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Discussion » Questions » Animals (Pets/ Domesticated) » What's the origin of the myth that cats can suck the breath out of babies?

What's the origin of the myth that cats can suck the breath out of babies?

Posted - October 24, 2018

Responses


  • 22853
    Yeah, good question!
    :)

    I haven't thought about that in a long time. I always found it a strange myth.
      October 24, 2018 10:00 PM MDT
    2

  • 17364
    "One case from 300 years ago may have given this tale all the oomph it needed to reach its current scare level. In the Annual Register, a publication that records the year’s interesting events, there is an entry for Jan. 25, 1791: “A child of eighteen months old was found dead near Plymouth; and it appeared, on the coroner's inquest, that the child died in consequence of a cat sucking its breath, thereby occasioning a strangulation." Coroner knows best, so it must be true, right?"

    https://www.livescience.com/22449-do-cats-really-kill-babies-by-sucking-away-their-breath.html
      October 24, 2018 10:15 PM MDT
    3

  • 6023
    You can check Facebook, and there are hundreds of stories of people who own cats ... waking because their cat is laying on their face.

    So I'm guessing the myth came from that.

    LOL
      October 25, 2018 8:56 AM MDT
    1

  • 22891
    not sure
      October 25, 2018 2:56 PM MDT
    0