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Hard times for Danish cats

TheCopenhagenPost
September 27th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Study shows Danes have more respect for dogs than their feline pals

Too many Danes are leaving their cats behind (photo: Neal Fowler)

Monday kicked off one of those ‘weeks’ that often pops up on the calendar for no apparent reason. This one is ‘Cat Week’.

And according to various studies, it will take longer than seven days to raise the cat’s social standing to the same level of its canine counterpart.

READ MORE: Danes increasingly throwing out cats with the rubbish

Discardable items
A new study reveals that only four out of 10 cat owners would take their cat to the vet if it was sick.

While a study by animal protection group Dyrenes Beskyttelse showed that 2,889 cats were simply tossed out by their owners in 2015, making up 82 percent of the total number of animals left behind.

Cheap and countless
“The cat has been given a low status in society,” Jens Jokumsen from Dyrenes Beskyttelse told Metroxpress.

“Probably because there are so many kittens and they are often free.”

Other animal rights activists pointed out that many people incorrectly assume that cats are ‘wild animals’ that will simply adapt to the wild if they are left behind by their owners.

A dog’s life
The revelation that many cat owners never take their cat to the vet was particularly upsetting to Jokumsen.

“It is really sad that people do not take proper care of their cat,” he said.

“Unfortunately, people think differently about owning a cat than they do a dog.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”