Meow.camera

These feeders are part of a stray cat control program in China, aiming to both feed & neuter stray cat populations there.

There have been some distasteful incidents of online groups organizing to try and harm/kill specific cats famous through this feeder program. China lacks animal welfare laws to protect these cats, it's not a crime. So people have taken to identifying these abusers and reporting them to their employer, university etc. Abusers have been fired and expelled over such cases. Governments overseas whose citizens participate in such online abuse groups need to be doing more. Membership in online animal abuse groups needs to be criminalized.

There's some good explanation of what this is all about here: https://streetcat.wiki/

Specially, details of the actual feeders: https://streetcat.wiki/index.php/Stray_Cat_Feeders

Flipped to the second camera, and there's a hedgehog eating all the food!

https://imgur.com/MIcjP4a

EDIT: And now, what appears to be a Siberian weasel?

https://imgur.com/3oZpZpK

The Purrrr app (which shows feeders like this) is really quite an experience. It’s just as hyperactive as a Temu or AliExpress, with as much dopamine hacking as a TikTok, but… for good? I think?

The "Mr. Cloud & Mr. Peach (Yichen's Place)" feeder has an ant infestation and I just watched them team up to take a few kibble out of the feeder.

We need a remote-petting-arm so we can pet the cat'berts over long distance lines.

Also a microphone for receiving feedback.

This seems like a great program!

Small anectode;

My wife runs a cafe in Ankara, Turkey. A week after opening a random cat walked in and claimed one of the chairs.

We started feeding him. Then another walked in... We left a large automated feeder outside and started spaying / neutering, vaccinating, deworming them. I think we neutered close to 20-30 cats. A couple needed medical intervention (broken limbs, infections etc). And 2 I had to put down because they were too far gone. This effort alone put the neighborhood kitten population in control.

The place was aimed at health conscious / vegan people so the theme fit with cats hanging around.

It is really emotionally and financially draining to do these things. I've been fortunate enough to fund everything myself but I assume it is hard when scale grows larger and there is not enough help.

hello from the community! happy canteen gets a lot of food so if you want to donate i recommend checking out the less popular feeders. it is the most popular because mr fresh the meme cat who was adopted originated from there.

for those worried about the kitties every feeder has a different caretaker and some are more involved than others. from what ive seen a majority of the popular ones have either a dedicated caretaker or are involved with some business. unfortunately, you may come across feeders where the cats arent as cared for or where the caretaker lacks the funds to do so. to help with this the purrr app (where english speaking users can feed them) has a fund option where instead of feeding, you can support TNR or wellness treatments!

I just opened one up, two cats were waiting patiently, food came out, one cat hissed at the other and started eating. Very cat.

Well I certainly got sucked in by some cats staring at the camera with an empty bowl, got me buying them kibble.

Didn't expect to find something this wonderful on HN!

Good start to the morning.

Oh, wow, there's a whole mythos: https://streetcat.wiki/index.php/The_Exploration_Era

Sooo I really expected this to have a way to donate money to specific cats. If you added this feature I honestly think it'd be a viral idea.

As a Chinese I'm amazed that this app is totally unknown in China but get popular in HN

So this is like that fish camera thing where humans would identify when the fish ladder gate needed to be opened to let fish through, but this time it's for feeding stray kitties?

Or maybe there's no human interaction? I don't have the Purrr app.

Love this! Relatedly, does anyone have a suggestion for an outdoor solar-powered web camera that I could point at the critters in my garden? I'd love to stream a MonarchCam or MantisCam some day.

This is an interesting cat (as of 11:48 ET) https://meow.camera/#5087297507386435431

WOW this is amazing! There are many of these ‘smart kitty houses’ in my Shanghai neighbourhood!

This website has been posted twice already. What's new? https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=meow.camera

In one of the feeds (Mr. Fall) the cat is eating what looks like soap shavings or feathers or something. They apprear to be fairly light weight since the cat appears to be sort of licking them up. Any idea what they are?

How is this surviving the HN hug of death?

Why is this not bigger than skibidi toilet? I have three kids, two girls and one boy. My son loves skibidi toilet, but my girls outnumber him and they've NEVER told me about this.

POV: A bird's last view before being eaten by them

Mr. Sweetpea has ants in his food.

Cool project! The post title is not at all clear though. Maybe it could be clarified?

this is what the internet is for.

What is going on good cats! Mah kittahs; you are some good ass men I am thinking. :3

I don’t know why I expected anything else with that url.

Lucky 7-Eleven II is one weirrrrdd looking cat.

Ahhh history back button but love it

Jenny Cam has evolved so much

This is Meowlsome!! haha

hehe Catroulette

Now this is pure internet gold.

Mr. Sweetpea has ants in his food

I'm not vegan, but I'm always really surprised by the difference in how we see cats and pigs. See e.g. https://theintercept.com/2020/05/29/pigs-factory-farms-venti...

https://www.ted.com/talks/lewis_bollard_how_to_end_factory_f...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_molting

The US also has basically no animal welfare laws for the vast majority of its animals