Loose kittens halt NYC subway for hours

Two stray kittens caused a subway train in Brooklyn to be closed for hours as workers tried to corral them. This was on a busy line and inconvenienced thousands of passengers, in the hot sun. I wonder if anybody stopped to calculate the value of the lost productivity due to this shutdown. Also consider that the cats had a good chance of surviving anyway with the subways running, as they dodge cars all the time. I would also submit for consideration that these cats will probably be taken to an animal shelter where they probably get killed anyway. Should they get adopted, some other cats will die, as the supply of unwanted animals far exceeds demand.

The question for the forum is whether the subway should have been stopped over this?

Link to story on today.com.

What's the EV on betting the "tie" for Schrödinger's cat?

The subway should not have been shut down for feral cats. Sorry, but you are right in they could dodge trains.

They will be adopted, but I disagree they will displace other adoptions. When animals like this make the news people fight to adopt them. Said people were not planning in adopting in the short-term. Long-term you many be more correct in the displacement.

I knew some of the people involved with the trapped whale story in 1988. They were eventually released by a Russian icebreaker. There were three whales, and one died.

BAsically whales are trapped by ice all the time. They keep coming up the same hole as they can't make it to open ocean. The locals wait until the whale dies or so weak that it is easily killed. They then have several tons of meat.



For some reason a local television reporter got wind of this story, and decided a human interest story would advance his career. The locals magically transformed themselves into a grassroots movement that was trying to rescue the trapped whales. The Alaskan government put many people on a payroll to cut ice.

As the story went global,it was starting to eclipse the Presidential election that would occur in a few weeks. The Russians saw an opportunity to establish some good will for the new President who would succeed Ronald Reagan. They volunteered an icebreaker to free the whales by cutting a channel.

A few weeks later, the film Star IV was released. In this film the key to survival of mankind is dependent on the Starship Enterprise travelling back in time and securing two humpback whales (extinct in the future) and releasing them on Earth so they could answer an alien probe.

Gray whales had been put on the Endangered Species list in 1970, as there population had been decimated in the mid 19th century. But they have a much higher rate of reproduction than other species. By 1988 they were recovered, and were eventually declared no longer an Endangered Species officially five years later.

Most scientists (including the ones I knew) objected very much to putting that kind of effort to prevent a very natural death.

Quote: aceofspades

What's the EV on betting the "tie" for Schrödinger's cat?

It varies with the particular intepretation of quantum mechanics, between 0% and 100%

One of the waiting motormen behind the stalled train was probably about to retire and needed some overtime to boost his pension.

At least one of the NY newspapers had fun with the story, using the headline "Pussy problems"

Who voted to stop the subways?

There are over half a million mice that live in London subways. Maybe they should stop for cute little mice.

Quote: Pacomartin

There are over half a million mice that live in London subways. Maybe they should stop for cute little mice.

I can't speak for London mice, but the ones that live in the NYC subways are filthy grey ones.

I roughly calculate the value of lost productivity to the Brooklyn shutdown at half a million dollars. Why do we lose that much over two cats but don't mind eating a chicken or hamburger? Personally, I value life according to how intelligent and human-like it is.