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Black Death Discovered In Oregon
redletterdave writes "The Black Death, a strain of bubonic plague that destroyed nearly a third of Europe's entire population between 1347 and 1369, has been found in Oregon. Health officials in Portland have confirmed that a man contracted the plague after getting bitten by a cat. The unidentified man, who is currently in his 50s, had tried to pry a dead mouse from a stray cat's mouth on June 2 when the cat attacked him. Days later, fever and sickness drove the man to check himself into Oregon's St. Charles Medical Center, where he is currently in 'critical condition.'"
Why the hell did he think it was a good idea to try to get the dead mouse away from the cat in the first place?
1) existing in a natural state, as animals or plants; not domesticated or cultivated; wild.
2) having reverted to the wild state, as from domestication.
3) of or characteristic of wild animals; ferocious; brutal.
All three definitions equate feral with being wild, so what was the point of your pedantic nitpicking again?
Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
The article says it was a cat. Cats, by definition, are not wild. Some of them may be feral, but they are never wild.
Apparently you don't live in Oregon. We have wild cats. We call them cougars or mountain lions and they can fuck your day up. They have been getting a bad rep for pouncing on mountain bikers. http://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/cougar/
he's bored?
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
It's a beautiful world we live in when we have a second spelling and dialect for what we imagine our domesticated companions are telling us... and there are spelling and grammar nazis for that dialect.
Actually they did have rodent population control in those days, but it's effectiveness was severely curtailed as they associated cats with witchcraft and so went around killing them. An enlightening glimpse of how perpetuating a climate of fear with no sound basis can backfire!
These views express my own personal opinions, not those of the other voices in my head
I think you over-estimate the effects of "domestication" on dogs... although I do admit that many of them have had the piss bred out of them. Pocket dogs are an abomination.
But for most of human history, dogs were working animals, too. The only difference is that they are (usually) too big to be allowed to gather their own food. That would be dangerous (and inconvenient, considering that they are pack hunters). That is the difference: practicality, not biology.
Dogs do go feral. In an area not very far from here there has been a pack of feral dogs, descended from escaped domestic dogs, roaming the mountains for at least 30 years. They have been spotted every few years (it is a very remote place and rough country) but their fate is uncertain now that the wolves have returned. And Dingos are of course another example of formerly-domesticated dogs returning to the wild.
Another interesting example is the domestic ferret. Evidence indicates that they have been domesticated for approximately as long as dogs and cats. And again, for most of human history they were working animals: they were (and still are) used to hunt small game. Not only that, but prior to WWII, right here in the United States, ferrets were also popular farm animals, used for keeping rats, mice, etc. out of the granaries just like cats.
But unlike both dogs and cats, and except in New Zealand (which presented very specific and unusual conditions), ferrets don't go feral. They just don't. It doesn't happen.
No, must be confirmation bias on your part.
Black Plague is rare, but still happens you just usually don't hear about it because it's treatable with antibiotics and preventable by controlling rodent populations - neither antibiotic treatment nor effective prevention were known in europe during the middle ages.
I'm not sure you are entirely correct. The Black Plague is a particular stain of bubonic disease, or at least a group of stains. Although the bubonic disease is still around (and easily treatable), it is not the same stain. One would expect this news is regarding a different stain than was we "usually" see these days. Otherwise, why would be it news worthy ?
morcego
There are 3 essential forms of Black Plague (all of them caused by the same organism), and each of them varies in the rapidity of onset.
The most virulent is the pneumonic form. It can kill within days. But it is also relatively rare, even as cases of plague go. Usually it takes somewhat longer.