Comments on: Looks like a job for the Amazing Randi

By: Scott Simmons

Scott Simmons — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:03:39 +0000

You know, if a human were coincidentally present at over 50 deaths, there would be some kind of police investigation in progress. But evidently, just because they’re cute and fuzzy, domestic felines get a free pass.

By: IreneD

IreneD — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:40:05 +0000

So, it’s a real phenomenon? Interesting. But when I read about Oscar being ordinarily “unsociable”, I wonder if it’s not a case of the cat looking for a spot that is both warm (like a human body) and very quiet (like somebody very feeble and close to death). My two cents, anyway.

By: pworthen

pworthen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:16:36 +0000

Clearly, rob is on to something.

By: rob

rob — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:22:16 +0000

confirmation bias my ass.

c’mon people! what are the odds that the cat just happened to be around 50 people right when they died?

obviously the cat killed them.

By: DRK

DRK — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:41:42 +0000

The New England Journal of medicine article from 2007 is a quick anecdotal account of this cat; it is not a scientific study. The reason Oscar’s in the news again is that the author of the article has now written a book about death and dying.

Judging by the account, there is probably not a lot of confirmation bias here; the cat is unsociable and only hangs out with dying patients. Since the facility where this cat lives is for geriatric dementia patients, his “talent” mostly comes in handy so the nursing staff can give families a heads-up that their loved one is near death. Evidently, Oscar has not made a lot of wrong calls.

I agree with pworthen’s post; this is an interesting observation, perhaps worthy of follow-up. There’s no reason to call it bunk, particularly. (I was not able to find the Ben Goldacre article, perhaps Madscientist could link to it)? In the meantime, file this under the same heading as the dogs who can smell impending seizures. Maybe Oscar just likes the way people smell when they die….

By: Treppenwitz

Treppenwitz — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:33:27 +0000

I just don’t like to see people dismissing interesting observations out-of-hand.

I hope that’s not how I came across. I don’t see anything blatantly wrong with the hypothesis that something occurs shortly before death that is detectable by animals. What raised a flag for me was that the three articles I’ve seen on this cat in the past couple of days have all cited 50 hits without any mention of a rate.

By: pworthen

pworthen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:35:34 +0000

Yes, that’s part of what I meant by “appropriate follow-up.” I just don’t like to see people dismissing interesting observations out-of-hand.

By: Treppenwitz

Treppenwitz — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:54:32 +0000

Who knows, perhaps dying people really do release an odor that cats can pick up.

Perhaps they do, but the first step in figuring out what’s going on should be ruling out explanations like confirmation bias.

By: pworthen

pworthen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:44:54 +0000

I think rather than talk about confirmation bias straightaway, this might be an interesting opportunity to explore something unknown about animal physiology. I mean, it might be nothing more than confirmation bias, but they do seem to address that in the article, and the doctor they interviewed sounds like he’s a pretty sharp guy (he is also trying to sell a book, though.) Anyway, I think when you see something like this, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of scientific discoveries that begin with someone looking at something and saying “isn’t that odd?” and then doing the appropriate follow-up. Who knows, perhaps dying people really do release an odor that cats can pick up.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:18:28 +0000

IanW: Oscar has been in the business for a long time, but the research that is reported here (via the link) is new. Not that I subscribe to the rule that if it is more than 9 days old it isn’t bloggable.