Image: https://www.petgreens.com
Originally written in 2018-12:
Comment on Hacker News about gwern's catnip study:
One of my cats only responds to it when not being watched. If you give her catnip then she will pretend that it is not interesting until I leave the room. If I peek in 30 seconds later then she is rolling around with it acting crazy, but the moment she notices that I can see her she immediately stops and resumes pretending that it has no effect.
I wonder why almost everybody seems to think it's okay to give cats psychedelics, all the while the "consensus" seems to be that normal people shouldn't have access to such drugs. Is use of catnip not similar to giving drugs to a child who doesn't have the means to decide whether they should take them? I'm not commenting here whether psychedelics should be regulated, feline or human. But these days pets seem to be treated basically as family members with rights akin to children, and I bet not many cat owners have thought about this very thoroughly.