Survey: Game systems causing cat-astrophic pet injuries

We're already well acquainted with the idea of Wiis (and their remotes) injuring humans and TV sets. Now the UK's Telegraph is reporting that game systems are also causing a veritable epidemic of injuries to pets. A survey of 3,000 British pet owners shows that a full 10% of pets were injured by a Wii , while 8.3% sustained PlayStation-related injuries and 5.8% got injured by a DS.

Even accounting for some overlap between systems, those numbers would seem to suggest that British veterinarians are being overrun by little critters who chewed through component cables, swallowed portable systems, tripped on controller cords and the like. The numbers are much less worrying, though, when you consider the source for the survey: pet insurance provider PetPlan. Reminds us of that used car dealer who told us rust-proofing would increase the resale value of our car by 50% -- just not that credible. We still got the rust-proofing, though. When it comes to our Fiat, our motto is: better safe than sorry.

Reader Comments (30)

I'm sorry, but how does a pet get injured by a playstation?

If you put a circular saw blade in the disc drive and then the cat steps on the 'eject' button then maybe, but I'm guessing that's not a statistically likely event.

I guess someone got mad over a MGO incident and decided that the mature thing to do was to throw the controller to Mr.Mittons over there.

That or the PS strangles pets at night to power its cell, I dunno.

OH NO MITTONS!!!

And in other news, research suggests that the pets that are injured by consoles live much better lives than their wild counterparts.

Not sure, but maybe broken teeth from chewing my PS2 controller shortly after buyin the darn thing, or broken ribs by my foot when I kicked him for it..

J/K on the kicking thing, but I wanna see the numbers of Console deaths related to Pets.. I know of 1 Very good DualShock that bit the dust.. Oh and then he downed a bottle of Excedrin to ease the pain, I guess.. My old dog(puppy he was) was fine when I got home, we still took him to the vet to be sure.. But it did cost me the price of a new controller..

I always wonder where Mr. Nibbles my pet hamster went, but that 360 power brick has been smellin' funny.
Hmmmm.

Dogs are always tripping over cables and cords, and cats pull on them intentionally, so none of this really surprises me.

My old SNES got pulled down from both the controllers and the power cable by my family's various pets. The dogs always managed to get out of the way, but the cats always got hit square in the face.

I doubt those cats would survive a PS3 to the face, though.

OMG Ps3 can kill your Cat!

I wouldn't be surprised if this argument gets used in a forum somewhere.

Mr.ESC, you have a stalker now :P

About two months ago we were all stalking him, or his non-presence.

This is nothing new. I bet the original Xbox caused a few Fluffies and Rovers to see the Reaper.

It's more to do with the systems not being properly placed on their respective shelves/Stacks-O-Lectronics and with the natural curiosity of domestic animals to pull on the funny cords the humans are also pulling on. I wonder if PetPlan has the numbers on how many pets were horribly menaced by evil DVD players in the last year.

I felt like killing my puppy Labrador when he ate the cord of my 360 controller and my GoW disc.Does that count as a console system related pet injury?

[No puppies were harmed in the process.That bastard proved way too cute for me to smack him.]

A corded controller? That sounds almost quaint in this day and age.

Yeah, I usually use it as a backup and for PC Gaming.

I struck my dog with the wii controller once while bowling.

He died three months later.

:(

This just in:
Kangaroo hurt in Wii Boxing Match

I could see it happening

My cat loves to chew on power cords, because he knows that it makes us freak out and pay attention to him when he wants it

He just doesn't know that a painful death is less than an inch from his fangs.

This is exactly the reason behind my friends and I dubbing the loos-connecting end piece of the original XBOX controller the "Dog-Piece". God bless that little miracle wire. I cant tell you how many times my dog pulled my PS1 and N64 off the shelf.

I'd pay to see a dog eat a DS... I'd pay 129.99 + tax to see it.

Wow. That's about the saddest picture I've ever seen in my life.

My little dog broke her leg once jumping off the couch. She tripped over the controller's cable mid-jump and snapped her little leg. :(

Watching her run around with a cast on her leg was pretty funny though. She dribbled it like a basketball.

Animals? How about the children hurt by animals while playing video games?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z1vuiy9IVo

funniest thing I've seen in a while

*stutters* THAT'S PREPOSTEROUS!!

yall should see what dr. robotnik does to animals.

Wireless controllers is a first step. Next is to design TV furniture so that consoles stay out of reach from animals.

As for portable systems, I do remember about dogs having chewed Gameboys beyond repair, but swallowing them? Just remember to keep them out of reach as well, like in your drawer, mmkay?

I know someone who killed his friend's dog by smacking it in the temple when it jumped in the way during a game of WiiSports Bowling. During a Christmas party.

when my brother had to stay with my uncle his ps2 got attacked by my uncle's pitbull. the dog chewed the disc drive face of were the ps symbol was and various other holes were in the case and control pads. one controller had it's wire chewed through along with the av/rf switch adaptor. the ps2 still worked most of the time but he gave it to a friend when i gave him mine that i replaced with a ps2 with a modem. if only the ps2 knew self defense

I think the break in catastrophic in the title may be in bad tase.

Survey: Game systems causing cat-astrophic pet injuries

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: Oct 20th 2008 12:00PM Haggard said

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