Right, this isn't weird news so much as wtf coverage.

Here's the story as I initially saw it on the BBC news site:



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18702968


Quite an interesting story so I read on, and then scrolled down to the bottom of the page where it gives external links to other coverage of the incident:

Study Links Cat Litter Box to Increased Suicide Risk

A common parasite that can lurk in the cat litter box may cause undetected brain changes in women that make them more prone to suicide, according to an international study.

Scientists have long known that pregnant women infected with the toxoplasma gondii parasite -- spread through cat feces, undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables -- could risk still birth or brain damage if transmitted to an unborn infant.

But a new study of more than 45,000 women in Denmark shows changes in their own brains after being infected by the common parasite.

The study, authored by University of Maryland School of Medicine psychiatrist and suicide neuroimmunology expert Dr. Teodor T. Postolache, was published online today in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study found that women infected with T. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt suicide than those who were not infected. As the level of antibodies in the blood rose, so did the suicide risk. The relative risk was even higher for violent suicide attempts. ...

Interesting stuff, but then one of the conclusions...



He also cautions against trendy food production techniques that let animals roam free. "The risk of infection could go up," he said, "and increase the rate of toxoplasmosis."


hmmm... so man has been cooking meat for 125,000 years. Large scale confinement agriculture has built up over what, 50 years? So free-ranging food animals is trendy?

I'd like to take a moment to caution against trendy pet ownership techniques that don't let cats roam free.

Not every cat owner is able to allow their cat to roam free. If I were ever to have a cat I'd be inclined to rear it as a mostly indoors cat. The roads are just too dangerous. And I am in a semi-rural village.

Friend of mine lost three of her five cats to car accidents.

After the first, why did she let them borrow the keys?

They were very persuasive :p

Diz now has a choice.
He is still mostly a house cat.

I didn't realise this made me trendy. I'm off down the discotheque to get my groove on.

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Ladies and gentlemen of The Cellar, I present to you the greatest news in the history of news...Nay:

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You ladies know I was just going for the ironic parallelism there, right?

"He also cautions against trendy food production techniques that let animals roam free. 'The risk of infection could go up,' he said, 'and increase the rate of toxoplasmosis.'"

I don't actually have an opinion on indoor vs. outdoor felines. I was just noting that the rate of toxoplasmosis in humans is almost exclusively due to cat litter boxes, yet this douchebag is trying to blame it on my free-range burger.

Free range cats kill everything in the neighborhood smaller than they are... for fun.

Video at the link. I love the top end.

Free range cats also have a life expectancy of two years or less; and they spread Toxo. They've trashed the songbird population in urban areas ...

I have two cats myself, strictly indoor pets. When I bred Siamese/Balinese cats, I only placed them with people who were clearly committed to keeping them indoors.

My cat, easily 16-18 years old, moved out a few years back. She escaped by dashing through the front door as we were using it and refused to be recaptured. She never left our yard, so I left her alone. When we'd go for walks, she'd follow along at a distance.

Then a neighbor complained. Her complaint was that my cat's fleas were infesting her yard, and biting her while working in it. :eyebrow:

I don't suppose it was mosquitoes or sand fleas or chiggers or no-see-ums. Nope, my cat's fleas migrated to the neighbor's lawn.

I protested that my cat never left the yard, how could she be bothering anyone.

To which my neighbor responded by reminding me, none too gently, that our county leash laws apply to cats as well as dogs.

So I had to curtail my cat's outdoor life once again.

Now we live next to a major 4 lane highway, so I wouldn't dream of letting her hang around outside.

At least, it's a nice big two story house, with plenty of room to roam!

Don't worry, I got it :)
It wasn't an "Ahem, excuse me!" post.
I just wanted to be trendy for once..

Although in Diz's defence he has only ever caught one bird.
And that was after Mia took a swipe at it; confused, it hit the patio windows. Diz lunged for it and carried it upstairs.
He gave it up quite easily and I set it free. It may have died later from shock, but it was unharmed enough to fly away immediately.

When we are out in the garden together (me reading, him dozing) birds will often land on the lawn. What does the mighty hunter do? Start yowling as if another cat has entered his territory. "You tell them Diz" I say, "Make those dirty birdies flt away!" And unsurprisingly, they do.

When my ship comes in I will have a good sized place with room for a cat tree, and empty shelves in optimum places for jumping and watching and dozing in later afternoon sunlight. And he will not go outside again as he has shown no particular pleasure in it. That's my weird news for the day.

Well, I wasn't sure if there was some sort of hipster trend for indoor cats and lead walking going down over there.