My SO is the contact person for our town’s Chamber of Commerce. They have an email link on the Town website.
The town is sponsoring a drive to have all cat owners bring their cats in to be checked and vaccinated for rabies, and in addition to other forms of notification, had an article published in a relatively large regional newspaper.
The journalist stated that owners should use a cat-carrier to transport their pets to the site. As an alternative they could put the cat in pillowcase to transport it. (Where she got the information is anybody’s guess.)
Then the sh*t hit the fan, so to speak.
An anonymous surfer emailed every email link posted on the town website, with the most raging diatribe imaginable. She(?) was OUTRAGED and INCENSED that anyone would suggest this, and was going to report everyone to some unnamed humane services, cat in a pillowcase indeed! blah blah blah…
So, ignoring the fact that she shotgunned her email to everyone, including those who have nothing to do with it, and that she came off like a raving looney, the question remains:
Given that you could get a cat into a pillowcase, is it inhumane and nasty, just a dumb idea, or okey-dokey?
It is how we got Muffy out of the tree… (right after she pooped all over my dad who was trying to rescue her). Put her in a pillowcase, tied a rope to the pillowcase, and lowered her down. That said I think it would be wrong for more than just a minute or two.
In my experience, a “cat in a pillowcase”, in about 1.5 seconds, becomes “a shredded piece of cotton cloth and a cat running down the street as fast as his little legs will carry him”. At least, that’s how it happened one time when I was a kid and we tried to use a pillowcase, just to transfer him from the house to the car. We were leaving for vacation and had to drop the pets off at the vet’s.
Cats usually love poking around in bags or boxes, but strictly on their terms!
In my experience, a “cat in a pillowcase”, in about 1.5 seconds, becomes “a shredded piece of cotton cloth and a cat running down the street as fast as his little legs will carry him”. At least, that’s how it happened one time when I was a kid and we tried to use a pillowcase, just to transfer him from the house to the car. We were leaving for vacation and had to drop the pets off at the vet’s.
Cats usually love poking around in bags or boxes, but strictly on their terms!
Well, it’s certainly more secure than the “cat in a laundry basket” we tend to see. People are always so surprised when the cat tries to jump out of the moving open-topped basket…
It’s not ideal, but as long as you’re carrying the cat carefully (not bumping him into doorways, setting him down carefully, etc.) it’s not cruel. It’s better to put kitty in a sturdy carboard box with the flaps folded shut, though.
Shit. I used to transport my kitty over to my then-boyfriend’s house a couple times a week in a pillow case. No big kazowie. I’d tell that woman to take a chill pill. It isn’t abusive as a transport device.
I wonder why these people don’t have a carrier already? Or they can get a cardboard one for a few dollars at pretty much any shelter or pet store. I think carrying a cat in a pillowcase, while not exactly cruelty to animals if it’s only for a few minutes, is only going to make the cat more stressed out and nervous - not how you want them to act when you’re going to pull them out and poke them with needles.
I can’t help wondering what is so hard about getting a carrier. Plus to me, “cat in a pillowcase” creates the mental image of a big rock in there as well and a river nearby. :eek:
IMHO, if you have a pet, you should have an appropriate carrier for it.
I don’t know that I’d rely on it in this situation, but I have seen a pillowcase suggested as a good emergency cat carrier if you have a fire and need to evacuate.
Hell, with my brother’s cat, a pillowcase was the only way you could transport the beast. He’s moved cross-country threeish times, and his cat runs and hides at the sight of the kitty carrier. The few times you could get her, there was no way you were getting her into the carrier. It simply wasn’t going to happen.
It turned out to be much less fuss to use a pillowcase. It was only to get her in and out of the car, and was much more humane than a severly beaten cat (which we all wanted to do after dealing with the kitty carrier dance) and several scratched, bitten humans.
Why not put her in a pillowcase, and then put the pillowcase in a carrier, and then let her find her way out of the pillowcase on her own?
Or would she then flee and hide at every sight of a pillowcase?
I’m still of the opinion that if you are firm and persistent and insistent, the cat is going to wind up in the carrier. You just have to be fearless and accept a few scratches… you’re the one who chose a beast with razor claws as a pet. If you’re not willing to take a few gashes to teach it who’s boss, then, well, you’re not the boss…
My cat is a 20-lb tomcat who can go into Tazmanian Devil mode when he’s made to do something that he doesn’t want to do. Unless I make him do it. Why? Because he knows “homey don’t play dat.”
I worked as a receptionist in a vet’s office for several months. We had a client with umpteen cats. The client was a retired veterinarian. She would book the whole afternoon once a year to get her kitties checked over and vaccinated. And she always brought them in pillowcases. The other girls there told me about it, but I didn’t believe them until I saw it with my own eyes.
Y’all probably know how much racket a pissed-off cat in a carrier can make. Well, we never heard so much as a peep from those cats (close to 20 of them) the entire afternoon. I was amazed.
I think that pillowcasing the little monsters is almost certainly not animal abuse. Yeesh.
a few years ago, I was staying with a nice lady and her 2 kids.
They had a cat.
One day the boy (age 14) took the cat, Cahnce, put him in a pillowcase and swung it around.
The girl (about 9) was like NO!
Well.
The cat came out and went under the couch and did not come out the rest of the evening.
My son (and maybe me) found it quite funny.
Working in a pet store I saw all sorts of things. I made a pretty much weekly trip to the vet to get meds and the like, and there were a couple people there who I saw a few times who always had Kitty in a pillowcase, they said the cat would freak at the sight of people if they didnt. With the pillowcase on she could just pet them and wait patiently in the waiting room. Receptionist confirmed that finnicky cats often prefer the pillowcase, but that nearly all cats need to have some feeling of enclosure in public.
Well, if it was a choice between a kitty with no vaccination and a kitty in a pillowcase, I’d pick the kitty in the pillowcase every time. Rabies vaccinations are important enough for a cat to have to “suffer” in a pillowcase for a few minutes if need be.
My cats wouldn’t mind a pillowcase as long as they were carried gently. In fact, some cats seem to prefer not being able to see that they’re being moved around–keeps them from freaking out. One of my cats gets upset when she sees we’re going outside the house. Strangely, she likes the vet, and likes her carrier, but gets nervous about seeing that she’s being taken from her home. If she’s in a box where she can’t see out, she just settles down and snoozes until she’s let out. I’ve taken to covering the windows on her carrier, but hey, maybe next time I’ll try the pillowcase. She might prefer it.