artfizz.... im not talking about having a cat walk a sled with a human walking it... im saying having a team of cats pull a sled when somebody is standing on it, especially in the artic like a dogsled team... there is no catsled team... besides invented photoshop stuff :/ Your picture is cute... but the cat
isnt even doing anything lol... it just proved my point :P
(btw i like cats more anyways lol)
artfizz.... im not talking about having a cat walk a sled with a human walking it... im saying having a team of cats pull a sled when somebody is standing on it, especially in the artic like a dogsled team... there is no catsled team... besides invented photoshop stuff :/ Your picture is cute... but the cat isnt even doing anything lol... it just proved my point :P
I wasn't offering that photo as proof - though it looks genuine enough.
What do see as the show-stopper? Cats not smart enough? Not dumb enough? Not team players?
One of the estimates was that you would need 14.6 cats to be equivalent to each husky: 5 huskies = 70 cats. I've seen cats trained to do clever stuff - so pulling a sled would be no big deal.
One dog can easily pull a sled with a child on it - so I sure 7 cats could manage that. It would be easier for cats to pull a wheeled vehicle on a flat surface, but there wouldn't be much friction on compacted snow either.
Are you seriously telling me you don't believe it's possible?
I think that the number of cats required to pull a sleigh depens on the cat weight and size.
Sled dogs, siberian huskies, average about 50 to 55lb, are used mostly to pull sleds, there are a number of other breeds such as the Canadian Eskimo or Inuit dog. Since it takes usually 6 to 8 dogs to pulll a sled, if we use 8 dogs at 50lb each this is 400 lb of animal weight and then only 10 domesticated at 40lb each are needed.
Go to Google and type: picture of a 40lb cat and you will see one. This cat was on our local news at 6pm about 2 weeks ago. The station I listen to is CJOH from Ottawa.
Personally if I had a choice of a cat to pull a sled, I would use Cheetahs as they can run in excess of 70 mph, the fastest animal on the ground and can turn on a dime. They weigh an average of 100lb so you need only 1/2 as many as dogs. And they don't bark a plus!
I'm not convinced that, pound for pound, a domestic cat would be as strong at towing as a domestic sled dog. You might need a few extra cats to be on the safe side.
I would favour tigers. They would be good in the snow - and you wouldn't need very many. I'm doubtful how much acceleration 'cat power' cheetahs would deliver when harnessed to a sled. Tigers have been used in military vehicles in the past. Esso ran a long ad. campaign with the slogan: "put a tiger in your tank".
there is a reason you don't see weiner dogs pulling sleds.. they aren't made for it. Do you honesty think cats would have the nerve and committment to work as a team to pull sleds for miles? Cmon artfizz...cats don't behave in the same way as dogs do. They just wouldn't do it (probably because they are like... why bother ^^) Next time you have cats pulling a sled with a peron + equipment in the artic or w/e let me know... I would be glad to be proved wrong ^^
Cats doing 'dog' tricks at the Moscow Cat Theatre - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmd2W36VgPg
In your post #74 of Dec10, you are the one suggesting that cats can pull a sled, and naively, not really, I agreed with you and I replied to your post.
So now your are at the least ambigous or ambidextruous or ambivalent so not sure what position to take to reply to your statement.
And since I need a few extra cats, this is why I chose Cheetas, as pound for pound they can take a dog on any day of the week.
As far as Esso and the tiger you might be a little biased on their ad, I can vividly recall why they did this and no surprise it was a UK ad campaign.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVpEauWmGeQ
I do not disagree that Siberian tigers weighing 800lb or so would make the perfect animal, the dilemna is how to you train one?
paul211 wrote:
So now your are at the least ambiguous or ambidextrous or ambivalent so not sure what position to take to reply to your statement.
artfizz writes:
I am arguing on two fronts, certainly. I believe that Olimar has conceded the point that non-domestic, large cats would be perfectly capable of pulling an arctic dog sled with an adult person on board over snow.
In this part of the discussion, it is simply a matter of determining WHICH large cat would be most suitable.
And since I need a few extra cats, this is why I chose Cheetahs, as pound for pound they can take a dog on any day of the week.
I misinterpreted your comment. I assumed you were talking about 40 lb domestic cats. Such a heavy domestic cat would tend to be obese rather than muscular, which is why I suggested throwing in a few extra (domestic) cats.
I do not disagree that Siberian tigers weighing 800lb or so would make the perfect animal, the dilemma is how to you train one?
Tigers have been trained in circuses for hundred of years. In common with virtually every other animal, they adapt well to training if you start them young and use appropriate and humane training methods.
We are all in broad agreement in this half of the discussion that LARGE CATS could do it. That just leaves the issue of whether DOMESTIC cats would be up to the job.
This is just as a proof-of-concept. I wasn't implying that cat-drawn sled should compete in the Iditarod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_Sled_Dog_Race). I remain pretty sure that a bunch of domestic cats could be organised to pull a sled over snow with a person on it, a short distance (say 20 metres). However, unquestionably DOGS ARE BEST for this particular role.
What about a pack of wolf trained since they where young?
They have all of the characteristics a sled dog needs to pull:
Cats rule
Please, will ya stop!
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