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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what is the best thing to do if you hit a cat with your car?

140 replies

wasonthelist · 06/06/2016 15:53

Prompted by a pitchforks and torches posting on a local FB group. It made me (honestly) wonder. If I hit a cat and killed it (or didn't) what to do. There are a few things - I haven't had any pets for more than 30 years, so I have no idea where the vets are - I could Google of course, but can you just take any random cat to the nearest vet?

In the olden days I heard tales of people putting injured animals "out of their misery" with a wheelbrace or something, but aside from being too squeamish, I'd worry that the cat could have been saved and that I'd be arrested.

I guess checking the cat for some ID tag would make sense, but not sure I'd fancy taking the body to an owner - judging by the FB posting I could see it going badly.

Can/should you phone Police (I know it's not required) - or would they just say not interested?

I started off thinking it was heartless to run a cat over and just drive off, but then thought I am not sure what I would do.

OP posts:
PurpleRainDiamondsandPearls · 06/06/2016 23:16

Umm Cant most people have said they would find help. However, I'm not going to knock on a randomer's door (unless I live in the area and know people) or put a dead cat body in my car. I'd let a vet know if alive and vet or council if not.

FasterThanASnakeAndAMongoose · 06/06/2016 23:58

Haven't read the full threads as it's bringing back memories of my lovely, not very old cat who has hit and killed one morning. I'd been cuddling her 10 minutes before and found her as I pulled off the drive to go to work.

She had a collar with our numbers on as well as a microchip, and I found her outside our house. No one knocked on our door. No one owned up.

If the person who did it had knocked, it would have made it easier. It was heartbreaking to feel that they didn't care. Bastard.

LannaBanna · 07/06/2016 00:20

My cat got hit by a car a couple of days ago :( I don't know who did it, but a man who worked for the council was driving by and saw him on the road, took him to the vet to see if he was microchipped (he was) and then contacted us from the details on the chip. People who don't own cats don't seem to think it's as big of a loss as a dog for some reason but I don't get that. He was hit really close to him, he never wandered far.

I'm really grateful to the guy who took him to the vet - he brought him home in a box so we could bury him in the back garden.

SideOrderofChip · 07/06/2016 00:27

Luna you make me sad you really do

JustAnotherManicGlumday · 07/06/2016 02:03

I'm forever grateful to the man who hit my cat when I was 8. He picked her up and knocked on doors till he found the owners. My dad took her to the vets (middle of the night) and they saved her life. She had a funny squint and walked a bit funny but went on to have kittens and lived for another 16 years. If he had left her she would have died in the gutter.

EttaJ · 07/06/2016 02:13

Squarepants your Dad sounds lovely! That's so sweet. You hit an animal and you stop. You don't "put it out of its misery " Find a vet , get it scanned for a chip if it's a cat or dog. If you don't stop then you are a horrible person indeed.

kali110 · 07/06/2016 03:25

Take to the vets so they could check for a chip.

kali110 · 07/06/2016 03:25

I'd want to know what had happened to mine.

guiltynetter · 07/06/2016 03:48

I've often wondered about this. I've never hit a cat myself but once driving home from a nightshift I ran over a cat that had already been run over by what I'm assuming was a few cars previous :( I was so shocked I cried my eyes out when I got home. I wanted to get out and see but the cat looked in such a bad way and I'm really squeamish, there was blood everywhere. I do feel
a bit guilty still.

FindoGask · 07/06/2016 05:47

Sorry about your cat, LannaBanna.

Kingsizecrochetblanket · 07/06/2016 05:59

I think the problem is, that when people complain about a cat nuisance it is rammed down our throats that they are free spirits that have a right to roam.
You can't have it both ways. A free spirit may walk in front of a car.
If you want it to be law that cat accidents are reported, then go for it, but the right to roam will likely going with it.
My cat got run over. I was devastated, but I accepted it's a risk of being owned by a cat.

Kingsizecrochetblanket · 07/06/2016 06:18

And before I am accused of being a heartless cold person, I hit a bird once. I cried all the way home.

Floralnomad · 07/06/2016 06:51

I don't think many of us are saying that you should have to report knocking it over just show a bit of common decency and don't leave someone's pet dead or dying in the gutter .

LunaLoveg00d · 07/06/2016 07:47

Luna you make me sad you really do

Why? Because I'd limit my response to trying to call a number on a collar? Sorry, but i'm not putting an injured, bleeding cat in my car. I didn't say I'd drive on and ignore it.

Surely the risk of being hit by cars is something cat owners are well aware of? I know of several people who have had cats which have been run over - it's just one of those things which happens if you let your car out.

Notagainmun · 07/06/2016 07:48

Someone hit my cat and didn't stop, possibly didn't realise. Guy in the car behind stopped and took it to the local vet who called me. DH was nearer so got to vets first. It was clear the cat was in lots of pain and scared and the vet didn't hold out much hope so he was euthanized. The lovely guy waited in the vets to see how the cat was. I was really grateful to him, my cat could have spent hours suffering in a grass verge.

Palomb · 07/06/2016 07:55

It is quite possible that a lot of people aren't even aware that they've hit anything. When I ran over my neighbours cat I didn't see it or hear it and it was only very slight bump. TBH I drove down the road thinking that bit of road felt different and then turned around and went back to see. I wouldn't have bothered had it not been literally on the road outside my drive that I knew every bump in. On any other road I'd have just discounted it as a pothole or stone or something. Cats are nothing to a big car, drivers don't necessarily know they've hit something.

NoahVale · 07/06/2016 07:57
Sad spookily this happened to us last night, ds, an L driver and I were out taking my dd to her friends, he nearly crashed as the cat strolled out. he wanted to stop, I judged that however it wasnt safe to stop

cat must have been mousing.
we didnt see cat on the way home so assume it made it home.

Kingsizecrochetblanket · 07/06/2016 07:59

I'm with Luna, I might try and call a number on a collar, but that's as far as I'd go unless I could obviously help the cat.
It's a risk of cat ownership. They don't always come home.

LittleLionMansMummy · 07/06/2016 08:00

Very few cats wear collars any more because they're microchipped instead. Of course cats roam, but any decent person who knocked one over would still take steps to ensure the owner knows. You don't have to put a dying, bleeding cat in your car. It takes one phone call in an era when pretty much everyone owns a smart phone and has constant connectivity. It's not difficult to be decent.

CantChoose · 07/06/2016 08:48

Yes purplerain, that's why I specified those posters who hadn't responded that way... And I suggested they call a vet, didn't say anything about knocking on doors or putting it in your car...
Perhaps you only saw my follow on comment, not the one immediately before it, I suppose.

ANiceSliceOfCake · 07/06/2016 09:12

Just out of curiosity, who pays if you take it to the vets?

LunaLoveg00d · 07/06/2016 09:16

Very few cats wear collars any more because they're microchipped instead.

But surely cat owners can see that collars and microchips aren't interchangeable? Only people with a microchip reader can read a chip, and I have no idea who those people might be - vets probably? Police? No idea. Everyone can read a number on a collar.

LittleLionMansMummy · 07/06/2016 09:22

Providing the cat will tolerate wearing a collar Luna

As for who pays ANice the same person who would pay if a dog was run over - the owner if one can be found and the vet if not. In other words, not the motorist, so that wouldn't be a valid reason not to report. I once knocked a dog over on a motorway that had no business being there. It was inconvenient but I stopped (not just because I had to I hasten to add) and went out of my way to find the owners. Nobody paid for the damage the dog did to the underside of my car. It was a big dog. The people had just lost their pet, whatever the rights or wrongs of it being in the motorway. I wasn't about to start discussing money.

ANiceSliceOfCake · 07/06/2016 09:29

Thanks, that's good, no real excuse then.
Personally I couldn't pick up a dead anything really, but I'd certainly stay with the animal and find someone who could, then take it to a vets.

LittleLionMansMummy · 07/06/2016 09:32

I couldn't pick one up either. If there was time I'd probably knock on a nearby door. If not I'd search local vets online and call, letting them know the location.