Cat in England Refuses to Eat Meat

Has it reverted back to the way cats were when originally created?

SUMMARY: Becky Page was in for a surprise when she rescued an abandoned kitten she found in an alley. She took him home and offered him a bowl of chicken and a plate of fish, both of which the cat ignored, but when he spotted some leftover vegetables, he began licking his lips. The cat "wolfed" them down and ever since has stuck to a strictly vegetarian diet. Named Dante, and possibly the world's first vegetarian cat, the feline loves Brussels sprouts, rhubarb, melon, asparagus, and even bananas.

Experts are baffled by Dante's diet because cats are natural carnivores which indeed can obtain certain nutrients in sufficient quantities only from meat. Humans and even dogs can survive well without meat, but cats need a source of taurine, an amino acid essential for eye health, and arachidonic acid, a fatty acid that helps its wounds heal. Taurine and arachiodonic acid apparently can be found in sufficient amounts only in meat. Yet, Dante appears as fit as any feline.

Although Page has tried to secretly feed the cat scraps of meat mixed in with his vegetables, he ignores the meat, she says. She has never seen him hunting any birds or small animals when he goes outside. Dante also is not tempted by the chickens, rabbit, two guinea pigs, rat, hamster and fish Page keeps in her home.

A veterinarian said she had never before heard of a cat that would not eat meat, and she advises a complete cat food that provides all the necessary nutrients in the right balance. Some vegetarian cat foods are available which include synthesized forms of the nutrients that cats would normally get from meat.

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COMMENT: This interesting mystery has two elements: how a cat can be born with a dislike for meat, and how a cat can obtain required nutrients entirely from vegetables when it is not supposed to be able to.

One creationist take on this story involves mutations. Carl Wieland of Creation Ministries International admits it is just speculation, but he has a theory that cats since originally created have experienced a "loss mutation" in which they lost the ability to synthesize some of the ingredients they once were able to get from vegetables. Perhaps then Dante could be an example of a "reverse mutation" in which this lost ability has been restored and the taste for meat has vanished. If so, he could be like the cats God originally created during the short time when humans and all animals were strict vegetarians.

I am assuming that any reverse mutation like this one would result from a rearrangement of information in the cat's genetic code rather than the addition of information. Scientists do not know of any example where information has been added to the genetic code of any creature, which would have been necessary multiple times for single-celled organisms to have evolved into humans.

At the least, Dante the cat is a reminder of the way things once were and the way they will once again become. Death for a short time on earth did not rule, and when we get to heaven, we will find it again to have been rendered powerless. Christ abolished eternal death when He died for our sins and rose again to proclaim His victory over sin. It sometimes is hard to wait for the new "Eden." isn't it?

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QUESTION OF THE DAY

What is the tallest mountain in the United States?

Mount McKinley, which is located in Alaska, reaches 6,194 meters or 20,320 feet in height. It was named after President William McKinley. This mountain was first ascended in 1913 by an expedition led by Hudson Stuc.

Source: www.usefultrivia.com