Your pet cat is probably a killer — but it doesn't have to be that way ⁠58%

By CBC Docs⁠0%

3/27/2024, 2:35:21 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 23.8% saturation with 179 hits. Analysis detected 1,698 faulty-reasoning hits from 752 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 54.6% and a BS Rank of ⁠58% (9,306 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 57.50% of the article peer group.

When filmmaker Gavin Andrews took in an injured stray tomcat, he wasn't expecting his good deed to be repaid with the lifeless bodies of small birds. 
"Taika survived outdoors for years, and he makes life miserable for everyone if he's not allowed outside. 
So at first, we were happy to oblige," says Andrews. 
"Then came the birds — bits and pieces of them, scattered around the house. 
It was a nightmare." 
Andrews wanted to know if he could take the killer out of the kitty. 
He shares his research in My Pet Assassin, a 17-minute documentary hosted by The Nature of Things's Sarika Cullis-Suzuki. 
Cats are the most popular pet in Canada. 
Yet, despite their cute and cuddly reputations, our feline friends have a dark side: they are instinctive hunters that are considered one of the greatest threats to many rapidly declining bird populations. 
According to one study, outdoor cats are responsible for an estimated 100 million to 350 million bird deaths annually in Canada alone. 
Conflicting opinions about cats 
Canadians have strong and polarized views on free-roaming cats, as Annie Booth, a professor of environmental and sustainability studies at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in Prince George, found out in a recent survey she conducted. 
"Indoor-outdoor or outdoor cats are actually pretty controversial for a number of different reasons. 
Some of it has to do with what cats do when they're outside wandering in their neighbour's yard. 
Some of it has to do [with] predation at bird feeders," Booth says in the documentary. 
"We ran a survey, and people either really liked cats and really sympathized with them and understood why they needed to go out or they really hated cats." 
It's not a new debate. 
While some Canadian cities and towns have recently introduced bylaws prohibiting cats from roaming freely, animal welfare organizations and conservation groups have long made the case for keeping cats indoors, not just to protect birds and other wildlife but for the cat's own safety. 
B.C.'s SPCA strongly recommends that pet owners keep their new cats indoors. 
"It's really risky out there," Emma Hamill, manager of the B.C. 
SPCA animal centre in Victoria, says in the documentary. 
Common risks include contracting potentially fatal diseases and parasites, getting run over by cars and even being attacked by other predators. 
Urban wildlife ecologist Jaylen Bastos can vouch for that. 
As lead researcher for the Vancouver Cat Count, Bastos processed and catalogued more than a million images from 34 cameras at over 80 locations throughout Vancouver. 
At just one of these locations, the motion-activated camera photographed not only cats and birds but also skunks, raccoons and even a coyote. 
"[That was] very, very alarming, because those are one of the larger mesopredators that are going to be in direct conflict with cats," Bastos says in the documentary. 
When Bastos saw their own cat, Keeta, photographed in the same location as the coyote, they started harness-training and adapting Keeta to a mostly indoors lifestyle. 
"While it was challenging at the start, it is something that I think has made his life much better," says Bastos. 
Cat 'clown collars' could save lives 
For Andrews, whose cat Taika has still not taken to indoor-only life, an alternative solution has appeared in the form of Birdsbesafe, a brightly coloured collar cover that makes cats remarkably visible to birds. 
The device taps into the fact that birds have the ability to see a wider spectrum of colour than humans and small mammals. 
Independent studies in the U.K., the U.S. and Australia have shown dramatic reductions in kill rates of birds by cats wearing the collar. 
In Canada, a recent study conducted by Booth and fellow UNBC professor Ken Otter confirmed this finding: "We found a significant reduction in the number of birds that were brought back, but not a significant reduction in the number of mammals." 
(Small mammals are essentially colour-blind, and the vibrant collars do not stand out for them in the same way they do for birds.) 
The bright colours and reflective trimmings of the Birdsbesafe collar have the added benefit of making the cats more visible to motorists. 
Between keeping his cat indoors after dark and letting him out for increasingly shorter periods during the day while wearing a Birdsbesafe collar, Andrews insists Taika hasn't caught a bird in over a year. 
"At least not one that's ended up on the kitchen floor!" 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 14.8%CBC Docs: 6.0%CBC: 2.6%Confirmation Bias14.8%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.3%CBC: 0.7%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 10.5%CBC Docs: 2.8%CBC: 3.1%Availability Heuristic10.5%This article: 3.1%CBC Docs: 0.9%CBC: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic3.1%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.8%CBC: 1.0%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 7.2%CBC Docs: 2.8%CBC: 1.4%Overconfidence Bias7.2%This article: 5.9%CBC Docs: 9.0%CBC: 4.2%Framing Effect5.9%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.8%CBC: 0.6%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 7.2%CBC Docs: 1.0%CBC: 0.6%Status Quo Bias7.2%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.3%CBC: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 12.5%CBC Docs: 1.5%CBC: 4.0%Optimism Bias12.5%This article: 1.5%CBC Docs: 1.4%CBC: 1.4%Pessimism Bias1.5%This article: 23.8%CBC Docs: 11.3%CBC: 5.7%Negativity Bias23.8%This article: 7.3%CBC Docs: 1.0%CBC: 1.2%Self-Serving Bias7.3%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.8%CBC: 0.9%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.2%CBC: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.8%CBC: 1.2%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.5%CBC: 0.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 4.3%CBC Docs: 3.6%CBC: 3.6%Halo Effect4.3%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.2%CBC: 0.1%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.3%CBC: 1.2%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 5.7%CBC Docs: 0.4%CBC: 0.4%Primacy Effect5.7%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.4%CBC: 0.4%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.6%CBC: 0.2%Straw Man0.0%This article: 22.9%CBC Docs: 5.4%CBC: 3.7%Appeal to Authority22.9%This article: 3.7%CBC Docs: 0.9%CBC: 1.3%False Dilemma3.7%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.1%CBC: 0.4%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.2%CBC: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 15.7%CBC Docs: 5.0%CBC: 4.8%Hasty Generalization15.7%This article: 2.4%CBC Docs: 0.6%CBC: 0.2%Red Herring2.4%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.1%CBC: 0.6%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 4.1%CBC Docs: 8.0%CBC: 4.2%Appeal to Emotion4.1%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.7%CBC: 0.6%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 21.3%CBC Docs: 2.3%CBC: 2.5%Post Hoc (False Cause)21.3%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.0%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.9%CBC: 0.3%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 7.3%CBC Docs: 0.6%CBC: 0.3%Appeal to Nature7.3%This article: 3.7%CBC Docs: 0.2%CBC: 0.3%Composition/Division3.7%This article: 16.4%CBC Docs: 5.1%CBC: 3.3%Anecdotal16.4%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 8.8%CBC Docs: 2.3%CBC: 1.6%Ambiguity (Equivocation)8.8%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.3%CBC: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.2%CBC: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 1.3%CBC: 1.1%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 1.9%CBC: 0.8%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 6.4%CBC Docs: 5.3%CBC: 4.8%Biased Writer Voice6.4%This article: 2.1%CBC Docs: 0.8%CBC: 2.4%Indoctrination2.1%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 1.3%CBC: 0.4%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%CBC Docs: 0.0%CBC: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 7.4%CBC Docs: 4.0%CBC: 1.7%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…7.4%

752 words analyzed.

Speakers

5speakers34%attributed speech498writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 16 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 26 words • 0.0% coverageGavin Andrews • 17 words • 0.0% coverageGavin Andrews • 10 words • 0.0% coverageGavin Andrews • 14 words • 0.0% coverageGavin Andrews • 4 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 14 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 8 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 32 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 4 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 38 words • 0.0% coverageAnnie Booth • 14 words • 0.0% coverageAnnie Booth • 18 words • 0.0% coverageAnnie Booth • 16 words • 0.0% coverageAnnie Booth • 28 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 5 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 44 words • 0.0% coverageSPCA • 12 words • 0.0% coverageEmma Hamill • 11 words • 0.0% coverageEmma Hamill • 9 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 21 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 9 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 26 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 0.0% coverageJaylen Bastos • 28 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 26 words • 0.0% coverageJaylen Bastos • 21 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 6 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 34 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 0.0% coverageAnnie Booth • 41 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 34 words • 100.0% coverageGavin Andrews • 11 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Jaylen Bastos

100%flagged-word coverage
49 attributed words19% of attributed speech98% writer coverage
0%7.5%15.0%Attempt to Sell a Product -11.2 ptsWriter: 11.2%Jaylen Bastos: 0.0%0.0%Biased Writer Voice-9.6 ptsWriter: 9.6%Jaylen Bastos: 0.0%0.0%Indoctrination-3.2 ptsWriter: 3.2%Jaylen Bastos: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.