In truth, this was done by a vet for ID purposes, but Yoshi is very proud of it and thinks it makes him look tough. All the other cats are scared of him now because he told them he got it in the pound, and they think he’s probably on catnip again.
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Comments
105 responses to “Yoshi The Cat’s Ear Tattoo”
LOL LOL LOL CAT BALLS
As far as I’ve been told, in Australia, the animal is tattooed to indicate the presence of a microchip (and desexing, in the case of female animals, where it is not always obvious to the casual observer whether or not the animal is desexed). Microchips do NOT always respond to the scan, and they can shift under the skin and end up rather far away from the back of the neck, which can also make them harder to scan for. The tattoo is done with a plier-like clamp and takes literally a second to apply, I really don’t get what the big deal is. I object a lot more to people tattooing Hello Kitty on their dog’s stomach for purely cosmetic reasons than to a standardised mark indicating responsible pet ownership.
Giles-
My animal is both tattooed and chipped. In her case, the tattoo is a symbol of where she came from (the ASCPA), and a sign that she was micro-chipped by them, so that should she be lost, her rescuer should look in the ASPCA’s database for her information. And yes, I do agree a national system would be best, but this system has its merits.
pretty cat:) and yes I agree with # 30:P
>>>“OMG THIS IS SO CREUL” set
From what I can see there was only one person who claimed it was “creul”(sic).
Thanks for pointing out my intentional misspelling. Don’t you have some women to be defending on the interwebs? Go and do that.
😀
This is way better than the serial code tattoo my kitty got.
that gd cat sold me some shitty weed the other day, what a bastard
52 – you’re right, over here, one ear tattoo signifies that the animal has been desexed, the other signifies that it has been chipped. They will chip without anaestesia, but they will not tattoo without anaesthesia. As the vet staff pointed out to me, an external reminder that the pet is chipped tells the rescuer to keep looking, as the chips can migrate quite far.
Erin, also, if they get the left ear tattooed it means they’re gay, but if they get the right ear tattooed it means they’re straight. It’s very embarrassing to cats when you get it backwards.
My cat is a slut.
I did my part to stop this practice of marking unwilling cats and dogs with lousy tattoos. When I worked at the animal hospital I stole thier tattoo gun. And of course put it to good (haha very bad) use on myself and several friends.
Wow, what a stupid set of comments.
gosh, so much fail in the comments. come on, it’s a cat. it is done for identification purposes.
I bet they;re all from a bunch of peta loving vegan straightedgers who secretly kick animals who are commenting with the fail. I’ve observed that most animal terrorist prefer the illegal activities to the wellbeing of actual animals.
Giles I worked in a cat/dog shelter for 3 years and microchips are just as faulty as tattoo’s. Both work sometimes and sometimes they dont work. The things your saying about tattoos is exactally the same for microchips- owners must keep up thier records and make sure the people who they’re reg’d under are kept updated. We had so many microchipped dogs/cats come in that we never were able to find thier owners and so they were put up for adoption or put down.
Tattoos are better as they’re more visable – microchips can also migrate in the body of the “said” animal. One dog who was microchipped had it migrate right out and anothers migrated into its leg almost near its foot. Im a huge beliver in having your pets both tattoo’ed and microchipped. If you seen how many pets didnt get happy endings when they became lost then you might feel differently.
also my vet puts dogs/cats under to tattoo them- they will not/do not, do it when the animal is awake. Microchips are inserted in a large 10(ish) gauge needle while your pet is awake on the exam table. You can choose to have the microchip done while under at your own cost or while your in for another surgery.
I’m fairly convinced my parents’ cats all live on the property of their own free will. Even the cat who sleeps inside most nights spends his day going in and out of the house at his demand. If he ever wanted to leave he’d be free to wander off and live like the other cats who show up for a free meal from time to time. We’ve had cats who chose to do just that and while it’s a bit sad, it’s their choice. The only cat they ever had whose outdoor visits were monitored was totally deaf and blind in one eye, she had a rather low survivability rate considering the speed limit in front of my folks’ house is 70mph.
besides all this hypocritical bullshit and slander. this post reminds me of another that shannon posted that also got attacked (much like this). I for one am glad to see this- I think its a nice relief to see this featured here after all this is a body modification site no one said anything about humans and I think its cool. its a nice change of pace from the guy who amputated his own hand (which if i recall got less posts then this?)
id like to get something similar done to my cat if i could..
Tattooing or notching of the ears or tattooing of the belly (at least in the States) is typically done on wild/stray cats to mark them as desexed. Many shelters also tattoo, though this is becoming less common as microchips are being used more often. This is done while the cat is anesthetized for the desexing surgery.
Having a visible mark prevents the cat having to go through the stress of being brought back to the clinic and re-anesthetized if it’s trapped again later. This is especially helpful with females, as it’s not easy to tell if they’ve been desexed previously–at the least, you have to shave the belly and look for a scar.
Microchipping is not often done in these situations, because most of these cats are being returned to a feral colony or “barn-cat” situation, in which the visibility of the tattoo is much more helpful. In order to scan the microchip, the cat has to be taken back to the shelter or vet clinic, or the person managing the colony has to buy a scanner.
Also, tattoos are a lot less expensive, and if you’re managing a cat colony, money is always an issue.
As a side note–animals are not routinely anesthetized just to put a microchip in. The microchip is installed with a needle (14 gauge, in most cases), and is a very quick procedure. The only animal that I have anesthetized just for a microchipping was a parrot, due to the size and difficulty of restraint and risk of injury to the bird if he struggled. We do often take advantage of anesthesia for another reason to do as many unpleasant or stressful procedures as possible (cleaning ears, trimming nails, emptying anal glands, giving vaccines, etc.) so many microchips are installed under anesthesia.
I’m so thankful that Mum and I had our “Fran” microchipped, because after two years away – missing somewhere in the neighbourhood I presume – I had a call from the local animal hospital to tell me that she’d been brought in by someone who’d found her roaming the street! Two years later!
If it wasn’t for her microchip, she probably would have been put down eventually, as the hopital would have had no way of matching her to her owners.
Needless to say, she is back home now and she, and I, are very happy *staying indoors* 🙂
The industry standard needle bore for pet microchips is 12 gauge; at least one company offers 13 gauge packaging.
The only animals that may have the occasion to be tattooed unsedated by licensed professionals are food animals (i.e., Bangs tattoo) and newborn laboratory animals. Tattoo outfits (http://www.fmb.com.au/index1.html) are the standard; machines are usually reserved for companion animal practice.
The industry standard needle bore for pet microchips is 12 gauge; at least one company offers 13 gauge packaging.
gah. stupid IE.
I got my cat microchipped here, but I’m still annoyed that the USA (yes, I complain about Americans a lot) does not use ISO standard frequency chips so if I bring her back to my home country or to another civilized country it’s useless. If we happen to have to transit through Japan for instance, I’ll have to buy my *own* chip reader to bring along since the Jap Customs officials or whatever won’t be able to read an AVID chip.
I think the biggest classic here is that the very people stirring the shit are the ones condemning it once it kicks off 😀
Anyway, as Lori said in Australia they will tattoo a cat’s ear to show that it has been desexed, and they do this (along with microchipping in all cats born after 1999) while they are still under the general anaesthetic.
And #65, most vegan people I know (myself included) aren’t fans of the shitty way PETA go about things either, so don’t assume that we are all the same.
Meh. Chips may serve better then tattoos, but tattoos still beat the piercings cows get over here (only?) for identification purposes…
…lolz @ start post. This cat looked tuff before the tat already 🙂
AW that kitty is adorable. I love it’s little nose and whiskers. Cats are carnivores btw, they have a digestive system designed to digest meat. They get sick or have funny poops if they eat veggies.
Cats definitely need a lot of protein in their diet, but they do need a bit of vegetable matter in their diet to keep the poop moving. That’s why they like grass clippings so much (my uncle had an indoor cat who would come running if he said the word “grass”).
>>agreed. people only read modblog to fight anymore.
brandenlouis on February 22nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
&
>>Definitely does feel that way on some entries, but I think it’s getting better.
Shannon on February 22nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
It’s not fighting, but rather “lively” conversation and debate. Besides, if Giles got off his Ivory Horse, and paleblue weren’t such a prick we could all have a group hug. (Although, admittedly paleblue has been agreeable lately. huh?)
🙂
And yeah, as a non pet person, I have nothing meaningful to contribute to this entry. :p
i am going to get the same tattoo myself.
just as a memorial to the holocaust.
healing a tattoo that size is no more painful than a simple flesh wound
assuming the cat was tattooed under anesthesia I see absolutely nothing cruel about it, in fact I’m sure it will benefit this cat in the long run, as it will be easily identified if it gets itself lost
That is rather funny story. HOWEVER i don’t think this whole “animal tattoo=>animal owning”argue will lead to anything. there is an expression in rissian: there are as many opinions as there are people.so i’m just gonna write my point of view without pointing any fingers.
You cant really state who owes who!It’s just a result of the relationship with your animals. I have 3 cats and 1 dog and i LOVE them all and don’t regret a single minute i spent for them. I came to realise several things. First of DON’t say : oh my pet will never leave me,it loves me way too much.” THE MAIN (but not the only one) reason your pet won’t leave you is because it became a domestic animal and won’t survive on a wild cause i doesn;t know how to hunt. Another thing is for example is when cats are going out to find some females. duting these times your lovely pet who you fed when it was just a kitten doesn’t give a f*** about you. =) My pets are perfect examples for the most common behaviours: my first cat is rather old but he never asks for anything. if i’m out of town he won’t scream for food and just would go hunt. he is always sleeping but EVERYTIME i’m sad or have problems he finds me and plays with my hair whicj is rather funny. I dont how he knows when i’m sad without even seeing me all day but he just does. my other cat is a LAZY ass. he always wants to play and always begs for food. He can’t do anything on his own but still he is just hilarious. And finally my dog. He alwasy runs away with other dogs but whenever iäm going somewhere he wants to come along and if i won’t take him he will spent all the time on front of the door.
But despite all the opinions i know that my pets love me. i dont need any proove i just see it in their actions.
P.S. sorry for this little novel Modblog. i know that’s not what this website is about but since we were got into this argue and i’m in a great mood i just felt like writing this. =)
i love my dead cat tattoo
my cats breath smells like catfood.
Oh shut the hell up! He said it was for ID purposes. It’s been done, nothing you can do so why not stick to the “if you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all” rule?
Moving on… It’s a hardcore cat!
wow stop flogging the dead horse does anyone dogs and is it not the same thing ,or a bird, rat ,hamster,fish its all the same thing as long as your not negleting them i think they are perfectly happy …but that is my opion
These tats on animals don’t really bother them- they’re done with pressure. My thoroughbred horse was tattooed on the inside of his upper lip with his registration number. I think Yoshi’s ear looks cool.
Some animal rights organizations consider animal ownership as enslavement.
I’d love to see who uses their cat to generate hyrdoelectric power. Seriously.
Anyway, if my cat was still with me, I would have gotten a matching tattoo with her. 🙂
I think she was smart enough to understand everything, she wanted to be just like her mommy.
I’m just thankful that I’m not as fuzzy as her, that’s one less thing we had in common.
I haven’t read all the comments but I just wanted to say that my dog has a tattoo in his ear too and I highly doubt he even knows it’s there. It was done by a vet to show that he’s desexed or microchipped or something and it would have been done under anasethesia (spelling?) because there’s no way he would have layed still long enough if he was awake.
So when is Giles going to donate all his moneys to all the various animal shelters and pounds of the very large United States, hmm??? He could single-handedly cover microchipping or the entire country and forever be remembered as something besides a butt face.
My first rabbit had numbers tattooed on the inside of her ear by the breeder. It’s obviously something I’d never do myself but the breeder gave me the idea that it was a common practice, something done while the animal is very young that they wouldn’t remember later, not unlike male circumcision… Still, it seems really unnecessary to me.
Anyway, I love your blog! Keep posting!
Cat – authority:))
I think it’s like this: people should stay out of each others business. Don’t want your cat tattooed? Don’t get it tattooed. People are going to do what they want, and fighting about it is never about morals and shit, it’s about who’s right and who’s wrong, and since we can’t talk to animals, we’ll really know the answer to that. That cat may want more mods, it may not and it may hate the shit out of it’s owners, dunno. It is a really ute kitty though. =]
It means the cat has been desexed here in Australia, and I am guessing it means the same overseas. When I first got my kitty cat, I had been saving up to get a tattoo and when I took her to the vet the price of having her desexed was the same as my tattoo. I was a little cranky at first missing out, but then when I took her home and noticed the tattoo I was happy. She got a tattoo before me!!! Under local anesthetic though of course.
oh noes, we caused the cat a small amount of pain in the interests of protecting it.
because i’m sure this is wayyyyy worse for the cat than betting neutered.
whatever. cute cat, cute commentary…hell, cute tattoo.
and 95 comments of dumb. good job, peeps!
I wish my vet would let me do that when I ID-tattooed him.
Haha Aww, pretty kitty. I did like the commentary, too. Haha,
and xROBx, the Cattoo bit made me giggle. My 5 year old sister calls tattoos “cattoos”, so it’s way cute.
I wish I could have a kitty!
Teehee to the background story of Yoshi.
😀
My rabbit,Tux, also has his name tattooed in his left ear, done by his breeder. He has also been chipped, as has my dog and 3 cats. Also, my one female cat has a dermal punched 2ga. hole in her ear. This was done when she was spayed, amd she wears her tunnel with pride!
#3 To me thats the same as tattooing your 3 month old baby… It`s stupid and cruel.
UM MY CATS HAVE ALL HAD TATTOOS INSIDE THEIR EARS IT’S SO THAT ITS CLEAR THEY’VE BEEN DESEXED AND EVERYTHING IT’S NOT FUCKING CRUEL. u obviously have no idea what you’re talking about, or didn’t read the caption. god.