Brad Baker

Passionate cat dad here and psychology lover. I love the scientists and how they attempt to talk about felines— BUT the direction lends itself to a rather speciesist view on cats. Cats although “amusing” are not here for our amusement. Modern psych recognizes that classic operant conditioning affects humans and animals in negative ways. Humans and cats have a limbic system and we don’t completely know the depth of their thinking and complexity of emotion and sense of autonomy. Most real cat owners would agree though—they do seem to crave their autonomy. So If we love cats for their independence we might need some* conditioning to help curb cats curious natures because of the dangers of modern society and local overpopulation (cars, destroying bird populations, toxic plants, etc) but it’s unethical to condition these hyperintelligent creatures to depend on us —especially for amusement. This is written by a cat dad who started successfully clicker training his cats but stopped because of the personality muting and anxiety that conditioning can cause. (I want my cats to be themselves and give them the tools to solve THEIR own problems and satisfy their own curiosity in a safe way and not just train them to be what *I* want them to be). We can learn about cats, stimulate them, and develop bonds without clicker training. To me it was very disappointing and upsetting that the very last moment of the film with the narration about, “the potential of cats” is a scene of one cat essentially doing a trick that they were conditioned to do, while the cat simultaneously ignores every instinct it has by jumping into a paper wall and what the cat instinctually could not know was a solid wall. I recommend the book Supercat by Michael W. Fox for a little better of a perspective and understanding on the nature of cats and how to be a better cat lover— but not this doc unfortunately.