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

[wasonthelist]

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.

I have lots of trees around me and no sooner do I put the collar on but its lost. They have to be quick release collars so the cat doesn't hang themselves, but it does mean one little tug and they've gone. So I've given up with a collar on mine. As honestly, they weren't lasting a week!

Ive come across a dead cat before, so i scooped it up (it had clearly been there most of the night) in a bag and took it to the vets, i hoped it was microchipped so the vet could let the owner know. Id hate mine to go walk about and never know what happened, if they were safe or not.

My vet and the rescue centre don't advise collars anymore because of the danger to the cat. When I've had new cats/moved, I've always collared them for the 'keep them in bit' in case they get out and get lost.
But like is say, mine don't where i live at the moment because of the trees and i can't keep replacing them.

"But surely cat owners can see that collars and microchips aren't interchangeable?"

Yeah, but microchips aren't ever going to injure or kill your cat, collars can, even elasticated or quick release ones.

We live on a bus route with quite regularly speeding cars despite speed bumps and warnings of a nearby school. I keep our cat indoors. She has a cat tree, two cat barrels, hunting toys aplenty, food dispensers you have to work at to get food, loads of playtime with us. I wish I could let her out but it would break our hearts to lose her to a car. She'd probably try to face it down.

I would always always say stop / check for id / take to vet

One of my cats was knocked down last year and left for dead :( thankfully someone else saw him in the road and stopped, put him in her car and rang me (phone number on collar). She then drove him to the local animal hospital where I met her. Cat survived thank god. I went round with a bunch of flowers to thank her the next day.

Although you're not legally bound to stop at the end of the day they are someone's pet and simply checking if they have a telephone number on their collar (assuming they wear one) a quick phone call takes nothing but saves the owner a whole heap of stress not knowing what happened and also gives more of an opportunity to save the cat.

If there's no collar then I would take to the nearest vets. They usually have emergency telephone numbers on the front door if it's out of hours.

I did hear of someone who was successfully prosecuted for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal after he hit a cat & didn't stop.

How can they have done that Vixter when the law says you don't have to stop if you hit a cat?

She'd probably try to face it down.

My cat would do that lavenderdoilly . He was an indoor cat for 10 years until I got him and he was perfectly happy.

Like you, I'm afraid to let him out alone so he follows me out on walks and he sticks to the pavement, mostly. He doesn't have a lead and stops if you call his name sternly or rattle the Dreamies. He seems to understand that the heavy traffic on the main road is dangerous, but he goes to cross quiet side roads without a care - someone could be going as slowly as 10 mph but if they hit him he'd be killed. It wouldn't be the driver's fault - he just walks out.

He's also incredibly friendly and has no fear of dogs - he would approach them if I didn't spot them first and pick him up. Most dogs are friendly and on leads but again, I couldn't really blame one that grabbed him.

At least if he got out, everyone would know who he belongs to - the mad woman who walks her cat

I'd rather be half an hour late for my snowflake's tennis lesson than leave someone's beloved pet dying in agony on the road. Doesn't even need thinking about.

noblegiraffe I don't remember the precise details as it was a while ago.

As you say, the driver can't be prosecuted for failing to stop & report (as you can if its a dog)

Someone saw the accident & took the car regd number when they saw that the cat was still alive. It ended up with the RSPCA getting involved.

Take it to the nearest vets. Dead or alive. They will scan it for a microchip. If the vets aren't open there will be details of their emergency service on an answerphone if you call their phone number. It's horrible when a pet goes missing and you don't know what has happened. Even if my cat had been killed I would want to know. One of mine went missing for 5 months and it was horrible not knowing if he was dead or alive. He was eventually found alive and well so happy ending

I'm not a cat lover but a few months ago I found one dead at 2am. I had to keep it overnight and take it to the vets the next day. It was a Sunday so the nearest vets open was half an hour away. I couldn't find my bank card to get a taxi/bus, so had to carry him the whole way. He weighed a ton!

Obviously the owners might react badly, but at least they know. If you can't face the owners then just take to the nearest vet. They are someone's loved pet and it's morally wrong to do nothing.

I did hear of someone who was successfully prosecuted for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal after he hit a cat & didn't stop.

I doubt that - unless it was the bloke mentioned upthread who was (quite rightly) prosecuted for running the cat over 10 times. I'd love to see the details and be proved wrong though.

I'd rather be half an hour late for my snowflake's tennis lesson than leave someone's beloved pet dying in agony on the road. Doesn't even need thinking about.

That's all well and good - but what if you're on a deadline to collect DD from after school club? I'd rather leave the cat than have DD and a poor 16 YO sitting outside on the steps not knowing when I'm coming (although that wouldn't preclude a call to the vets or later action) - and my snowflake doesn't play tennis :)

My neighbours cat was hit and killed by a car on Sunday. She got home from work and found her cat had been tossed bleeding in the gutter. The worst thing when something like this happens to a pet is not knowing if death was instant or if they were in pain and then died.