Poisoning someone’s pets doesn’t strike you as mental?
This demented old woman who has NO perspective felt justified in causing the death of these two pets. She would have been kinder TO SHOOT THEM. She let them be poisoned by a neurological toxin.
I hope she gets at least six months in jail.
This bitch needs to learn that taking matters into her own hands this way to “protect” the songbirds is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
I think they did know she had a problem with their cats - the article says the father knew who poisoned them because she was the one who had complained to animal control. He went into her yard and found the cat food can.
Maybe she thought that was preferable to complaining to the family directly. Once my great-grandmother complained to her next-door neighbor about something silly. Something about a big light he had outside in his yard…I don’t remember the details. He waited until she came home alone one night (my great-grandfather traveled a lot) and when she got out of her car he threatened her with some type of yard tool. My great-grandmother is 4’10" and weighs 100 lbs on a “fat day”. He was almost 6 foot tall. That’s indimidating, especially for elderly ladies. It seems to me that this lady lives alone, from the article. I don’t doubt she didn’t confront them directly.
:smack: Yes, yes he did. Loaded Dog, I appologize. I should have paid better attention.
Acting all hurt and pissed about it is mental. Because they were pets is totally irrelevant. They were a nuisance on property that they were trespassing on. They should be able to be dealt with like any other pest on one’s private property. If you can poison gophers, then you ought to be able to poison cats wether feral or not. I probably would have used a cage trap and let the pound kill them and/or fine the irresponsible cat owners. But I sure and the hell wouldn’t begrudge someone of dealing with them in another totally logical manner. The ONLY people that should be responsible of any illegality here are clearly the irresponsible cat owners. Unfortunately we lived in a fucked up where animal rights, nutcases like the people wanting this lady to do time have gained far too much say in what is legal and illegal.
People! I know this is an emotional issue. But, please, let’s accept that no one is going to change anyone else’s views here.
State your opinions, please. But do not attack other posters views.
If things keep going on as they have been, I’ll ask for the thread to be closed - I don’t want to host a train wreck.
I have 8 cats. Other than the fact that 6 of mine were born outside as babies of ferals, they have never been outside. I will concede that it is difficult to get a cat who is used to going outside to be happy without that priviledge. However, they don’t miss what they have never known. The one time my Siamese, Valentino, got outside (we were draining the waterbed with the hose throught the bedroom window and he had snuck in the bedroom without my knowledge) he crawled under the car and started screaming (and Siamese can scream) for rescue. Mine will sit in the window of the cat suite and look out, but I have never seen them scratching at the window as if they want to go out there.
Human factors account for many more bird deaths than cats. Most domestic cats really aren’t very good hunters.
The poisoner will get what is coming to her, eventually. Og doesn’t like people who cause kitties to suffer.
I used to live close to UNC-CH’s campus*. When there was a basketball game, occasionally some asshole would park his car in my front yard so that he wouldn’t have to walk as far to the game.
Which of the following actions would’ve been okay for me to take?
If you answered “3,” I invite you to review the vandalism laws in your community.
Even if we accept that cats are “things,” they’re different “things” from gophers inasmuch as they’re someone else’s property, and we are not allowed to destroy someone else’s property simply because it ends up on our property. We’re certainly allowed to take measure to remove it from our property and penalize them, but destroying their property is not one of our options.
Frankly, nobody in the story comes off well. The family should not have let their cats roam free, especially after having been told that it bothered a neighbor; the neighbor should not have poisoned the cats. I would like to see all of them brought up on appropriate charges, and for the case to receive high visibility.
Daniel
Cats who live indoors live more than twice as long as outdoor cats. And, they can be perfectly happy. One of our cats is about to celebrate her 20th.
Now, I admit that cats that got used to going outside will want to get back outside. The trick is to never let them outside on their own (without a leash). Then, they will be perfectly content. They will watch life through a window, sure; but they won’t want to go outside.
(Of course, in rural areas, dudes will have ‘farm cats’ whose job it is to keep rodents down. They aren’t really pets, and a rural area is safer.)
The lady in question had every right to call the Pound. Or even humanely trap the cats and take them to the Pound. But she had no right whatsoever to kill them. For doing so, she should face a hefty fine and some jail time, but the only vengance the cat’s owners should have is sueing her, and being a witness in court.
I just read about this on TSG today, and was really surprised! These people live right down the street from me. Our neighborhood is one of the most liberal in Madison (lots of grad students, families, artsy types, mom and pop businesses) and really community-centered. When it’s not malevolently cold, people are outside a lot, and sometimes their pets are, too.
I can think of at least five cats that I see outside on a regular basis that live within a block of me. It’s really common in this neighborhood. While I wouldn’t let my own cat outside, I realized pretty quickly that a lot of cat owners around here hold a different opinion, and it wasn’t worth getting worried every time I saw a cat lurking around.
IMO, it’s really strange that those two cats were the only ones the woman ever saw… I’ve found people to be pretty friendly here, and it’s a shame the two couldn’t find a more peaceful solution.
Otaku, you should probably ask to have this moved to IMHO, since it really isn’t a Pitting, and you don’t want it to go there.
First, cats are not “things.” They are animals, and most are pets.
Second, lots of urban areas have laws regarding cats roaming free. Calgary does not allow cats to roam free - owners will be fined if their pets are caught.
Third, cats can be leash-trained. Mine is. And Snakescatlady is right - if they are brought up as indoor cats, they don’t miss it.
Fourth, cats roaming free (that is, illegal cats) are a danger to cats outside on leashes (that is, legal cats). Cats like to fight strange cats. When my cat is outside on a leash and a free-range cat strolls by, she is likely to hurt herself trying to get at the stranger on her yard.
So, to answer the OP, the old lady probably should have trapped the cats and brought them to the SPCA, but the owners shouldn’t have let their cats get in her yard in the first place. I know very well that my cats are not welcome in my neighbours’ yards, and theirs are not welcome in mine - don’t most pet owners know this? I take steps to prevent my cats from going visiting where I know they’re not welcome.
No, I don’t think they do. And that’s because the culture varies from area to area.
When I was growing up, everyone let their cats run free. It would’ve seemed strange to do otherwise. Same thing with dogs: nobody in our neighborhood kept their dog on a leash or in a pen. The only time anyone complained was if a neighbor’s dog knocked over your trash, and in such a case, you called your neighbor and made them send one of their kids over to clean it up.
In my county, there are still plenty of areas where dogs and cats run free. I don’t much like it, but that’s how it is. But the county is changing from a rural one to a suburban one, and the ordinances for years have said that animals may not run free, and slowly, slowly, it’s percolating through the culture, such that people know they can’t do that.
But neither can they kill owned animals that end up on their property: if they do so, we try to let them realize that they’re risking felony animal cruelty charges (depending on the circumstances of the killing).
Daniel
Firstly, no. I’m. not. going. to. shoot. anyone (I don’t think Johnny Cash was really going to shoot anyone he caught burning ‘his’ flag either). It was a spot of hyperbole. Sometimes ya realy need to spell things out on these boards. However, if I did catch anybody trying to hurt/kill one of my cats, that person could reasonably expect a punch on the nose. That isn’t hyperbole. Though, if you want to believe I’m a “dangerous nutcase”, go right ahead.
The other thing worth pointing out is that I’m not a ‘townie’ by nature. Although I live in the city now. I have shot kangaroos, wallabies, rabbits, foxes, and yes… cats. Feral ones that is, way out in the back of nowhere. I have shot animals that are in plague numbers destroying crops (there are many more 'roos and wallabies here than when European settlers first arrived), and others that destroy the native ecology (the rabbits fall into both groups). I have assisted in the human slaughter of farm animals. I’ve done all this without batting an eyelid, but I have never hunted for the heck of it, and I would NEVER poison an animal, as I believe that is barbaric.
I fully understand the incredible harm cats have done on the ecology of my country. It would be far better if there weren’t any cats here to start with. But they’re here, and they’re a part of our culture. My own cats aren’t out destroying native marsupial populations - sad fact is here in Sydney my cats’ ancestors many, many, many generations removed probably already took care of that. I’m in the middle of suburbia. The ecology here is comprised mostly of introduced pests, and my cats do kill introduced mouse species. I have never seen my cats (only one of them now actually if you read my above posts) stray further than one house away. This, of course, isn’t to say many cats do indeed roam, but for whatever reason the one cat I own that leaves my property does so infrequently and keeps close.
So, as stated before, I have two options:
As for those offended by the toddler example, lets take it the other way and use an inanimate object. Let’s say I lose control of my car coming home one night, and that I end up driving it into my neighbour’s front yard. The accident, down to bald tyres blowing out or whatever, is totally my fault. My car messes up my neighbour’s flowerbeds (the automotive equivalent of crapping in them). Does the neighbour have a right to be upset? Yep. Does he have a right to take certain actions agains me? Yep. Are there defined legal processes for those actions? Yep. Now, does he have the right to douse my car in petrol and set fire to it, seeing as it’s on his property and all? No bloody way. So how is it different with cats?
What I don’t get, and will never get, about these threads on this board is that on one hand, if you don’t keep your own cats indoors, feeding them caviar out of silver bowls, and generally anthropomorphising the living crap out of the poor buggers, then you are a wickedly cruel monster, but on the other hand it’s fine to poison other people’s cats, leaving them to die an agonising foaming-at-the-mouth death. I stand by my position on cats as being relatively moderate.
I wish my cats to enjoy a bit of sunlight. The only person negatively affected by this is one grumpy old neighbour who has proven himself to be a complete arsehole, and the effect on that neighbour is marginal. Really, if you knew this old bloke, you could excuse me for purchasing a chimpanzee and training it to go next door and shit on his doorstep. Come to think of it, why bother with the chimp… 
AAah. Left Hand of Dorkness has already used my car example, I see. Apologies there.
It is common knowledge that an Angel gets its wings everytime when a cat is killed. God, like most hetersosexual men, hate cats.
It is common knowledge that an Angel gets its wings everytime that a cat is killed. God, like most hetersosexual men, hates cats.
Can’t even get a joke right without preview. :smack:
My, my, my how people make assumptions. I read, while lurking before I joined, that “Og” was the accepted term to use to represent Deity. Whatever gave you the misguided idea that I was refering to the Christians God?
According to the legal papers republished by The Smoking Gun, the neighbour tried contacting his vet once he’d found the cats but the office was shut and a voicemail directed him to contact an emergency clinic. The question is – while the emergency clinic gave the opinion the the cats were poisoned, was euthanasia an available option? I agree with those of you who’ve pointed this out – the poor cats should have been euthanased. On contacting a vet, unless I was told by said vet to wait (and even then, after one bad experience with a vet, I’d bloody well insist on the needle for the cat), those animals should have been put out of their misery.
We have two indoor cats. They love to sit by a window and watch the birds at the feeders, and they enjoy watching the stray cats who come and sit on the deck. They talk to each other through the door, and occasionally one of them will leap at the other and hit the glass.
I wouldn’t consider doing anything about the strays. They leave hair and dirt on the deck chairs, and poop in the garden, but we deal with it. Cover the chairs, and wear gloves while gardening. (I’ve heard neighbors threaten to poison them, but so far, it appears to be all talk.)
The woman who poisoned the cats was wrong, and probably hates cats more than she loves songbirds. The cat owner was wrong for not responding to the complaints, but that’s typical of pet owners who don’t want to curb “natural” animal behavior. (Indigo pets? Hmmmm.)
It’s too bad those kids had to see their cats die, and too bad the neighbors couldn’t have talked to each other about the problem.
When a new neighbor moved in and let their dog roam all over town, hubby took him a beer, explained about the leash law, and he’s been controlling the dog.
When the neighbor left the dog tied up outside last week, in the heat, with no shade and no water, hubby took water and doggie treats to the dog, and yet another beer to the neighbor when he got home from work.
I figure it’ll take a 6-pack before the neighbor gets it, but I’m pretty sure he will, eventually.
The woman shouldn’t have poisoned the cats; it really was an extreme way to deal with a minor nuisance. However, I don’t think she’s a bitch for doing so,nor do I think jail time is reasonable. I feel bad for the family who lost their pets, and poisoning isn’t an easy death, but this doesn’t fill my with rage, or even indignation. The most I can muster is a head shake and a “jeez, what happened to being good neighbors?”
I’ve had dogs and various small animals (never cats- family member was allergic, and mom wouldn’t let animals in the house). I’ve cried when they died. But I don’t treat them like they’re my children, and I don’t think an animal is worth a human life. and it strikes me as odd when other people do. My vet will call animals to the exam room with “Fluffy Lastname” and this strikes me as extremely dumb.
I hear we need a new ambassador to the UN, and the only candidate we have is a premium tool. Mind if I drop your husband’s name into the hat?
Daniel