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Kindness to Cats is a Classical Virtue

From Nathan Winograd

This is about cats. Specifically, it is about the cats of Greece, the cats of Australia, and the cats of America. It is a compare and contrast between good and evil, kindness and sadism, and the ethical and scientific failure of environmental conservation and its moral panic over cats.

street cats

The Palace of Knossos on the Island of Crete is the oldest known castle in Europe. The Minoans built it around 2,000 B.C. Although the original structure remains only as rubble due to a nearby volcanic eruption and attending earthquakes, the Minoans built a second palace on the same site. With 1,000 rooms, five floors, floor-to-ceiling frescos, beautifully painted amphoras, clay pipes carrying drinking water, rainwater, and wastewater, the oldest known road and throne, and at the time, the only flushing toilet in Europe, it must have been a marvel to behold in its day. Over 4,000 years later, it still inspires awe.

Although most people know little about the Minoans unless they seek the information out — even Greek schoolchildren are not taught much about them — what we all do know is the myth of the minotaur who ate Athenian children in the labyrinth (1,000 rooms!) that was Knossos.

But the story I want to tell is not a history lesson or a regurgitation about how Jennifer, my wife, and I spent our summer vacation. This is about cats. Specifically, it is about the cats of Greece, the cats of Australia, and the cats of America. It is a compare and contrast between good and evil, kindness and sadism, and the ethical and scientific failure of environmental conservation and its moral panic over cats.

And, like the Greek myths, I will start in media res — in the middle of the story — with the restaurant owner putting his hands on my shoulder in an act of reassurance. He saw that I was concerned about some juvenile community cats and wanted to impress upon me that I had nothing to worry about.

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

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