ALONG with human intelligence comes the proportionate reprehensible potential for evil behavior, including malice for malice’s sake. While animals, including pet cats, can react violently, it is typically due to reactive distrust/dislike or necessity/sustenance. But leave it to humans to commit a spiteful act, if only because we can. With our four-legged friends there definitely is a beautiful absence of that undesirable distinctly human trait. 

I grew up around cats, including feral/stray felines, and developed a life-long appreciation and affection for cats in general. As a young boy, finding them slaughtered the first thing in the morning was quite traumatizing. They were lost to larger predators — perhaps even a cat-hating human. I knew about a few guys willing to procure sick satisfaction from torturing to death those naively-trusting thus likely sweet-natured cats whose owners had allowed to wander the neighborhood, even at night. 

Many, if not most, people cannot relate to cat owners finding preciousness and other qualities in their beloved pets, including a non-humanly innocence, that make losing them someday such a horrible heartbreak. Even when the innocent animal has been made to greatly suffer needlessly, perhaps before finally being killed/murdered, many will instead think and maybe say, ‘It was just a cat’. 

Many also don’t care for the innate resistance by cats to heeling at their masters’ command. Also, their reptile-like vertical-slit pupils and cliché Hollywood-portrayed fanged hiss when confronted, in a world mostly fearful/hostile toward snakes, caused cats to have a seemingly permanent PR problem, despite their Internet adorable-pet status. 

The anti-cat complacency and contempt is even felt — and, far worse, publicly expressed — by a few potentially influential news-media professionals. 

I came across a newspaper editor's column about courthouse protesters demanding justice for a cat that had been cruelly shot in the head 17 times with a pellet gun, destroying an eye. Within her piece, the editor rather recklessly declared: “Hey crazy people, it’s [just] a cat.” ... The court judge might've also perceived it so, as the charges against the two adult-male perpetrators were dropped. 

Then there was the otherwise progressive national commentator proclaiming in one of her then-syndicated columns that “I never liked cats”. In another piece, she wrote that politicians should replace their traditional unproductively rude heckling with caterwauling: “My vote is for meowing because I don’t like cats and I’d like to sabotage their brand as much as possible. So if our elected politicians are going to be disrespectful in our House of Commons, they might as well channel the animal that holds us all in contempt.” 

(I search-engined the internet but found no potential reason(s) behind her publicized anti-feline sentiments. I also futilely asked her via her Facebook page. Still, if her motives were expressed, perhaps she'd simply say, ‘I just don’t like cats’.) 

Cats can and often do offer reciprocally healthy relationships — many cat lovers describe them as somewhat symbiotic — particularly for those suffering physical and/or mental illness. It’s the pet's many qualities, especially its non-humanly innocence, that makes losing it someday such a heartbreaking experience. 

Yet, human apathy, the throwaway mentality/culture and even some societal hostility toward them often result in cat-population explosions thus their inevitable homelessness, neglect and suffering, including severe illness and hunger. As such, the mindset of feline disposability likely goes: ‘Oh, there’s a lot more whence they came’. 

Due to general human mentality, it’s likely that only when their over-populations are greatly reduced in number through consistent publicly-funded spay/neuter programs, might these beautiful animals’ potentially soothing, even therapeutic, presence be truly appreciated rather than taken for granted or even resented. Until then, cats likely will remain beautiful yet often misunderstood, prejudged and unjustly despised animals.