Tess Whitcroft

Science or feline abuse?


Tess

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Psyke Phaeton

wtf

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eku Zhong

the poor cat is totally freaked out.. look at the tail

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Arilynn

WTF? Do they explain why they keep throwing it against the wall?

Tess Whitcroft

They only have about 25 seconds to perform whatever experiment they have in mind and the effect can be duplicated a number of times in a sequence. There is a company in the U.S. that offers flights with 15 weightless intervals.

Tess

eku Zhong

yeah but why throw it at the wall? just let it go in midair would be scary enough for any cat

Siyu Suen

I'm going to guess it was more of an accident and a needed action to push the cat away from himself, otherwise the cat would cling. He'd need to be pushed away, and at a spot where there weren't people in case he'd make grabs or catch someone's clothes. I don't think he was pushed with any harmful force toward the wall, probably no more than a jump would put on him.

I don't think it's abuse... to say that cheapens the real abuse that causes extreme distrust and scarring (both mentally and physically) for a cat. The cat seemed fine once its feet were on the ground again.


So now I'm gonna watch him spin all around again, that was cool

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Allana Dion

It may not be abuse, but it's unkind and unnecessary. I can't see what it would accomplish as an experiment.

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Tess Whitcroft

If you drop a cat to the carpet from a feet down position it will gracefully land on the floor.

If you drop a cat to the carpet from a feet up position it will attempt to "right" itself with some amazing body movements.

A cat somehow senses the approaching ground and works out how much to twist to land feet to the ground.

If a cat uses a sense of gravity to determine which way is "down" then in a weightless situation it would be unable to correctly orient itself.

If a cat uses a sense on motion to determine which way is "down", even in a weightless situation it would be able to position its feet toward the direction of its movement.


Tess

Arilynn

It appears that experiments on cats in low-gravity situations have been conducted for years:

As someone with a messed up vestibular system, I support research into this area. But the idea of any animal's vestibular system being removed and then put into a low-gravity situation makes me queasy. And given the big differences between human and feline vestibular systems, I wonder how useful this research is.

Tess Whitcroft

"Captain Schock"?


Tess

MissKillian Barbosa

Isn't poor Nikita the doggie's mummified remains still orbiting the earth? At least poor kitty will come back home to earth..I hope.

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Jessica Robertson

NASA wrote this?

Fixed:
Grammar, it's not rocket science.

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Cincia Singh

In a weightless environment there is no need to orient itself because it would not fall. No gravity = no fall. Ergo ... it's abuse of a cat by a couple of human tards masquerading their behavior under the guise of conducting "experiments."

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Liona Clio

This is a no win situation.

Experiement on Cats - You're a cruel tard who abuses cute furry animals.
Experiment on Humans - I sue your ass for any damages and cruel treatment.
Don't Experiment - Never learn what makes organic lifeforms tick so we can better deal with our own bodies when they break down.

My choice? I think the cat will get over the 30 seconds of weightlessness. Hell, he probably won't remember it happened the next day in favor of stalking the little Styrofoam peanut he just found innocently lurking on the floor.

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Tess Whitcroft

While I agree with you that this specific example was not a real scientific experiment I still think that things could be learned about cats from exposing them to weightlessness under the proper conditions.


Tess

Trout Recreant

I'm no rocket surgeon ( ) but I think they were throwing the cat at the wall so that they could see if it could orient itself to the wall like it was a floor, if that makes sense. They were simulating falling without there being gravity. There was a need to orient itself because it was, in effect, falling towards the wall.

I'm not defending the experiment - but I can see what they were trying to do with it. I'm just not sure what good the data would do. Special gravity sensor implants in people so when we fall off of bridges and cliffs, we splatter into the ground feet first?

ChatNoir Moonsoo

Abuse.
The cat was thrown around too fast/too hard to make any relevant observations.

Casper Priestman

What bothered me most was the laughter from the people in the video and their obvious enjoyment of the poor cat's plight. There could have been more humane ways of conducting said experiments other than having some hee-haw fling a cat against the wall in zero G proclaiming "hey y'all, watch this"

Ayumi

Well, I think one of the bigger issues is when helicopters/planes go wonky.. the pilot often has very little ability to reorient.

So if you could figure out how/why a cat can do it, you could probably get a plane to do it as well?

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Rochlin Pelazzi

That just looks mean. I could maybe think it was useful if they looked like they were actually doing an experiment.


-Kitty fun fact: A cat is more likely to survive a fall from 6 stories up than from 2 stories up (not that cat wont be severly injured) due to time to orient its body and brace for impact.

Cincia Singh

Throwing the cat towards a wall is not the same as falling due to gravity. Throwing a cat toward a wall is more like swinging it by it's tail against the wall. It's cruel and pointless.

I do agree that valid research on felines is ok; this just doesn't come close to valid.

Tess Whitcroft

Kind of like people who claim to have "experimented" with drugs.

Yeah right.

Was anyone wearing a lab coat?
Were there instruments?
Were there any clipboards?
Were notes taken?

Tess

Rochlin Pelazzi

Thats my issue with the thing. There seems like there was no consistency. If they were taking notes on how the cat reacted say, by being pushed towards the wall at 1 m/s from a distance of 2m with feet pointed away from wall 5 times, I could see it as valid. Then again, we never know what was cut out of the video, but knowing cats, that one plans on killing all involed.