People need to stop scaring cats with cucumbers, say animal behaviorists

Fox News ^ | November 20, 2015 | Michael Harthorne

[sparklite2]

The new viral craze is apparently scaring cats with cucumbers, because the Internet is a weird place and humans enjoy low-grade animal cruelty as long as it's adorable.

But National Geographic reports that we should all maybe not be scaring our cats with cucumbers. According to Upvoted, the first cat-scared-by-cucumber video appears to have been uploaded in May and went viral by July or so.

Countless others followed, to the point where Reddit has an entire Cucumbers Scaring Cats community. The idea behind these videos is that if you put a cucumber behind a cat, it'll freak out when it sees it.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Is it permissible to use rubber snakes?

[minnesota_bound]

Microcataggression!

[GJones2]

Cats are scared by many things, but I believe with cucumbers it’s based on an instinctive fear of snakes. At first glance a cucumber looks like the end of a large snake, a dangerous place to be. “Veterinary behaviorist Dr. Katherine Houpt says that’s unlikely, as cats hunt snakes in the wild.” Yes, but that’s on their own terms. Human beings hunt things too that they wouldn’t want to turn around and see right next to them.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

maybe we could try this with Obama, or ISIS?

[sparklite2]

OK, except cats don’t fear snakes. They hunt and kill them.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Ah, I hope he/she comes back. I had a cat that did something similar knowing she was about to get a bath. She returned after a couple days but something about her had changed. For one thing, my mom was afraid to pick her up again. So it was no more baths, but from then on the cat had to stay in the garage at night.

[Skooz]

Reddit has an entire Cucumbers Scaring Cats community.

This sentence made me laugh. A lot.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Tigger is an indoor cat. He eventually wandered back into the den and took his meds like a, well, cat. One more pill tonight and we are done (assuming that the ut infection has cleared up).

[TalBlack]

Are they jumping because they fear cucumbers or because something is suddenly there?

[Oratam]

[samtheman]

We should try this on the Safe Space kids. Maybe they’ll all crap their pants in unison.

Then again... maybe we shouldn’t...

[Fledermaus]

Cats need Safe Zones! lol

[sparklite2]

[sparklite2]

[samtheman]

You know what gif should follow that one.

[sparklite2]

Yeah, I do.

[Sapwolf]

I can’t believe this. Even today’s cats are a bunch of snowflakes.

[deport]

A thread from yesterday with some video links included if anyone is interested.

Experts Say Viral Cucumber Prank Can Be Harmful To Cats

[deport]

[IronJack]

It’s a sad world where an “animal behaviorist” is even recognized as a legitimate professional, let alone one with any authority to stop people from scaring their own pets.