format_quote Originally Posted by
'Abd-al Latif
That's really sad, the cat should be given what it wants. Perhaps its just asking for milk. I really hate seeing people or animals begging for food, I wouldn't be able to sleep properly unless I gave them something to fill their stomach with.
Notice the cat goes up to the food bowl in the video, sniffs it, and then does its begging trick. It's got food there but it's not the food it wants, or it's begun to spoil... No harm done so long as the carer changed the food and gave it something it could eat. Cats are often fussy eaters. I think it's pretty neat that the cat has been taught a very clear and precise manner of letting you know what it wants to be honest I can't really see what's sad about it. If you got to see later on and the cat didn't get fed, then yes that would be sad, but we don't get to see that and for all we know the carer might have changed the food.
It's not so good just to leave food in a bowl for the cat to come get it when it likes because they detect the first signs of food spoilage long before we can and won't touch it when they do, just a couple of hours is all it needs to smell unappetizing for the cat. Sensitive noses. So better the cat lets you know when its hungry and ready to eat something rather than to avoid food wastage by leaving food out and then later needing to change it. Begging is really just a name for the trick, although the word itself in in other aspects of reality has negative connotations, it's not the same meaning.