My college boyfriend had a roommate we’ll call Joe. One day my BF called, very upset, because Joe had just shot a cat with a compound bow. The cat was still alive, as the arrow was still through his midsection, but he’d run off and my BF couldn’t find him.
The cat poops in your yard? Boo hoo. Next year you’ll have crab grass; get over it. If you are upset that a neighbor’s cat is peeing in your yard/killing your birds, at least warn the neighbor before putting a bullet through his head so he can keep the cat indoors. That’s someone’s pet. Geesh.
I’m sorry to hear about your cat, I had pretty much the exact same thing happen to my cat when I was in college. A friend let her in to my house and said she was acting oddly. The shot entered right below her right eye and ended up in her neck below her jaw. I rushed her to the emergency vet, and eventually she got better; however, she is now blind in her right eye. Unfortunately we never found out who was responsible, it sounds like they might know who is responsible in your case, I hope they mete out an appropriate punishment. Shooting a pet with intent to kill it is never the right answer. I can accept BBs as discouragement, but that’s about it.
I don’t think shooting is EVER the right answer. An animal who doesn’t have an owner to rush it to the emergency vet can die in agony with untreated wounds. I wish there weren’t homeless animals, but if someone is going to shoot one, please make sure you kill it. Leaving it to die slowly is no kindness.
Not all of us live where the beauty and safety of Mother Nature is right outside the front door. I live in NY. No way in hell would my cats last even 5 minutes outside, they’d be roadkill very quickly. I have a friend who does live in suburbia, well her kitty is now dying from a disease caught from being outside. No thanks.
As for the vet bill, I stand by my decision. I would find a way to pay it if it meant saving one of my cats. They ARE family. So what if I have to scrimp on a few things for a while. There is always a way. If my cat was suffering, then of course I would euthanize. As you say, opinions differ and thats mine.
You betcha! Shoot first, drag the carcass off later. The livestock they kill/maim are worth far more than them, and far more than thier “owners” will ever cover. Hell, I can’t even get the stupid dog owners to re-imburse me for the bullet, let alone the animals thier pets have killed! My place is a “100% Kill-zone” for animals-at-large.
Oh lawd! My cats were not “bought” I found them all on the streets of NY. So using your logic, I should have left them there where in all likelihood, they’d be long dead by now?
My cats as many cats do, live in an urban area and live indoors. In the U.S., if this were not so, than many,many more cats would be euthanized. My cats rarely even go out on the terrace in the summer, they just like it indoors and they are perfectly content. They still run, sunbathe, play and even catch the occasional stupid mouse who happens to wander in. They are happy cats.
I’m not saying people should shoot cats with arrows or anything else, but why should it be on the property owner to “warn the neighbor”? It is ultimately the cat owners responsibility to keep the cat on their own property. This is common sense.
I love cats, but I am afraid I have to agree with this. I shouldn’t have to try to track down the owner of the large orange collarless cat who likes to pee in my Jeep. I have no idea who he belongs to, and cats can roam for quite a distance.
If you have taken on the responsiblity of pet ownership, part of that includes not letting your pet destroy property that doesn’t belong to you. If I choose to let my cat shred my sofa, fine. I have no right to let him come over and shred the cushions on your patio furniture.
My sister in law has two dogs, with a fenced back yard and a dog door. About a week ago a cat came marching in through the dog door and started exploring her home. Her dogs rioted and she ended up with a bit of destruction in her home before she could get the cat outside.
I just find it kind of interesting how a thread about a guy’s cat being shot could turn into a debate about the wisdom of letting cats run at large. I mean, isn’t the entire OP pretty much Exhibit A for the fact that it is unwise? Why shouldn’t you let your cat out? Because some crazy-ass might shoot it.
The shot cat could also be evidence against widespread gun ownership in Usa, but the prospect of having a simultaneous gun-ownership and indoor/outdoor cat debate is too much to stomach.
Then there’s SnakeCatsLady’s cat-peed Jeep (SUV) – a basis to argue against owning such huge gas-guzzling Occasions of Sin for the full-bladdered homeless (of whatever species).
And don’t forget about the God issue? How could God allow a cute little kitten to be shot?
(And don’t even start with the masturbation slogans)
And on a only slightly more serious note, this debate is that the OP author, despite the evidence, still considers people advocating that he keep his cat in the house for the cat’s safety as well as the neighborhood’s well-being that:
Sorry about your cat ForumBot. I’d hate it if my cats got shot… but they are indoors, so they won’t.
There is something missing in the argument that “cats are natural hunters - they should be outdoors” - that is that domestic cats are NOT a natural part of any ecosystem! They are not a natural breed - they were bred from wild african cats, and brought down in size and temperament to be domestic. They should not be found on most continents or islands.
Sorry for the off-topic rant, but the neighbor’s cat just killed my nesting female bluebird - a local species that I’d like to see get firmly re-established.
That argument doesn’t wash with me - while domestic cats have been bred to tone down their size and management to a more manageable scale, I find it hard to believe that it has been practical until fairly recently to keep them indoors the whole time - after all, there’s only so much use a working cat could be put to mousing inside. And I expect that the difference in opinion across the Atlantic is likely to stem from generally bigger North American houses. It makes a difference if your living room is the size of a farmyard.
I grew up in a small town in rural western Wisconsin. We had our share of rednecks. It’s my experience that most people have a love/hate reaction to cats; few seem to have simple indifference. And a large majority of those that hate cats **really **hate cats. A whole lot. People, knowing I was a cat lover, would delight in telling me all the things they would like to do to a cat (though I doubt most would actually follow through with such things). I learned to feign indifference to such horror tales so they’d stop. I know people who would routinely purposely swerve to hit cats with their cars, shoot cats, throw rocks at cats, poison cats…and worse. Icerigger’s brother is no suprise to me at all, and frankly, I’m continuously surprised at Dopers’ shock that such people exist when these stories inevitably come up in this and other such threads. “How can people harm someone else’s pet/an animal?” they cry. Simple - they hate the animal that your pet happens to be, and they don’t care that you love it.
I wish that my upbringing had been different; I wish that I believed that most people either liked cats or, at least, had simple indifference towards them. My experience has shown me otherwise. More so than the declaw issue, the defenseless issue, the inability to deal appropriately with fast moving vehicles, it’s this issue that impels me to keep my cat inside. She is allowed to go out with me on special occasions, but only when I’m outside with her, supervising her at all times, and only on a harness. And I don’t regret that decision at all.
