Cats eating faces

[snopes]

Comment: I've sometimes heard of indoor cats eating their deceased
owner... I even recall a while ago an "article" I got through e-mail about
it. I was wondering if something like this was ever actually documented?

Here's a short piece on a website of what I'm referring to:
http://www.messybeast.com/cat-eat-man.htm

Generally the stories I've heard involves an old lady and/or a "cat" lady,
who dies at home, and isn't found until much later. In the meanwhile, with
nothing to eat, the cats take the opportunity to eat the body. In some
versions they only eat the face (?). I'm guessing that it's always an old
cat lady so that the dead victim would have been antisocial enough to not
have any visitors for a few days...

[llewtrah]

There was a recent case involving a dog. Starving dog ate dead owners

Cats eating owners doesn't seem to be reported in the same way (over here they usually have outdoor access and can scavenge elsewhere), but cats are obligate carnivores and dead people are meat.

[llewtrah]

Cats are obligate carnivores. Dogs are better adapted to be omnivorous. A dog can eat other stuff that might be lying around - fruit in a fruit bowl, veg in a veg rack, open packets of food lying around etc. While a dog eats other food first, the cat can't do that and has to go straight for the meat. In addition, a dog might be loath to eat its pack leader (the owner is the alpha animal in a pet dog's pack). Cats don't recognise hierarchies. So it's a mix of physiology (cats need flesh) and psychology (dogs don't eat the boss).

[Ariadne]

I recall reading in an article about pet hoarding that when cats eat other (dead) cats they tend to leave the paws and head untouched, resulting in what the article referred to as something like morbid little cat stick figures.

I imagine this would be due to the lack of meat on faces and paws. Though I don't know if the same applies to humans, I would bet that a cat would find something a little more substantial than just a face to snack on. I suppose the major difference would be that people wear clothes, which may make it more difficult to get to the meatier bits, but I think a starving cat could make short work of a layer or two of fabric.

ETA: Here is the animal hoarding article, if anyone is interested.

[Tootsie Plunkette]

Am I the only one who keeps misreading "faces" in the thread title?


"Oh, that's very different then. Never mind."

[Cervus]

Originally Posted by Tootsie Plunkette

Am I the only one who keeps misreading "faces" in the thread title?


"Oh, that's very different then. Never mind."

Nope! In fact, that's the reason I opened the thread.

[glass papaya]

Originally Posted by Tootsie Plunkette

Am I the only one who keeps misreading "faces" in the thread title?


"Oh, that's very different then. Never mind."

Nope.

Extra text because my message was too short.

[Seraphina]

I wonder if animals start licking their dead owners face, when they do not respond they lick harder and harder and after while (when they are starving) start eating it?

[Sunny Lea]

Originally Posted by Tootsie Plunkette

Am I the only one who keeps misreading "faces" in the thread title?


"Oh, that's very different then. Never mind."

Nope.

Um... Apparently, I have to type something else because the board has deemed "Nope" to be too short of a reply. That should do it.

[geminilee]

Originally Posted by Seraphina

I wonder if animals start licking their dead owners face, when they do not respond they lick harder and harder and after while (when they are starving) start eating it?

I would imagine that you stop being their owner/packmate/term of your choice either at the point of death or very shortly thereafter. Dogs and cats are not nearly as vision-oriented as humans are. I think that to a dog or cat you are not just your facial features, but rather a combination of your particular smell, your voice, your behavior patterns, and many other things that would change quickly after death.

[Cervus]

My dog whines and gets agitated if I'm not out of bed by a particular time in the morning. Once I get up, he settles down and goes back to sleep. It's like if I'm not up come morning, he thinks there's something wrong. If I died he'd probably cry and whine a lot because something wasn't right. If he couldn't find food after a few days he'd probably start nibbling on me.

[para1]

Originally Posted by Tootsie Plunkette

Am I the only one who keeps misreading "faces" in the thread title?


"Oh, that's very different then. Never mind."

Yep, my first thought also. Oh, my. Damn those vowels trading places! I have told the 'e' never to trade places with the 'a', but he just won't listen!

[llewtrah]

While I was in bed ill yesterday (mostly trying to sleep), my faithful Thenie kept me company the whole time. Or was she waiting in case I turned into kitty-dins?

THAT is why I want to be cremated. So I don't become "kitty-dins" and become...what eats dust..."dustbuster-dins"

[Troberg]

Animals, at least some of them, can recognize that a dead body is dead and no longer connects it to the living individual. Other's don't.

When one of my mother's dogs died, the other dog was very worried and looked all over the place for him, so she let him see the body (while my father was making a small coffin and digging a grasve for him). He walked up to it, looked at it, then walked away and that was that. He knew his friend was gone and stopped worrying and searching. When that dog eventually died, her new dog was also worried. She tried the same thing there, but the new dog did not understand. He went wild, trying to wake up his dead friend, and they had to remove him from the room.

I think the explanation to this phenomenon lies somewhere in these behaviours, perhaps coupled with hunger. If a pet can understand "this was my friend, but now he is no longer there and it's only a body", I can certainly see that happening.

[Wolf333]

Originally Posted by Tootsie Plunkette

Am I the only one who keeps misreading "faces" in the thread title?


"Oh, that's very different then. Never mind."

No. I was planning to come on as some kind of expert... "why, yes, I have seen cats eating poo," with some kind of anecdotal story behind it.

But, then I actually read the thread title, and realized that if I had said "why, yes, I have seen cats eating poo," I would just come off as silly.

However... as my New Years resolution is to be honest AT ALL TIMES... silly be damned! "Why, yes, I have seen cats eating poo!!!"

Whew! Now that's off my chest. Next year, It's back to telling lies!

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Cats are obligate carnivores. Dogs are better adapted to be omnivorous. A dog can eat other stuff that might be lying around - fruit in a fruit bowl, veg in a veg rack, open packets of food lying around etc. While a dog eats other food first, the cat can't do that and has to go straight for the meat.

Hmm, my cat used to love pickled onion monster munch, and cheese - so im not sure thats entirely true. Plus dried cat food has no meat in it.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by vibe

Hmm, my cat used to love pickled onion monster munch, and cheese - so im not sure thats entirely true. Plus dried cat food has no meat in it.

Dried cat food (unless it is a vegetarian or very poor quality food) certainly does contain meat! It is a mix of cereal and rendered meat (often just called "animal byproducts" or "meat derivatives" on the label). All of the dried cat foods I use contain meat.

Obligate carnivore doesn't mean an animal won't eat vegetable matter, but it cannot survive without meat (I consider it unethical to force an obligate carnivore to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, anyone who does so shouldn't own a cat and should get a rabbit instead). Many people think that because kitty will eat some grass or a bit of carrot that it means kitty isn't really a strict carnivore. Kitty can eat those things, but can't digest them.

HOW IS CANNED FOOD AND KIBBLE MADE?

The raw materials e.g. cattle carcasses are rendered. Pet food manufacturers buy either the meat slurry or the dried meal produced by rendering plants. Canned, dry or semi-moist cat food all contain similar ingredients. The ratio of protein, fat and fibre may be different and the amount of water present and the types of preservative used will differ greatly. Canned food is more bulky which is good for bowel action, but its soft texture means that teeth are not "exercised" which leads to tartar build-up and gum disease. Dry foods are convenient for the owner, but they are compact, energy dense and can cause constipation because the cat's bowel does not get enough bulk to keep throughput smooth. The natural diet of the cat is semi-moist - moist muscle meat and tough skin and sinew.

... Dry food is made with a machine called an expander or extruder. Raw materials are blended and the mixture is fed into an expander. It is then pressure cooked (steam, pressure, very high temperature) into a paste which is extruded through pipes which shapes blobs of paste into biscuits. These are puffed like popcorn and baked or dried, then sprayed with fat, digests and flavour enhancers. The cooking process kills bacteria, but may be ineffective against heat stable toxins or prions (causative agents in BSE). Non-extruded dry foods are baked and are denser and crunchier and may require no coating of fats of flavourings.

Cooking, rendering, drying, canning and baking all destroy vitamins and other nutrients. The by-products used as raw ingredients are poorer quality and contain less nutritional value than the prime cuts of meat depicted on the label. Pet food manufacturers therefore fortify the product with vitamins and minerals.

(Cat Food Uncovered)

An obligate or true carnivore is an animal that subsists on a diet consisting only of meat. They may consume other products presented to them, especially animal products like cheese and bone marrow or sweet sugary substances like honey and syrup but, as these items are not essential they do not consume these on a regular basis. True carnivores lack the physiology required for the efficient digestion of vegetable matter and, in fact, some carnivorous mammals eat vegetation specifically as an emetic.

(Carnivore - Wikipedia)

Originally Posted by Troberg

Animals, at least some of them, can recognize that a dead body is dead and no longer connects it to the living individual. Other's don't.

When one of my mother's dogs died, the other dog was very worried and looked all over the place for him, so she let him see the body (while my father was making a small coffin and digging a grasve for him). He walked up to it, looked at it, then walked away and that was that. He knew his friend was gone and stopped worrying and searching. When that dog eventually died, her new dog was also worried. She tried the same thing there, but the new dog did not understand. He went wild, trying to wake up his dead friend, and they had to remove him from the room.

I think the explanation to this phenomenon lies somewhere in these behaviours, perhaps coupled with hunger. If a pet can understand "this was my friend, but now he is no longer there and it's only a body", I can certainly see that happening.

I have heard of this. In fact I read somewhere that this is more of a problem recently, with many people living alone into older age. It was advised, if you had a pet, and lived alone, to keep plenty of food around so that the neighbors would wonder where you were before the dog ate you! I tried to google the story by couldn't find it. I've been comforted in the fact that I love my animals, and if I'm dead and they're starving...well hey I will be DEAD so I won't know! As for explaining the behavior by the animal thinking logically: he is no longer there and it's only a body— ....I think it's more like hunger + odor = dinner.

Oh yeah, I'd run to adopt THAT dog!

http://www.nbc10.com/news/3378490/detail.html