Shooting harmful nuisance animals is a practical way to deal with them.
Is it legal to shoot or drown a stray cat? I imagine if your neighbor drives by when you’re unloading a Glock into a cat, the police are probably going to be called. I seem to recall that Texas vet who crossbowed a feral had a grand jury investigating the incident. What’s the legality of this? As a side question, when are you allowed to euthanize your own pet?
I know it’s not legal to discharge a firearm in City limits where I live, so good point. I sure as hell hope this never happens again, but people need to know it’s just not easy to get rid of an unwanted stray!
Legally, you’re entitled to take your pet to the vet for euthanasia any time you like. Pets are personal property under U.S. law. Pets are euthanized every day for good reasons like terminal illness and bad reasons like their owners are bored with them and don’t want to feed them anymore.
However, if the pet is happy and healthy the vet is perfectly entitled to refuse to kill it. Many vets rescue unwanted animals this way. It’s not ideal - they’re not rescue organizations and don’t have the facility to keep and feed a bunch of surrendered animals, so I don’t advocate doing this. But I have heard many stories of vet staff feeling that if they didn’t immediately take the pet, it would be killed one way or another, so they take it.
Actually I was thinking more along the lines of whether it’s ever permissible to euthanize the pet yourself. For instance if it had been struck by a car or otherwise gravely injured. Also I assume the rules are different for lizards and snakes as opposed to cats and dogs. Maybe I should start my own thread…
I don’t know the legalities of that, I suspect it depends on the state or local laws. But setting the law aside, lots of people do it. If you do it in your own home or fenced back yard for example, nobody sees, who’s to stop you?
She didn’t crossbow a feral. She crossbowed Tiger, a neighbor’s pet cat.
She was fired.
No criminal legal repercussions followed as, without Tiger’s body, they couldn’t prove it was Tiger.
However, she did face the vet board which pulled her license — though she’s appealing the decision.
https://www.thedodo.com/victory-for-tiger-1381590112.html
And I don’t think it’s legal under any circumstances to euthanize your own pet in Florida anymore. Last time I checked the law (after this man got arrested for shooting thousands of racing greyhounds – the owners turned “ownership” over to this man who then killed the dogs by shooting them), I found out you can’t do that. Euthanasia has to be done by a professional.
I think if this OP had come to the Dope and asked for donations to pay for having this cat neutered, the amount needed would have been raised in a couple of hours.
And I once knew a feral cat who was finally neutered (paid for by the guys who worked in our warehouse; they took up a collection because the cat sprayed so badly) and turned into a love bug, so it could happen. And if it didn’t at least he’d have been stopped from spreading his genes around.
In Michigan (at least in my county) we have to provide our own traps.
Bolding mine.
It varies by location. Here, the local cat lovers society will provide you with a trap or two if you are catching feral cats to have them neutered. They will pay for the procedure if you can not afford it.
Many other places do not have such a service, & you have to supply your own traps. This is why I have some traps of my own.