Lies, Damned Lies and Cat Statistics 175
spopepro writes "While un-captioned cats might be of limited interest to the /. community, I found this column on how a fabricated statistic takes on a life of its own interesting. Starting with the Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS) claim that the unsterilized offspring of a cat will '...result in 420,000 cats in 5 years,' the author looks at other erroneous numbers, where they came from and why they won't go away."
Re:Do your own math (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course it's a worthless statistic, that's why they use it. :)
They never (and can't) account for population restrictions. That could include...
Food supply. If there are too many cats, not enough food, some cats die of starvation. There are an abundance of natural controls at work there. Malnurished animals don't tend to reproduce very well. But, if there is a good food supply (rodents, birds, snakes, etc), they will reproduce more.
Natural mistakes. Not every animal is born perfectly. Some are stillborn. Some die at only a few days or weeks old due to health problems.
Illnesses. Sick animals without treatment have a lower chance of survival.
Predators. A bunch of warm fuzzy kittens running around make good snacks for birds of prey. Well, also for foxes, coyotes, snakes, alligators, etc, etc, etc. Sometimes it doesn't have to be a predator that can actually eat it. I had a cat who was bitten twice by poisonous snakes. She could have died without medical assistance. Since she was a pet, she had readily available food and water. The same can't be said for feral animals.
And of course we have to mention human influences. People taking feral cats out of the population to make fixed house pets out of them. Some may be trapped and sent off to the pound and subsequently euthanized. Others are killed through accidents, such as catastrophic intersections between the animal and vehicle vectors (i.e., run over).
There are plenty of statistics on the likelihood of a feral animal surviving to maturity. That varies tremendously by their local environment. A stray cat in a suburban neighborhood may live very happily, as there are not many natural predators around (except humans). They'll also likely have access to food and water left outside for pets. A stray cat in a wooded area will have less of a chance. Sometimes the distance between the two is only a few miles.
As with the statistics in the article, you cannot blindly assume either set of statistics is correct.
I love statistics. They can be used to prove or disprove anything, and you can usually find statistics to argue both sides of the same issue. The statistics can be dramatically swayed by who paid for the study to be done.
More Or Less @BBC (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No Don't Ruin This, I Need This! (Score:3, Interesting)
"No" means "no", you dope. There's a difference between being coy -- a very strict and limited set of behaviours, which are flagrantly obvious as such -- and resisting somebody's advances. Are you unable to grasp this? If you actually have to force someone to have sex with you, you're raping them. If they actually wanted this to occur, the intention would be unmistakably clear.
Ah great a unicorn believer. Last I heard, the dating/mating game frequently isn't like that. And that 20% "forced sex" study includes women who chose to have sex even though they didn't want to. That group doesn't count as "rape" in my book.