Cat Circus

[kai bengals]

I think people who truly know cats, can see that these are happy cats enjoying what they are doing here in this video. Many of the comments talk about it being cruel and the cats are being forced.
Cats don't do "forced", we all know this. This guy has done an amazing job with these cats and they are doing it because they want to. Tails are up, body posture is relaxed and alert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0MG-...&feature=email

 

[nurseangel]

That is amazing! Thank you for sharing.

 

[pami]

That was really cool! Around sec 18 in top left, there was a danglefoot cat.

 

[valanhb]

I certainly don't think those cats were "forced" - they looked pretty happy to me! Let's face it, if they weren't happy they would just walk off the stage or bite and claw the guy until he let them go.

Ginger Cookie could be in that circus! She loves riding on my shoulder, and will gladly jump up on them.

Not sure about the getting down on command though.

 

[carolina]

They were on Cats 101 - All the cats are adopted from the city shelter, and he trains the kitties with his daughter, depending on what the kitties like to do... They said that in the beginning they tried to train the cats using dogs-training techniques, and of course it didn't work, because cats will do only what they want to do, when they want to do...
So.... The cats trained them on how to train them - if that makes sense

 

[pintameez]

OH my goodness, that was fantastic, I watched it twice.

I am certain my boy Cage could learn to do things like that if I had the equipment.

 

[junebugbear07]

Aww that was cute!! I love how the cats just sit to wait their turns!!

My cats would be all over the place

You cant make a cat do anything it doesnt want to do unless you want your eyes scratched out

 

[rosiemac]

That was excellent!!!

 

[coolcat]

awww...

look at this!...

 

[clixpix]

My foster kitten Bebe would love to do that. She's a kamikaze when it comes to shoulder hopping, and that's her favorite place to be! If I try to angle my shoulders to encourage her to jump off, she shifts her weight to the other side...so I'm the idiot who is standing there with a kitten on her shoulders, and doing a shimmy!

Hey, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, so maybe I should dress her up like a parrot! I'm sure I won't get any arrrrrr-guments from her!

 

[mrblanche]

The big problem with training cats is that they are not food-motivated (usually) as dogs are, so you have to choose tricks that they would normally do, and just modify them a little.

For one thing, note that essentially, every cat performs toward its "home" stool.

 

[nes]

Thank You! Lucas really enjoyed that

I'm quite sure this is the same guy:


All those cats are rescues.

I have this great old circus book that I can't find any more, but this is what circuses actually used to look like!! There was A lion or Two tigers or AN elephant, but it was mostly people, dogs, cats & horses (and other domestics) actually trained to do tricks. Instead of a dozen tigers jumping through hoops which just makes me sad!

Although I don't really want them to bring back horse-diving! I think that one is better off left in the past!

I wish more people trained cats & dogs to do these sorts of things & I think we're heading in that directions with performers like him and the guys from America's Got Talent (plus the SuperDogs & everyone else).

I think anyone who has been around cats for more then 2 minutes knows that you can't make them do things they don't want to! They will just claw you and run away

that is a ridiculous argument that this could be cruel in anyway!!