There are several options out there, and most of them don't have a failure mode that could potentially harm your fur babies. They just stop working when something goes wrong. The one in the video has a design that is just inherently dangerous.

Just saw this video earlier today. Heartbreaking. I hope the online retailers respond and take action to get these things off the market. The design is just inherently dangerous.

What it's made from is irrelevant. Plastic doesn't break down in the gut and can cause dangerous blockages.

Same. We adopted a boy in August that is the most chill, patient, and friendly cat I've ever shared a house with. I mean, I've had friendly cats before, but they're usually still pretty aloof. This boy just always wants to be where the people are, soaking up attention like a sponge. He is the stark opposite of his big sister, who will flee at the slightest unexpected noise or movement and has been known to claw and bite people who try to pet her without an explicit invitation.

Inpurrvention?

Our cat would get so stressed when I tried to put her in a carrier that she would attack me. I still have a scar on my left arm where she bit me hard enough to sink her canine teeth all the way in. I had to cancel the vet appointment that day because I was bleeding profusely and the cat was hiding somewhere in the house.

After that I bought a soft carrier, too. Mine is called "Cat in the Bag" or something like that. It's literally a canvas sack with a zipper, a carry strap, and a head hole with velcro adjustment. I just pop it over her head, adjust it to fit, then zip her up. She's contained but her head is out and she can look around freely. She still doesn't like it, but she doesn't freak out and go into fight mode.

A lot of times they will mount them to the wall if the unit is small enough. It's cheaper and the refrigerant line run is shorter. But for larger units it's common practice to mount them on a concrete pad on the ground. In this case, someone probably just didn't want to spring for the wall mounting hardware, so they put it on a couple cinder blocks. It's not ideal, but it doesn't really hurt anything.

I'm not sure why you think that would be an issue. Mounting the exterior compressor close to the ground is common practice for ease of maintenance. Getting it wet isn't really a problem. I'm not really sure why we're having HVAC install discussions in a cat forum though :P

I'm a little confused why this is in the news. First off, it's just a House Resolution. It's has no legally binding repercussions. It's basically the House of Representatives as a group making a statement: "We don't like anti-Semitism". The definition of anti-Semitism they decided to point to is the thing that's really in contention. But again, this affects nobody but the US House of Representatives.

Secondly, the vote on this took place in December. So it seems kind of late to be raging over it.

Full text of the resolution: https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hres894/BILLS-118hres894ih.pdf
Summary of action: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/894/all-info

If you're in the US and it really bugs you, I'd suggest looking up how your district representative voted and let them know how you feel about it.

Lol, okay. Wikipedia and Reuters are not US government owned or even US-based media sources, and the wiki article is well cited by sources all over the globe. The US state department posts are just there as a tl;dr to be honest. But sure, any source that doesn't align with your personal narrative must be biased propaganda. I note you didn't actually address the point.

If he was so unpopular, then why did Putin try to assassinate him, then imprison him on fabricated charges with no intent to ever release him? Why couldn't he just defeat him in a fair election and then ignore him?

• https://www.state.gov/second-anniversary-of-the-poisoning-of-aleksey-navalny/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexei_Navalny#:~:text=Traces%20of%20the%20Novichok%20nerve,other%20undisclosed%20object(s).
• https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-critic-alexei-navalny-says-he-has-received-new-criminal-charges-2023-12-01/
• https://www.state.gov/conviction-and-sentencing-of-aleksey-navalny-on-additional-politically-motivated-charges/
• https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/04/europe/navalny-extremism-trial-verdict-russia-intl/index.html

Thanks. I thought that still seemed really high.