The only part of the statute you linked to that he could remotely be considered to be violating is the part that forbids one to “needlessly mutilate or kill” an animal. If the stray cats were being nuisances, then the killing of them is not needless, unless you want to go after everyone who puts out mousetraps, in which case you’re a dumbass.
Again, if the cat is being a nuisance, then my killing of it is not needless.
His location is listed as Ohio.
I’m sorry, I missed the part of the statue where it says “unless the animal is a nusiance.”
There’s a difference between stray and feral. As Guin commented earlier:
So do I.
You do see the mention of “needlessly kill”, don’t you? A defense could easily be made that a feral cat was not needlessly killed.
Well that’s a relief. But they have a similar capacity for feeling pain and suffering either way.
How was his safety threatened in any way, shape, or form? What need did he have to kill it?
And I’m in Texas, and this state’s animal cruelty statute says:
If there’s a cat causing trouble on my property, and it has no collar or tags and acts like a wild animal (e.g. shying away from humans), it’s toast.
Not Ohio.
It is a generally recognized right of a property owner to kill humanely wild animals that are making nuisances of themselves, subject to any species- or area-specific regulations. This is where we get the right to set mousetraps, shoot coyotes and foxes, kill venemous snakes, and so on.
And yes, if a feral cat is making a nuisance of itself, there is a need to kill it, which is not prohibited by the Ohio statute.
Well, shooting strays may not be something I LIKE, but it happens. However, going to all the effort it would take to trap them, then dumping them in a creek to drown is disgusting, stray or not.
And unless that cat was acting out and out wild, it could have been a beloved pet who was allowed outside, or else escaped by accident.
Sorry, but squirrel does not equal human in my morality. In a perfect world we would release all of the attic-destroying squirrels into a giant forest that overflows with hickory nuts and there isn’t a highway or hawk to be found, but I don’t live in that world so I offer the best solution with the minimum of suffering I can devise.
Funny, there is no mention of this ‘generally recognized right’ in the statues I quoted.
Nusiance =/= need to kill.
What exactly is the need? “It was annoying me, so I had to kill it!”
Well, I don’t know. He didn’t go into detail. Perhaps he lets his parrots sit in the trees in his front yard. Perhaps his flowers were destroyed by the cats digging after moles. Perhaps whatever. The mere existance of that statute does not per se prove that he violated that statute. That’s all.
Killing an animal does not fall under any “make my day” law that I’ve ever heard of. One does not have to prove that the animal was barging into ones house, and one feared for ones life. There are any number of valid reasons to kill an animal besides personal safety.
As I said, I wouldn’t do it that way. That doesn’t make his way illegal, merely immoral to me. (And to you.)
Is he EATING them? Cause I got no qualms if he is. Otherwise, it is quite different from hunting a deer. Unless we’re talking about the deer hunters that want nothing more than a set of antlers to prove their ‘manhood’. Fortunately, all of the hunters I have known are more interested in eating the animal than mounting it on their wall. However there are some nutless assholes out there that want nothing more than to attempt to prove their ‘manhood’.
You are correct, IANAL and I may be wrong.
I don’t think I am, but then again, right now I’m positively livid. I’m going to leave this thread now, I’ve said what I have to say, and I’m at the edge of reason. Nothing personal against anybody who disagreed with me in this thread, I’m just very emotional right now.
You can have empathy with animals without equating them 1:1 with humans you know.
If these cats were accepting food from humans and coming close to their house, they’re not feral. True feral cats would never allow themselves to be semi-adopted by a family. There was a gang of feral cats in my old town, and I couldn’t even get within ten feet of them before they’d run. There are also stray cats in the town, which don’t act at all like the ferals. In fact, they act exactly like pets. One of them lived in my house for nine months, and was the nicest cat I’ve ever met. If these cats are coming onto the neighbors’ porch, that means they can be tamed and kept as pets. Wild animals (which feral cats are) don’t normally walk around in civilization.
So yeah, I don’t think the cats in Xema’s post are feral. Just stray. Which, IMO, makes killing them despicable. But for some reason there’s a subset of people who see cats as disposable creatures on par with mice and squirrels. I’ll never understand the singular hatred some people have for cats. It’s like the Dark Ages never ended. Or the cat-phobic part of it anyway.
Do any of you cat lovers realize exactly how devastating stray and feral cats can be on local bird populations? And birds fill an ecological niche that stray and feral cats just don’t.
Circle of Life 1, Feral Cats 0.
Would I trap and drown stray and feral cats? No. But I wouldn’t hesitate to pop one with a .22 rifle, either, and dispose of its body out in the woods (worms gotta eat, too). And I say all of this as a very animal-friendly person.
Exception: people-friendly strays (cats and dogs) I take in, clean up, get 'em checked by a local vet, and find them good homes.
Also I’d like to point out that the very fact that Xema wants to hide the killing from the neighbors proves that he/she knows how wrong it is.
Are you scanning for the microchips?