If you took the van’s license number down, you may wish to consider reporting this incident to the police. Inform them that you cannot be sure they hit the animal deliberately.
This is possibly a twisted individual who has been doing this for some time. If they have a record of prior offenses, then it would benefit your community immensely to report this event.
Intentionally killing someone’s innocent housepet is outrageously cruel to beast and man alike. If this person is a repeat offender, they need to be stopped right away.
It’s certainly not the cat’s fault for being hit by the car, and while the guy behind the wheel obviously has serious issues, the ones deserving the most blame in this case are the cat’s owners. If you don’t want your cat to get hit by a car, then FUCKING KEEP IT INSIDE. It’s not acceptable to let dogs or kids run around freely wherever they like, so why is it any different with cats? Cat owners should be responsible for their cats- they should be charged with negligance if their cats are harmed while running around freely, and likewise they should be held responsible for other damage their cats do: i.e. crapping on people’s lawns. People who let their cats run free are irresponsible dickheads.
Rockford, I agree with you 100% on principle. In reality, however, some cats are impossible to confine. I have one that is a former stray. The first year of her life was spent outside. That’s what she’s used to, that’s what she loves. All attempts to keep her inside fail as she is very quick, nimble, and small and can shoot through our legs no matter what tactics we use to foil her. I fear she will live a short life, being run over by a car. If that should happen, though, I can’t imagine anyone would think it was my fault or hers. And not necessarily the driver’s fault either, unless they purposely drove into her.
I probably would have run over it again to put it out of its misery if it appeared to be fatally injured. I can’t stand to see a creature suffer.
My husband and I had to do so a few months back. We hit a racoon on a country road. Upon inspection, the animal (without going into graphic detail) was obviously not going to make it, but he was flopping and writhing in agony. We ran over it again to end its pain. As hard as that was to do, I couldn’t just leave it to suffer for god-knows-how-long.
Thinking about that poor cat makes me so angry. I’m the type that will avoid running over a wooly-worm if I see it in time, and I have been known to stop the car to carry a turtle across the road so it won’t get hit. It’s unbelievable that someone could do such a thing intentionally. I hope they get reincarnated as a cat who has arthritis, which must cross the road frequently to get to its food source.
What breaks my heart the most is to imagine some poor little kid’s heart breaking at finding the crumpled body of his beloved pet.** lorinada ** is right: some cats are escape artists of the highest caliber. You wouldn’t believe how clever they can be sometimes when it comes to the art of the “jailbreak” and they have the amazing ability to squeeze through minute openings. Their determination is mighty indeed to stalk birds or find a mate, and, sad to say, they can sometimes outwit you.