Tape on a cat's feet and peanut butter to a dog?!?

[barbaralee]

I guess I've been living under a rock these past 30 years. Growing up we had NO pets, none whatsoever. Since marrying DH 10 years ago we've had 3 dogs, 3 cats and a son together. Now we only have two dogs and the 1 cat. The other day my 9 year old put tape on our cat's paw and laughed at her reaction. I was horrified and jumped all over him. My husband was perplexed and informed me that a lot of people put tape on a cat's paw, it does nothing more to the cat than annoy her, and their reaction is funny. He followed this by "It's kind of like giving peanut butter to a dog." and I said: "Huuuh???" Apparently for grins and giggles people give peanut butter to their dog??? Where in the world have I been? Has anyone else done these things?

Message Edited by barbaralee on 03-12-2009 06:01 AM

[Anonymous]

Yes I am ashamed....this does happen...but I swear the dog really liked the peanutbutter!

[fishbjc]

Putting tape on a cats paws can kill the cat IF the cat injests the piece of tape.  While rare, it CAN happen.  Best thing to do is to err on the side of caution.

My cat sucked down about 4 ounces of raspberry vodka....HUH....I couldn't believe it either..but she was totally *poop faced*...I had to watch her all night.

[demi]

Have you ever seen the "got milk" commercial with the little boy feeding the peanut butter to the dog...its great, he just sits there and licks and licks - it may be just a California commercial.  They seem to really like it, and I have never heard its a problem.  My mom gives her corgi her pills in it.

Long time pet lover, think can't remember a time I didn't have a cat or dog (except college) but I have never heard of tape on a cats paw.  Once when I was little our samoyed swallowed a long shoestring...was not a pretty site a day later.

[Donks3369]

Barb,

I can say that we give our dog peanut butter stuffed into a Kong toy, it keeps her busy for awhile and she loves the taste.  However, as much as I don't like cats, I think it's a little cruel to do that with the tape.  Just like using the laser pointed to make them go crazy.  Although it can be pretty funny!

[Scamp]

To me, intentionally putting tape on the cat's paw for the sole purpose of laughing at its discomfort is a beginner's version of bullying, and as another poster mentioned, if the cat actually ingests the tape when trying to remove it, it could harm the animal.

As for the peanut butter thing, if it's done the same way - purposely for the sole purpose of the animal's discomfort/confusion/whatever providing free entertainment for the human being doing it - then shame on him/her for treating the animal with such a lack of humane respect.

[Anonymous]

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barbaralee wrote:
I guess I've been living under a rock these past 30 years. Growing up we had NO pets, none whatsoever. Since marrying DH 10 years ago we've had 3 dogs, 3 cats and a son together. Now we only have two dogs and the 1 cat.

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Before I read further, I thought you had gotten rid of the son along the years with the other dog and two cats.

[barbaralee]

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@Scamp wrote:

To me, intentionally putting tape on the cat's paw for the sole purpose of laughing at its discomfort is a beginner's version of bullying...

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I take offense to what you just implied about my son. I could rattle off a list of defenses, but it would be for not since your mind seems to be well made up. Frankly, to me assuming something about one's character from one incident is the beginning version of prejudgment.

Message Edited by barbaralee on 03-12-2009 12:21 PM

[Scamp]

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barbaralee wrote:

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@Scamp wrote:

To me, intentionally putting tape on the cat's paw for the sole purpose of laughing at its discomfort is a beginner's version of bullying...

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I take offense to what you just implied about my son. I could rattle off a list of defenses, but it would be for not since your mind seems to be well made up. Frankly, to me assuming something about one's character from one incident is the beginning version of prejudgment.

Message Edited by barbaralee on 03-12-2009 12:21 PM

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I'm sorry my comment offended you, but I was not implying anything about your son personally.

If you re-read my post, you'll note that I didn't say your son was a bully, I said the action was a bullying type of action - a significant difference.

Pretty much every kid (even good kids, and myself included, though for me it was the thumbtack on another kid's chair that got me the lesson learned) does something along these lines at some point when they're growing up that offers the chance at the exact lesson about how to treat animals (and other people) that you seemed to have wanted to teach him. 

Again, I'm sorry my post offended you, but that was not my intent, and my post expressed my personal opinion about the action, not your son, whom I absolutely did assume was a great kid.

(edited to add "(and other people)" for clarity)

Message Edited by Scamp on 03-12-2009 12:55 PM

[barbaralee]

Well, thank you for clarifying, Scamp, and I apologize for getting defensive. Personally, I'm not sure I would go so far as to say the action is a type of bullying but I could certainly see where it could get out of hand. In my son's case he had been playing with the tape putting it on himself and decided to put some on the cat. He had just stuck it on her, so she was able to remove fairly easily (though her initial reaction was to go into a dramatic array of hysterics). When DH first told me that putting tape on a cat's feet is common I didn't believe him and went to youtube for answers.

Sure enough there are dozens of videos of people winding tape onto their cats feet and laughing hysterically as they chase the cat around the house with a camera. Some of the videos are from the same people, over and over. Now that's overdoing it a bit, and yes I do agree that it's showing a lack of sensitivity to the animal in that scenario.

And yes, my son is a good kid... good to the point of being a fuddy duddy, actually. Either way, he hasn't put tape on the cat since then,but has found great amusement in her whacking our new 10 week old puppy whenever the pup gets too rambunctious.

Message Edited by barbaralee on 03-12-2009 05:45 PM