Cat death squads in Iraq

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

studio - 29 Sep 2006 04:34 GMT

I just heard about this the other day watching C-Span.
This is not a political statement about my views on Iraq per-se.

It seems that in the 'Green Zone' in Bagdad, Halliburton issued an
order
to kill any feral cats running around with a 'shot on sight' order to
'prevent
the spread of disease'.

One woman on military duty there befriended one of the feral cats and
kept
the cat as a pet in her tent.
She was planning on bringing the kitty back to the US in a few days
when her
tour was over.
After her shift was over, she returned to her tent and found a note
reading;
'don't look for your cat, it's been eliminated'......by a military cat
death squad.
Natureally, she was very upset.

What I would like to know is whether there was in fact disease's
being spread, and who is Halliburton to tell the military to shoot?
Or, is it just a cat hater from Halliburton?

Very strange goings on.

Reply to this Message

Mad Dog - 30 Sep 2006 00:08 GMT

|| I just heard about this the other day watching C-Span.
|| This is not a political statement about my views on Iraq per-se.
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
||
|| Very strange goings on.

I was in the Middle East a long while ago and there were loads of feral cats
all over the place, living in walls and such like and the temperature was
100 degrees F. Those cats look nothing like the feral cats we are used to
seeing in the West.

Signature

"A horse a horse my kingdom for a horse, I haven't had a winner in six
months".

MD

Reply to this Message

tension_on_the_wire - 30 Sep 2006 05:14 GMT

> What I would like to know is whether there was in fact disease's
> being spread, and who is Halliburton to tell the military to shoot?
> Or, is it just a cat hater from Halliburton?
>
> Very strange goings on.

Cats do not spread disease to humans, unless it is toxoplasmosis
which requires handling of feces older than 48 hrs. Otherwise,
the only disease spread by cats is through direct contact such
as cat scratch fever, or Pasteurella infection of a bite-site.

However, since Halliburton is responsible for the setting up and
maintenance of the support infrastructure, including food, catering
and kitchen management....they might be just expressing the
paranoia of having these cats show up in their kitchens which
makes it difficult to keep an A rating on the cleanliness of their
facilities. Just a guess, mind you.

--tension

Reply to this Message

22brix - 30 Sep 2006 06:35 GMT

> Cats do not spread disease to humans, unless it is toxoplasmosis
> which requires handling of feces older than 48 hrs. Otherwise,
> the only disease spread by cats is through direct contact such
> as cat scratch fever, or Pasteurella infection of a bite-site.

Cats can definately carry rabies and I imagine not a lot of them are being
vaccinated in Iraq!

Reply to this Message

tension_on_the_wire - 30 Sep 2006 20:15 GMT

> > Cats do not spread disease to humans, unless it is toxoplasmosis
> > which requires handling of feces older than 48 hrs. Otherwise,
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Cats can definately carry rabies and I imagine not a lot of them are being
> vaccinated in Iraq!

Yes, I forgot about rabies, of course....but I'd be curious to know if
rabies is even endemic in Iraq. How to find out? Let's see if
Google comes up with anything.

--tension

Reply to this Message

tension_on_the_wire - 30 Sep 2006 20:21 GMT

> Yes, I forgot about rabies, of course....but I'd be curious to know if
> rabies is even endemic in Iraq. How to find out? Let's see if
> Google comes up with anything.
>
> --tension

Okay here it is:

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pets_related_news_and_events/enemies_of_the_state.html

It seems that rabies is not traditionally a big problem in Iraq,
although there
have been a few cases reported (27 over 11 years time span)...but there
is
a lot of controversy regarding the solution to the problem, since the
best
solution in prior studies is to vaccinate the people, rather than kill
all
the animals. It is an interesting article, actually....they are taking
away
all the animals that soldiers have made pets of as well, not just the
feral ones roaming around.

--tension

Reply to this Message

22brix - 30 Sep 2006 20:47 GMT

>> Yes, I forgot about rabies, of course....but I'd be curious to know if
>> rabies is even endemic in Iraq. How to find out? Let's see if
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> --tension

That's really sad.

Reply to this Message

Mad Dog - 30 Sep 2006 09:31 GMT

|| studio wrote:
||| What I would like to know is whether there was in fact disease's
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
||
|| --tension

You have got to keep the place clean. I can not speak for the US forces but
it has certainly been practice with the British.

Signature

"A horse a horse my kingdom for a horse, I haven't had a winner in six
months".

MD

Reply to this Message

Rate this thread: