. They might quit their kitty boxes and put it where it might help the odor.
A recent story about a dead woman and her dead dog; she predeceased him and he starved to death afterward. Now, in the Don Johnson film, A Boy And His Dog, it wasn’t that way.
That is my favorite Sci-Fi film.
What do the families of these people think about their deceased loved ones being left outside so “scientists” can observe how cats like to eat them?
The bodies only end up there if they are donated to science! The deceased themselves consent to giving themselves away in their will. It’s their choice.
Furthermore, notice that it’s for forensic science! Bodies left to decompose allow new forensic scientists to get experience in training without having to wait for a mutilated corpse.
Studying human decay saves lives by helping forensic scientists understand what they are looking at.