Turkish earthquake has made cats suicidal

And dogs even happier

Turkish earthquake has made cats suicidal

If you've ever spent more than 10 minutes with a cat then you'll be aware that they're capable of sadness that most humans shall never know.

Maybe you've accidentally woken one up or perhaps you've denied a request for a fifth cat food meal of the day but whatever it is, their eyes inform you that misery is a close personal friend.

Over in Turkey, things have been getting even sadder for the cat population. After the earthquake which hit the city of Van last year, Professor Abuzer Tas of the Faculty of Veterinary Studies has claimed that there's been an increase in feline suicide attempts.

He believes that the quake has triggered psychological disorders in local cats and because of this, they've been throwing themselves off buildings in desperate attempts to "make it all go away". Reports of cats also listening to more Morrissey have been unconfirmed as we just made them up.

"They are getting fidgety by remaining in confined areas for a long time," he claims, "and they are throwing themselves out in order to free themselves."

There's not a lot of data to back this up, unsurprisingly, but he believes that the university animal hopsital has seen more cats suffering broken bones from dramatic falls in recent months.

Maybe by the ninth time, they'll have finally freed themselves from this cruel, cruel world...

(Image: Flickr Commons: Cathy G)

[via Gawker]

Marc Chacksfield
Content Director

As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.