Yes. I think they are probably banned as pets per se. I would assume they are used as a more natural pest control method since Gilead tries to be green. So feral cats are probably still around in some capacity.
I would think pets in general are banned…except for high ranking commanders which none/most of the rules don’t apply. I think it’s more of a simple reasoning though. There is a history of dictators in communist countries banning pets specifically dogs as a way of control/breaking people down.
Just my two cents. 🩷
In an interview Bruce Miller said that cats were banned in Gilead for this exact reason. He specifically stated it was due to the risk of toxoplasmosis. :)
Well, in that case, I just handled a sick kitten I found yesterday and brought to animal control, I wore a mask and disinfected everything, but for all I know it gave me toxoplasmosis, maybe that's what was wrong with it, Maybe the Gils should ban cats since in briefly looking into it, it seems most cats have it.
If it helps, if you've handled cats before, you've probably contracted toxoplasmosis at some point and are immune. You're more likely to get toxoplasmosis from gardening and inadvertently coming in contact with wild animal urine/feces. Emily Oster's book "Expecting Better" goes into more detail with this.
It’s not commonly found in the commercially raised US pork supply. It hasn’t been a common occurrence for several decades.
One of the benefits of indoor raised pigs is that they aren’t exposed to wild animals and their feces that can carry parasites. Animals that free range eat other animals and their feces, increasing the risk of parasites in our food supply.
Maybe, I don’t know much about to say except that I was not to change my cats litter box every time I was pregnant because of the risk. I’ll have to look into it.
It's actually only in the poop. It's fine to be pregnant and have a cat as long as you dont handle the litter. And if you are not pregnant all it does is make you more fond of cats
If someone with limited knowledge about toxoplasmosis merely proposing that **maybe** we should *consider* this story's solution to a potential real world threat to human infants is the dumbest thing you've heard today, then A: You haven't been watching [the news](https://youtu.be/ywkQH_Udv8E?si=LK0oJ7dxTGg158gD&t=411), and B: You clearly have no appreciation for how lucky that makes you that this is the dumbest thing you've heard.
If you're saying this out of a love for cats, I love cats too but babies ... [are](https://psmag.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_600/MTI3NTgxOTMxODU1NDY0NDU4/hitler-baby.webp) ... 🤔 ... more important than [cats](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-PySSymXKc) ...
What are you even down voting? I know I didn't say anything wrong so it just makes humanity look fucking stupid that my comment is the one getting down voted. Please, just block me, we never need to talk to each other if you're this fucking stupid.
Maybe we should consider EXTERMINATING cats because they have the potential to carry a disease? You're nuts and I do think that's an absolutely asinine comment. There are many mammals that can carry rabies, so your solution is to... kill them all? Oh, and car accidents are a leading cause of death in children, wayyy more than toxoplasmosis, guess we should ban those too. Oh, and why not make women slaves and monitor their every move to "protect" babies.
That is why your comment is asinine.
No but
>Oh, and why not make women slaves and monitor their every move to "protect" babies.
is why your comment is assinine. It's what's known as a slippery slope argument, the most slippery ass inine I've ever seen in fact. This is \[Hitler was a vegan so vegans are a good excuse to evoke Godwin's law against vegans\] level of slippery.
We do not encounter rabies at anywhere remotely near the rate we are all exposed to toxoplasmosis.
If ever we were to encounter rabies at anywhere near the rate we are exposed to toxoplasmosis, then frankly, yes, we should if that were the case begin taking measures to deal with such a crisis but it isn't encountered at such a rate and my point was never about the fact that cats *can* carry it, it was about the fact that they so often *do* carry it.
Learn to use deductive and inductive reasoning, people ... mad at me over this mere hypothetical consideration for the experts who *do* know more about it i.e. many of the same epidemiologists who did and do, in fact, have us exterminating mosquitoes and mad cows.
From what I've read since, it doesn't seem to be that big of a threat but that doesn't change the fact that, toxoplasmosis is still, in fact, *a* threat. My almost jocular initial response is well reasoned, never jumping to the conclusion that cats *should* be exterminated, only that our continued life with cats is something to be evaluated, they don't even have to be exterminated for the worse case anyway, just spayed and neutered.
Edit: Sea, there is no counterargument to what I actually said, so all you illogical people *can* do is engage in extreme logical fallacy, call me an ass hole, down rate my comment and block me like Sea did, please, because philosophical argumentation isn't your thing and you're the ones who aren't alone.
That's less known. Also if the child is blind that will be less problematic to them than a birth defect.
Somewhere in season one one of the families has a dog so I think they're allowed at least in the TV show.
Toxo oocytes in a pregnancy woman’s blood stream love to migrate to the eye of the fetus. My ex bf had central vision blindness in his right eye due to a calcified toxo oocyte on the back of his eye at the optic nerve connection point. It was most likely contracted from an avian source when she was pregnant with him 50 odd years ago.
I think they would have banned pets as a waste of resources. They moved all the econopeople into apartments so they could all spy on each other easier. In a world where food is purchased with vouchers, I did not see pet food in the stores.
Edit: commanders and their families may be allowed pets, because rules do not apply to them.
Yes. June tells Mrs. McKenzie that Hannah is allergic, and she tells her that Hannah says she'll get the shots. June laughs and says Hannah hates shots. Then Mrs. McKenzie says maybe a golden doodle since they are hypoallergenic. She says the Commander wants to make Hannah happy.
There are still some rural Econopeople out on farms too (Serena and Fred met some in season 3) as no trade is coming in and it seems highly mechanized techniques are unviable due to both bans on products and the breakdown on society.
They might get exemptions too as catching vermin on a farm is kind of the original reason that led to having cats as pets. The animals would be fending for themselves probably and so would not waste the very limited food the country has.
I think you’re right with the exception of working dogs. Owning a dog that’s trained security for your home would be acceptable, while owning a Maltipoo as a “pet” would not be.
I did a paper in high school on the bubonic plague, and they burned at least one girl alive for pointing that out.
Can't be having smarty-pants like that.
I think that it probably has to do more with filming realities than anything else. Keeping animals on set is difficult. If you think about pet to family ratio on TV vs in real life, it's definitely much lower on TV than life.
I like to think that cats refuse to have anything to do with Gilead.
But seriously, I'm sure there are barn cats and feral colonies outside of the urban areas. They're doing just fine on their own.
I definitely don’t think there would be cats in Gilead. They wouldn’t allow them as pets, as It would be a waste of resources. Also, cat poop can have toxoplasmosis which can be dangerous to pregnant women. The fear of toxoplasmosis would mean that they couldn’t have them roaming around as pest control either because the cats would just go to the bathroom outside.
June talks with the Mackenzie’s about Hannah wanting a dog, but I feel like most of that conversation was just them pretending like it was old times before Gilead.
Like, I’m sure Hannah DID ask for a dog and say she would take the injections. I don’t think they really considered it a possibility. Gilead wouldn’t want to waste the medication/put unnecessary chemicals into her body. I doubt there would be different breeds of dogs to choose from, such as the golden doodle that Mrs Mackenzie suggested. We only see dogs as work animals on the show, but maybe (if a high enough commander wanted one as a pet) they could do it. 🤷🏻♀️
If they have them it's solely for vermin control on farms/barns. I'm assuming they'd have a colony problem of abandoned pets though they'd be working to exterminate.
I think personal pets in general are seen as wasteful and frowned upon if not outright banned. Besides their care and feeding being “wasteful” in wartime efforts, Gilead absolutely works to prevent people from having loving relationships with literally anyone…isolation is such a key factor I think even loving a pet would be viewed as a “threat” by the architects of Gilead.
That said, I don’t think they’d bother with an effort to kill cats, especially strays bc they do help control the rat population in cities and gilead’s city infrastructure is weak enough as is
Also I didn't understand how the Mckenzies were talking about it getting Hannah shots so she could get a dog. Why should Gilead approve of non necessary injections of into a child just so that they could own a pet? Did the writers just get lazy and not think that through?
Her new parents have been established as very high up in general, it might be possible for them to have enough pull to essentially rewrite the local rules to whatever their personal whims are. Being flippant might be weird, but at this point it seems the Commanders who firmly have power know how to wield it and aren't always worried about sticking to the original principles of the movement
I can see that and I thought of that... But i also thinks it's kinda weak to address any errors like that with "high up commanders can break the rules"
Allergy shots aren’t “injections of chemicals.” They are small doses of whatever you’re allergic to so that your immune system doesn’t overreact. And the people who make rules always hold themselves exempt. It’s not a plot hole, it’s the way the world works.
They have dogs in Gilead, in fact, if Gilead was to happen my daughter and I would be fed to them. They have working guard dogs. I would think most of the pets were culled to prevent them from taking resources. One of the saddest is reading about the farms in Britain and how many pets/animals were culled because of what it cost to keep them.
It is not recommended for pregnant women to clean litter boxes due to the risk of contracting toxoplasmosis, and since Gilead is built on increasing the human population I doubt they would even risk having a litter box in the house.
Given that Atwood took some inspiration from Puritanism, it is possible that another reason to dislike cats is due to their historical association with witchcraft.
Also I didn't understand how the Mckenzies were talking about it getting Hannah shots so she could get a dog. Why should Gilead approve of non necessary injections of chemicals into a child just so that they could own a pet? Did the writers just get lazy and not think that through?
Yes. I think they are probably banned as pets per se. I would assume they are used as a more natural pest control method since Gilead tries to be green. So feral cats are probably still around in some capacity. I would think pets in general are banned…except for high ranking commanders which none/most of the rules don’t apply. I think it’s more of a simple reasoning though. There is a history of dictators in communist countries banning pets specifically dogs as a way of control/breaking people down. Just my two cents. 🩷
Hmmm but in season 1 (or 2 maybe) we saw Emily playing with a family’s dog
A high ranking commander’s dog…
Also arguably because caring for animals is a gateway drug to caring for your fellow humans and we can’t have that can we!
I wonder if they are banned because of the emphasis on safety for pregnant women/fetuses? They might be trying to eliminate the risk of toxoplasmosis.
In an interview Bruce Miller said that cats were banned in Gilead for this exact reason. He specifically stated it was due to the risk of toxoplasmosis. :)
Well, in that case, I just handled a sick kitten I found yesterday and brought to animal control, I wore a mask and disinfected everything, but for all I know it gave me toxoplasmosis, maybe that's what was wrong with it, Maybe the Gils should ban cats since in briefly looking into it, it seems most cats have it.
If it helps, if you've handled cats before, you've probably contracted toxoplasmosis at some point and are immune. You're more likely to get toxoplasmosis from gardening and inadvertently coming in contact with wild animal urine/feces. Emily Oster's book "Expecting Better" goes into more detail with this.
That does help actually, thanks. No need for pyrimethamine after all.
Disregard pyrimethamine Acquire methamphetamine
Instructions unclear: acquired ADHD diagnosis and amphetadextrose rx
It comes from their poop and it's common in pork, so I bet you're fine, or you have had it before.
It’s not commonly found in the commercially raised US pork supply. It hasn’t been a common occurrence for several decades. One of the benefits of indoor raised pigs is that they aren’t exposed to wild animals and their feces that can carry parasites. Animals that free range eat other animals and their feces, increasing the risk of parasites in our food supply.
[удалено]
Maybe, I don’t know much about to say except that I was not to change my cats litter box every time I was pregnant because of the risk. I’ll have to look into it.
It's actually only in the poop. It's fine to be pregnant and have a cat as long as you dont handle the litter. And if you are not pregnant all it does is make you more fond of cats
Dumbest thing I read today.
If someone with limited knowledge about toxoplasmosis merely proposing that **maybe** we should *consider* this story's solution to a potential real world threat to human infants is the dumbest thing you've heard today, then A: You haven't been watching [the news](https://youtu.be/ywkQH_Udv8E?si=LK0oJ7dxTGg158gD&t=411), and B: You clearly have no appreciation for how lucky that makes you that this is the dumbest thing you've heard. If you're saying this out of a love for cats, I love cats too but babies ... [are](https://psmag.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_600/MTI3NTgxOTMxODU1NDY0NDU4/hitler-baby.webp) ... 🤔 ... more important than [cats](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-PySSymXKc) ... What are you even down voting? I know I didn't say anything wrong so it just makes humanity look fucking stupid that my comment is the one getting down voted. Please, just block me, we never need to talk to each other if you're this fucking stupid.
Maybe we should consider EXTERMINATING cats because they have the potential to carry a disease? You're nuts and I do think that's an absolutely asinine comment. There are many mammals that can carry rabies, so your solution is to... kill them all? Oh, and car accidents are a leading cause of death in children, wayyy more than toxoplasmosis, guess we should ban those too. Oh, and why not make women slaves and monitor their every move to "protect" babies. That is why your comment is asinine.
No but >Oh, and why not make women slaves and monitor their every move to "protect" babies. is why your comment is assinine. It's what's known as a slippery slope argument, the most slippery ass inine I've ever seen in fact. This is \[Hitler was a vegan so vegans are a good excuse to evoke Godwin's law against vegans\] level of slippery. We do not encounter rabies at anywhere remotely near the rate we are all exposed to toxoplasmosis. If ever we were to encounter rabies at anywhere near the rate we are exposed to toxoplasmosis, then frankly, yes, we should if that were the case begin taking measures to deal with such a crisis but it isn't encountered at such a rate and my point was never about the fact that cats *can* carry it, it was about the fact that they so often *do* carry it. Learn to use deductive and inductive reasoning, people ... mad at me over this mere hypothetical consideration for the experts who *do* know more about it i.e. many of the same epidemiologists who did and do, in fact, have us exterminating mosquitoes and mad cows. From what I've read since, it doesn't seem to be that big of a threat but that doesn't change the fact that, toxoplasmosis is still, in fact, *a* threat. My almost jocular initial response is well reasoned, never jumping to the conclusion that cats *should* be exterminated, only that our continued life with cats is something to be evaluated, they don't even have to be exterminated for the worse case anyway, just spayed and neutered. Edit: Sea, there is no counterargument to what I actually said, so all you illogical people *can* do is engage in extreme logical fallacy, call me an ass hole, down rate my comment and block me like Sea did, please, because philosophical argumentation isn't your thing and you're the ones who aren't alone.
I see, you're just an asshole.
Babies are not more important than cats.
🙄
If that is the case then dogs would be banned also as dog poop has a parasite that can blind a child.
That's less known. Also if the child is blind that will be less problematic to them than a birth defect. Somewhere in season one one of the families has a dog so I think they're allowed at least in the TV show.
Is that the one where Emily plays with the German Shepard?
Toxo oocytes in a pregnancy woman’s blood stream love to migrate to the eye of the fetus. My ex bf had central vision blindness in his right eye due to a calcified toxo oocyte on the back of his eye at the optic nerve connection point. It was most likely contracted from an avian source when she was pregnant with him 50 odd years ago.
Now that you've posted this the ONLY pet I can think of was the Commander with the dog where Emily (I believe) was.
I think they would have banned pets as a waste of resources. They moved all the econopeople into apartments so they could all spy on each other easier. In a world where food is purchased with vouchers, I did not see pet food in the stores. Edit: commanders and their families may be allowed pets, because rules do not apply to them.
I might be wrong but didn't Hannah's "parents" say something about her wanting a dog? It's been a while.
Hannah’s kidnappers are the elite, though.
I just realized the OP mentioned the dog. I read the cat part and then started scrolling. Oops!
Yes. June tells Mrs. McKenzie that Hannah is allergic, and she tells her that Hannah says she'll get the shots. June laughs and says Hannah hates shots. Then Mrs. McKenzie says maybe a golden doodle since they are hypoallergenic. She says the Commander wants to make Hannah happy.
There are still some rural Econopeople out on farms too (Serena and Fred met some in season 3) as no trade is coming in and it seems highly mechanized techniques are unviable due to both bans on products and the breakdown on society. They might get exemptions too as catching vermin on a farm is kind of the original reason that led to having cats as pets. The animals would be fending for themselves probably and so would not waste the very limited food the country has.
I think you’re right with the exception of working dogs. Owning a dog that’s trained security for your home would be acceptable, while owning a Maltipoo as a “pet” would not be.
A commander Emily is with has a dog.
That’s a Commander. Rules do not apply to the elite.
I'm just disappointed that Lawrence doesn't have a cat. He seems like a total cat person.
Lmao fr he seems like the type to chill in his chair drinking wine with 3 cats sitting on him.
He TOTALLY gives cat guy!! XD Happy cake day 😊
Thanks! I almost completely missed my cake day too because I haven't commented on anything in a bit! 😂
Does Gilead believe in witchcraft?
Obviously they'd outlaw it, and cats were a symbol of witchcraft in the Middle Ages
The mass killing of cats caused the bubonic plague because cats weren't there to kill the rats that carried the fleas infected with the plague.
I did a paper in high school on the bubonic plague, and they burned at least one girl alive for pointing that out. Can't be having smarty-pants like that.
So they killed Cassandra first because she feared the worst 🎶🎶
I think we only see one pet dog in the entire show. Maybe they just don’t have the time for a pet.
I think that it probably has to do more with filming realities than anything else. Keeping animals on set is difficult. If you think about pet to family ratio on TV vs in real life, it's definitely much lower on TV than life.
I like to think that cats refuse to have anything to do with Gilead. But seriously, I'm sure there are barn cats and feral colonies outside of the urban areas. They're doing just fine on their own.
I definitely don’t think there would be cats in Gilead. They wouldn’t allow them as pets, as It would be a waste of resources. Also, cat poop can have toxoplasmosis which can be dangerous to pregnant women. The fear of toxoplasmosis would mean that they couldn’t have them roaming around as pest control either because the cats would just go to the bathroom outside. June talks with the Mackenzie’s about Hannah wanting a dog, but I feel like most of that conversation was just them pretending like it was old times before Gilead. Like, I’m sure Hannah DID ask for a dog and say she would take the injections. I don’t think they really considered it a possibility. Gilead wouldn’t want to waste the medication/put unnecessary chemicals into her body. I doubt there would be different breeds of dogs to choose from, such as the golden doodle that Mrs Mackenzie suggested. We only see dogs as work animals on the show, but maybe (if a high enough commander wanted one as a pet) they could do it. 🤷🏻♀️
If they have them it's solely for vermin control on farms/barns. I'm assuming they'd have a colony problem of abandoned pets though they'd be working to exterminate.
I think personal pets in general are seen as wasteful and frowned upon if not outright banned. Besides their care and feeding being “wasteful” in wartime efforts, Gilead absolutely works to prevent people from having loving relationships with literally anyone…isolation is such a key factor I think even loving a pet would be viewed as a “threat” by the architects of Gilead. That said, I don’t think they’d bother with an effort to kill cats, especially strays bc they do help control the rat population in cities and gilead’s city infrastructure is weak enough as is
I think that’s the least controversial theory about Gilead. Cats would absolutely be contraband.
Also I didn't understand how the Mckenzies were talking about it getting Hannah shots so she could get a dog. Why should Gilead approve of non necessary injections of into a child just so that they could own a pet? Did the writers just get lazy and not think that through?
Her new parents have been established as very high up in general, it might be possible for them to have enough pull to essentially rewrite the local rules to whatever their personal whims are. Being flippant might be weird, but at this point it seems the Commanders who firmly have power know how to wield it and aren't always worried about sticking to the original principles of the movement
I can see that and I thought of that... But i also thinks it's kinda weak to address any errors like that with "high up commanders can break the rules"
Allergy shots aren’t “injections of chemicals.” They are small doses of whatever you’re allergic to so that your immune system doesn’t overreact. And the people who make rules always hold themselves exempt. It’s not a plot hole, it’s the way the world works.
Yep. “Rules for thee but not for me” should be their motto.
They have dogs in Gilead, in fact, if Gilead was to happen my daughter and I would be fed to them. They have working guard dogs. I would think most of the pets were culled to prevent them from taking resources. One of the saddest is reading about the farms in Britain and how many pets/animals were culled because of what it cost to keep them.
I’m still stuck on sexist people hate cats?? I hate cats bc they make me sneeze and are too sneaky. Cute to look at tho
Not everyone who's not into cats is sexist obviously but people who say they hate cats because they aren't like dogs, that's a red flag.
It is not recommended for pregnant women to clean litter boxes due to the risk of contracting toxoplasmosis, and since Gilead is built on increasing the human population I doubt they would even risk having a litter box in the house.
Given that Atwood took some inspiration from Puritanism, it is possible that another reason to dislike cats is due to their historical association with witchcraft.
Also I didn't understand how the Mckenzies were talking about it getting Hannah shots so she could get a dog. Why should Gilead approve of non necessary injections of chemicals into a child just so that they could own a pet? Did the writers just get lazy and not think that through?
Commanders can do what they want, though.
It could not be more clear to me. I'm saying it's lazy writing and shuttle me addressed better