Humpback whales around the globe are mysteriously rescuing animals from orcas

Are cats being cruel when they are clearly toying with their prey before they kill it?

I didn't say they were being cruel - actually the opposite - I said they were not being cruel - just to us humans (or maybe better said to most humans) it appears cruel.



And yes it does appear cruel too when a cat plays with its prey -- I actually almost stated that this orca looks like a cat when it toys with a mouse (on a larger scale).

There are a couple of theories on why cats play with their prey, and neither of them are "Felines are sadistic monsters"

1) They want to wear out their prey so that when they go in for the classic feline kill move of chomping on the prey's throat, they don't suffer a counter-attack. This seems plausible because even though the typical prey of a house cat are small, they're not incapable of delivering a nasty bite or peck when their life is on the line. A wounded predator can be in a lot of trouble and so it makes sense that they might develop behaviors to avoid the possibility.

I had a big black Tom that brought us rat carcasses almost as big as him. I doubt he played with the rats before he killed them as the battle had to be epic and rats are not wimps, but I never, alas, witnessed one of his kills.

2) They are taking the opportunity to practice their killing skills. This only makes sense to me from the basis that they are typically well fed and are killing out of instinct, not hunger.

Of course we can't read a cat's mind so I suppose there's always the possibility that they are cruel sadists. I don't think anyone, who knows anything about animals, seriously believes this might be true, but if it can't be totally ruled out, I guess it's open to use by the uninformed.

Like I said - I didn't say it was cruel of the animal in either case --- just that it does look cruel.

Unless you feel that an animal fearful for its life having this fear drawn out does not appear cruel.

Obviously the cat is not thinking this is fun to torture this mouse and make him fearful - the cat is working on instinct.

But to us humans who can appreciate (well at least most of us humans) that the mouse is fearing for his life - it appears to be cruel.

the cruel part is sort the opposite of what we are viewing or think we are viewing from the hump back whale side of things - they are almost being viewed as saving a suffering creature whereas it is more likely instinct that are driving the whales.

I did read somewhere that cats play with their prey to see if it is healthy. It's a way of avoiding eating sick animals.

I didn't mean to suggest that you thought they were cruel.

Exactly

I've not seen that theory, and while I don't buy it, it's not unreasonable.

The point is that instinct driven by evolution accounts for these behaviors, not human notions of fair play.