re: #283 jvic

allegro #269,

IMHO the crux is whether the predator gets pleasure from tormenting the prey: if you will, from prolonging the killing process.

Cf. Political Atheist #257.

(My attempt to post a more detailed reply was rejected with a Duplicate Comment message. It might be Firefox, which has started crashing after years of smooth performance.)

“Tormenting” is not a cat/predator concept. Prolonging a kill, in our eyes, is in theirs a process of weakening prey to make a successful kill. What we see in domesticated cats, that we see as play, is a form of natural behavior manifestation. They don’t need to kill for food but the instincts are still there and they will eat the prey if they successfully manage to kill it or offer it as a gift, as a big cat will offer a gift to the leader of a pride.