Don't Feed the Cats

We have this mother cat with her 2 (used to be 3) kittens who hangs around the make-shift chow hall at night begging for scraps. There are probably another 6 cats that hang around the yard that are just way too skittish to go near the chow-hall.

The Marines always try to sneak the cats scraps and when we catch them doing it, we have to tell them not to feed the cats or kittens.

I am not sure who is more pitiful, the Marines when we scold them for feeding the poor little kittens and mother cat or the kittens themselves, but they don't see the whole picture.

First off, it is the rules, plain and simple. Coalition forces are forbidden from turning strays into pets. It is the rules for a reason though.

When you feed these cats, they often lose their killer instincts to kill the mice and pests that otherwise spread disease. Losing that instinct will cause them to starve to death later. Besides that, they or their parasites are often the carriers of disease, so it is a bad idea to have them around.

The reason I have learned though seems to carry a little more weight than the flimsy "rules" excuse that seems to smack of a, "because I said so" mentality.

One of the Iraqi Policemen asked if he could go into the chow-hall and have dinner. He knew it was against the rules, but the Marine he was asking was feeding a cat. When the Marine said no, he asked him why the cat could get fed from the chow-hall but not the Iraqi Police.

Thinking quickly, the Marine turned and replied, "pork."

Although the Marine won that battle (the Iraqi Policeman immediately ended the conversation and walked away) he completely missed the point. That Marine just put the value of the cat's full stomach above the value of the Iraqi Policeman's full stomach.

Be assured, that Iraqi Policeman went back and told his peers that the cats were now unclean (as they had consumed pork) and that the Marines care more for the cats than for the Iraqi's. Do you think that story stopped there?

I don't think that the results of that little exchange will cause US mission failure, but it certainly causes us to work harder for progress.

The Marines who stock the chow-hall have limited funds to keep food in it and only get enough food to replace what the number of Marines on hand would eat in a given time. That said, we don't get enough rations for all the Iraqi's here to eat from our chow-hall.

Here again, if we do start getting enough rations, they will stop requesting from their Iraqi higher headquarters the food rations they are getting from us. Like the cat, they will lose the instinct or the need to get food of their own, from their own sources.

Isn't it crazy how feeding a few hungry cats can have such resounding, strategic effects.

Don't feed the Cats.

Semper Fi,
m