Cats are insulted by invading privacy

By DIANA DOLECKI

The Commercial Review

We are all voyeurs. We enjoy peeking into the lives of others, whether it is any of our business or not. We put our celebrities under a microscope and demand they tell us all the details of even the most minor transgression. If they don't share with us then we make up stories about them. No matter what, our curiosity must be satisfied.

Now, not even our pets are safe from prying eyes. It seems that people all around the world have been attaching cameras to the collars of their cats to determine just what the felines do all day while their humans are away.

I happened upon a story about this invasion of privacy by researchers at Nestle Purina. Upon further investigation I found pictures of cats from several different countries wearing cameras attached to their collars. Has this invasion of feline privacy become epidemic?

I believe this to be an insult to cats everywhere. Cats should be free to stare out the window, wash themselves, sleep, or whatever they do all day, as much as they like without some human monitoring them.

The Nestle Purina study determined that cats spent six percent of their time looking at television, computers or other media. This is far less than the time spent in these activities by most humans.

I think this percentage would depend on the cat. Our first cat wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of television. Our second cat never learned how to operate the remote control but he did enjoy watching the tube when it was on. He liked basketball and most other sports. His favorite show was billiards. He would bat at the balls on the screen and could anticipate where the next shot would go.

Our current cat, Gracie, occasionally perks up at some things on television but for the most part is more entertained by what is happening outside. She does seem to be fascinated when the computer printer is on but, again, to our knowledge does not know how to operate it by herself.

We humans have voluntarily given up much of our right to privacy. Don't believe me? Do you use a store card? I have two that I use on a regular basis. Both cards track what I spend and which products I buy. Personally, I don't think it is anybody's business how many packages of cookies I buy every week but somewhere is a record of it. I don't use debit cards at all. I use credit cards very rarely and shop on the internet even less. I use cash for most of my purchases, yet if someone really tried, they could compile a list of exactly what I spend. My only consolation is that nobody is organized enough to use this information to my disadvantage.

We are filmed at intersections to make sure we don't run a red light. There are cameras in banks, convenience stores and anywhere people gather. Nowadays it doesn't seem like the classic book, 1984, by George Orwell, is quite as far-fetched and paranoid as it used to be when I first read it.

In spite of all this surveillance we are no safer than we have ever been.

Now we are checking up on our pets. Where will it end? Has the expectation of privacy evaporated without my noticing? Can't a cat have any secrets any more?

Humans certainly can't.[[In-content Ad]]