I Really Need Your Help

Please take a minute to look at a short video on Huffington Post entitled Cats vs Hairdryers.

If you agree with me that some of this footage is abuse then please comment so on the page.

This video originated on Youtube but Huffington Post should not have reposted it as this could appear that they condone this type of behavior.

I have emailed both HP and Arianna Huffington about this and have not had any satisfactory reply.

I really would appreciate your help.

First let me say I am a through and through cat person. 100%.
I have in my house a rehabilitated abused cat - I take abuse VERY seriously..... With that stated, IMHO, that is not an abusive situation.... not at all. Some of the cats might been annoyed, yes, you might say that - but most of them were playing with the air coming off the dryer :dk:
IMHO that was playing. And no cats were harmed there.... therefore it doesn't qualify for abuse.
The cat I have here with me, yes - he was abused before he came to me - he was declawed, hit repeatedly, and tossed on the streets defenseless. THAT is abuse on my book.

Yea, I'm agreeing with Carolina here.  I'm sure that nobody was using the blow dryers on hot for one thing.  And second, some of them looked like it was just a case of the cat doing it's usual "Oh! Gee! What is this thing here?" routine.  

There's a difference between hunting an animal down to scare it and another to playfully show it something new which it may find fun once it gets over it's initial trepidation - of which, cats have a lot.  Geez, a new box in the middle of a living room can freak out some cats.

Doubtful if any of those cats suffered any type of mental anguish from the blowdryer aimed at them.  

And I'm speaking as someone with a kitty that was abused too; one of mine came from the streets and was tormented by children and who knows what else.  Even she wouldn't find that overly terrifying any longer.

I do not see it as abuse.  I laughed at most of them.  I would think most of these cats see their owners use a hair dryer at least a few times a month if not more often so the sound is around.

I think there is not much difference between this and a dog attacking the vacuum cleaner as you clean(my puppy will try to nip it my 4 yo dog just panics and runs far away).

I used to bathe my cats for my allergies and then dry them with dryer on low.  They all survived.

I would worry more about the owners who beat or starve their animals or let kittens out when they are barely able to walk.  The owners who fail to spay/neuter or give medical care when it is obvious(broken bone or some other major issue.
 

Our cats hardly glance at the blow dryer.  I use mine daily.  Plus, have used it on both of them.  I just think they would look at me like I was nuts.

I have to agree with the others - that was not abuse. I do think the situations where the human had the cat cornered or were chasing the cat with the blow dryer was out of line and I don't think it's okay to scare your cat (those cats did seem scared) but it does not raise to the level of abuse. Most of the cats in the video just seemed curious and could have taken off if they wanted to.
 

 I agree with everyone else that this is far from abuse. Almost half of those dryers did not even seem to be on; it is possible that the majority of them were not actually on as only once or twice did I see a cat's hair seem to be blowing.  All of the cats seemed able to escape (though some more easily than others) and almost all looked exactly like my cats do when they encounter anything new and/or are playing.  At absolute worst, some of the owners were a little thoughtless/mean.  If you'd ever had a truly abused cat or really seen abuse, you could not think that this is.

My cats sometimes jump around a gorcery bag tied up of groceries or a sack of litter going out to trash.  A hair dryer is not meant to burn unless you really have it to close/on a person who can not move.  So to me that means it is more like a fan.  I have had cats think the fan was evil too but for the cats and my comfort it was on.