o_O

[rivendellrose]

Now here's an odd one.

From September, 2003: Common infection passed from cats to humans may alter personalities.

I do not even know how to begin to think about this.

And here. Have another one while I'm at it: Some PETA workers in NC seem to have gone round the bend and come out on the opposite side of what PETA usually works for?

Comments

[pandorasbox.livejournal.com]

that explains it all completely! posting this in my journal

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it just? It's mind-boggling, but it makes a twisted, bizarre sort of sense....

[pandorasbox.livejournal.com]

I am responsible for the litter box, so it makes wierd perfect sense. They don't metion a cure though.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. I don't think there is one - I know they've never found a preventive or cure for the problems with pregnant women, so this is probably the same.

[scearley.livejournal.com]

Toxoplasma has also been linked to bi-polar disorder, except that the correlation isn't as strict as the doctors wanna think. People presenting with first-episode schizophrenia had higher levels of Toxoplasmosis anitbodies; but 30% of americans aged 10-19 have evidence of exposure to the toxoplasma and there certainly aren't that many Americans showing symptoms of mental disorders, let alone specifically first-episode schizophrenia.

(cf. Hinze-Selch, Bipolar Disorders, 2002)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's really interesting... I wonder if it's at all a causative effect, or just something correlated in another way that's being confused for a causative?

For instance, mightn't it be that women and men who have cats mght have these personality traits they're discussing to begin with, whereas men and women who have dogs are less likely to have those traits? I'm sure it couldn't be scientifically proven, but there really do seem to be "dog people" and "cat people" personality types, and I don't think that can purely be blamed on these antibodies...

[scearley.livejournal.com]

Yeha that's what I'm thinking, at least about the slight personality changes the article you link to refers to.

Just about the only way to get Toxoplasmosis is to handle cat feces. So if you described a man as "scruffy and antisocial" then mentioned that "oh yeah, he's been juggling cat shit too" then you wouldn't think that the presence of cats in his life caused this, you'd have to think that something clicked in the guy's mind that the Toxo is merly enhancing.

Or at least I would.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That would be my impulse, too. Especially since the stereotypes they listed about women who have the infection are pretty much the stereotypes of the kind of woman who tends to like cats. Unless you go completely to the other end of the stereotype with the "crazy old cat lady."

I would definitely need more evidence (especially evidence that it was getting the cat that created this personality type, not that it was pre-existing) in order to believe this.

[scearley.livejournal.com]

The corollary is more interesting. That first-episode schizophrenics across the board have more toxoplasmosis antibodies than other people, including later-episode schizophrenics.

Which could mean that either exposure to toxo alters a healthy mind, or that the onset of schizophrenia increases antibodies for a disease in the body when there is no disease. That brings up the metaphor that the onset of schizophrenia is like getting a shot of penicillin.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Like I posted elsewhere, I'm pretty sure it's PETA member extremists who believe animals are better off dead than 'slaves to humans'. You get those every now and again. They'd also rather euthanize animals than put them in zoos. It's insane and sick, but not surprising.

[scearley.livejournal.com]

But it doesn't explain why they got dumpstered, and not otherwise burned/buried, etc.

Or why they just didn't free them like the lab animals.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

To draw attention to it. PETA always, always, always craves attention, good or bad.

Because it's better this way. No, seriously, I've run into so many PETA people who swear up and down that an animal is better off dead once it's been 'mentally ruined' by humans.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Possibly for the publicity? If they bury or burn the animals, no one finds out and they get none. Just a thought.
The people they interviewed slayed me with the "it's so cruel to put their dead bodies in a dumpster, they deserve a burial....well, how about, they didn't deserve to be killed instead? Isn't THAT the point? :P

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I've heard of that before, definitely, but it just seems totally crazy to put them in dumpsters like that. That doesn't seem like PETA at all, although I admit that I don't have much experience with them (thank god).

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Attention. It gets them attention.

The only other thing I can think of is that someone's trying to bring PETA down from the inside. Or they may have been planning on blaming it on someone else.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's kind of what I was thinking - that someone might be trying to make PETA look bad and ruin what little reputation they have.

You might be right about the attention thing, though. If these are folks within the group who've decided to go gung-ho with the "better dead than enslaved" idea, I suppose they might just be nuts enough to go for this.

[scearley.livejournal.com]

I'd just think that they wouldn't be in PETA, they'd be in something like ALF.

Or maybe they just got severe toxoplasmosis.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Very very severe.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Yup, they must have severe toxoplasmosis!

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

These are people who have been known to throw buckets of entrails on passer-bys wearing fur. And have repeatedly protested to let animals die/be killed rather than have them go to zoos/shelters/refuges. I really wouldn't put anything passed them.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

And: http://photobucket.com/albums/v197/ladyfeylene/sibyll/

Emma Thompson with Sibyll like expressions for you. :D

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yay, thank you!!!