To ask if you would have your cat PTS if they showed signs of aggression towards you or your children.

[bumbleymummy]

I've just been thinking about this recently. A lot of people seem to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to dogs - if they growl/snap/bite that's it - aggressive behaviour - and, in many cases, PTS but people don't usually feel the same way about cats even if they hiss/growl/scratch/bite.

Oh right. We could do Parrots v Hamsters next.

My parents PTS a cat they got from a rescue centre. I don't know his full history but they were not notified of any specific behavioural problems. He had a quiet house with just my parents there and could come and go as he wished into the open countryside around their house.

They had him PTS after two neighbours independently reported that he had approached them in their gardens and when they had gently stroked them he had attacked them, causing deep scratches. One woman had required medical treatment for the scratches.

There was no apparent reason for him to suddenly turn as he was quite happy for my parents to stroke him, and he had made the approach to the two neighbours. My parents were concerned that he might do the same to the young children who lived at the end of the road.

That's sad Thistle.

I am a massive cat lover, but can I just warn people, although cats don't normally bite humans, if one does and it draws blood, particularly on fingers and hands, please call you GP and get a prescription for anti biotics because they do carry a high risk of infection.

In their defence, the only time I've ever been bitten by any of the many cats I've had was when I was trying to give them medicine and if you have to put your fingers in a cats mouth, you have to expect the odd bite.

Oh right. We could do Parrots v Hamsters next
Love it

Thistledew, your parents could have bought some claws clippers and kept the cats claws short and blunt.

I have an aggressive cat. He is unusual he gives no warning and will switch from attention that he had instigated and is being provided in a cat friendly manner to full on vicious attack.

It is like a sensory overload with him. He has no medical problems, he was brought up by me with correct socialisation etc.
my DD is 11 so old enough to know she should just leave him alone.
I warn all visitors not to touch him.
At night he comes to bed curls up next to me and sleeps by me all night without a single bite.

I think its a shame that people learn and teach children to leave cats alone, but continue to allow dogs to be tormented until they snap. I know this isn't always the case with dogs, but it is often.

I would absolutely not have a cat PTS because it was aggressive, no.

I don't think it's fair to do that to dogs either (assuming it hasn't mauled someone to death), but that's another story.

Definitely rehome if an issue for you though. I grew up with a grumpy cat and am not traumatised by the experience!

No. Not unless it had rabies or something that fundamentally made it dangerous/likely to attack. Our rather dim cat batted/hissed at DS this morning because he didn't like his tail being pulled/fur being grabbed. Fair dos.

Dogs are pack animals, cats are lone hunters. Completely different.

Dogs- as well as being many times more dangerous when they bite - are doing it for a different reason. Dogs are usually 'protecting' the pack leader (owner) from a percieved threat. It's hard wired for them. Once they've done it they will always see that person as a threat.

Cats might lash out but I don't think they hold a grudge in the same way.

No comparison

Cats might lash out but I don't think they hold a grudge in the same way.

Lol, my cat hated me the entire time I was growing up. Hadn't done anything to her, she just did.

I think anyone who has owned a cat and gone on holiday for a week will tell you that they do hold grudges! My two ignore me for days if I leave them.

I've got another vicious moggy tale.

I had two cats (mum & son) from an animal shelter. Son was soppy, loved cuddles and attention and the mum couldn't stand to be around humans. She kept out of the way at all times, hissed regularly even when being fed and slept in a separate room and never sat on a lap. She'd happily show her claws at the slightest provocation. She wasn't easy to love.

We'd had both cats around 8 yrs and then about 6 months after we had our son, she suddenly took a fancy to him. I was a bit wary at first but she lay in his cot, then on his bed and just liked to be near to him. Never once hurt him and as he got older, having bedtime stories, she'd lie on the pillow next to him when he had his story. Then she wander to the bottom of the bed to sleep. She'd follow him around the garden when he played. It was obvious she adored him. On the other hand, the cuddly (son) cat wasn't fussed about the child at all.

Sadly, she went missing shortly after we moved house and needless to say, our DS was devastated.

I have no idea what prompted the change in her temperament but it was astonishing to witness.

I have a chunk missing from a finger taken out by a parrot, some kind of Amazon. And apparently he really liked me.

Hammies, omg can't remember how many bites I've had off them. We had a biting rat we put up with because her cage-mates were all nice enough. Biting rate became docile & friendly at end of her life, when she had a giant cancerous lump.

There was a 'Shall I put my vicious nasty Hamster to sleep?' thread on MN and I think I was only one who voted yes. Can't remember all the circumstances, they couldn't keep him & they couldn't rehome him (had tried).

at vicious hamsters. I am not keen on small furries, or birds kept in captivity. I did have a grumpy rabbit growing up, but he used to escape a lot rather than be killing people.

I have been bitten by a dog but no other animal as far as I can remember.

We had a family of eight feral cats growing up. We called them The Dinnertimes because my mother would feed them dinner and they would come running for it. Otherwise they lived in the woods and fields around our house. While they did gradually become semi tame over the years, we children knew to never ever try tto pet them when they were in their own habitat. If they were wandering near the house they would sometimes tolerate a stroke, but they were completely wild in the woods/fields.

When I was very young I nearly lost an eye after one scratched me right through my eyelid. I still have the scar and my mother once lost a thumbnail after she was bitten during one of her annual rounding them up for vaccinations.

My parents would have never dreamed of having any of them PTS.

No i would not My cat got jelouse and attempted to nip my friends son when i was babysitting one day without thinking i swatted her she never did it again i did eventually have her rehomed but that was because my (new) baby turned out to be allergic to cats i rehomed her with a friend

Dogs do far more damage to children when they go they dont stop you never hear of a cat savaging a child to death do you

"my mother once lost a thumbnail after she was bitten during one of her annual rounding them up for vaccinations"

Some of the vets in my (very rural) area advise not to bother getting feral cats in isolated areas vaccinated. I think their reasoning is that the stress of trapping the cats causes them more of an issue than the chance of disease. I'm not saying the vets are right, but I find it quite interesting.

I had three cats if pressured one would urinate/deficate and try to escape one would just escape (he was very flexible it took four oairs of hands and a foot to get him in a cat basket once) only one would attempt to get aggressive and she was a walk in she didnt origionally belong to me she just moved in

*pairs

Not in a million years.

Aside from the fact that I currently have an extremely temperamental tortie (and the scars to prove it) and have known some fecking grumpy/evil cats in my time and am therefore possibly jaded/indulgent....

A cat is not really going to launch itself at you unprovoked like dogs can. If a cat is aggressive, you just leave it be, surely? And control contact with dcs. And the resultant injuries are only going to be superficial scratches unless you're being silly and put eyes etc in the line of fire.

I can understand how people would feel they had to rehome tho.

Gabilan That probably makes sense. This was over 30 years ago and my mother felt a great responsibility for these cats. She would have possibly done differently today. I mostly remember another street cat that my father rescued from being thrown in front of cars by a group of teen boys when the cat was just a kitten. He never became fully tame either but would come in our house and attack my feet while I was sleeping- he drew blood more times than I can remember and I would scream blue murder if he came into my room.

Biting/scratching cats don't phase me at all now.

Taz one of my feral cats is now very tame with me, though shy with other people. The other one is friendly at feed time but still shy and wouldn't dream of letting me pick her up.

Currently my lower leg is covered in small puncture wounds but that's because the tame one is very much a lap cat and if I don't sit down so that she can sit on my lap she grabs my leg. Of course I shouldn't let her do this but I just find it funny and she's far too shy to do it to anyone else.

Lonecatwithkitten you have just described my cat so well, perhaps they are related! He too will sleep on the bed purring and being generally adorable (did I mention he is fluffy and pretty?) but at other times he will have a go for no reason whatsoever. He is perfectly healthy (thank goodness says our vet), spends most of his time roaming around fields or having his every whim taken care of indoors. Here's one example of how he toys with me... he has been sleeping on our bed, stretched down the middle taking up most of the space (incidentally he's the only cat I've ever allowed to sleep on the bed, not sure how or why that happened now ), he awakes in the early hours and fancies a stroll in the moonlight so he wakes me up with frantic meowing. I stagger downstairs and open the door for his majesty who scampers happily beside me like the sweetest cat in the world. Then as he passes me to go out the door he casually reaches over and bites me on the leg! Why would he do that??

Do you think he could be evil?

at some of the evil cats.