To think cat owners are unreasonable for insisting that drivers MUST stop if they hit a cat?

[OtterlyMad]

Some of the people on my town’s Facebook page lose their minds when a cat is killed by a car. It’s automatically blamed on speeding (despite there being no evidence of this) and there are always lots of comments along the lines of how “disgusting” it is that the driver didn’t stop and make the owner aware.

None of them seem to appreciate that the driver might not have time to track down the owner. For example, perhaps they are on their way to work, a job interview, wedding, funeral, court, airport, hospital, dentist, client meeting, school pick up, etc. Plus cats can wander quite far and don’t all wear collars so tracking down the owner could be a real challenge - even more so if driver isn’t local to the area!

Obviously it’s devastating for people to lose their pet in this way (I’m an animal lover and have owned pets all my life so I get it) but surely this is a known risk of allowing cats to roam freely? And owners accept that risk because they feel it gives their cat a better quality of life, even if that means their life is shorter as a result?

My locals are now campaigning to make it law that drivers who hit a cat must not only stop and find the owner, but also HAND OVER THEIR CONTACT DETAILS. To do what with?! So the cat’s owner can give the driver grief and/or demand compensation they’re not entitled to???

Am I the only one thinking this is ludicrous?

You are being unreasonable - drivers should be required to stop, track down the owner of the cat and hand over their contact details.

You are not being unreasonable - injury/death by vehicle is a sad but accepted risk of cats having the right to roam so drivers should not be required to stop.

I don't understand how this could reasonably be enforced. I have a cat. I would ve sad if she was killed. But she pulls her collar off all the time. She is chipped. But I don't see how that would enable a driver to contact me in a reasonable way if the worst did happen. How does it work with stray dogs? Do we call the police?

Legally you should stop for a dog but not a cat, the risk to other humans by swerving to avoid/ stopping, outweighs the death of an animal. Sorry.

I think if you hit a dog (any dog, not just strays) then you’re required by law to report it to the police, because dogs don’t have the right to roam like cats do.

YANBU and we lost cats to the road when I was growing up. it is devastating, but like you say, part of the risk taken by allowing them out.

Ideally you should stop but I’ve seen cats on the side of very busy roads where it simply wouldn’t be safe to pull over.

I agree. Cat owners have less responsibility for their cats (they can wander off into other people's garden etc), but this is the flip side of it. I can see why they thinks it's unfair, because you are legally obliged to stop if you hit a dog, but I don't think a lot of cat owners would want to have their cats treated like dogs the rest of the time.

I always wonder, but am not brave enough to say, whether cat owners are liable for the damage to the car.

I am grateful to, presumably, the driver who hit our much loved, cat causing his death.
They put him in a box outside of the local vets so I knew where he was and what had happened within a couple of hours.
I think it must have been early in the morning and while it was devastating, we never had to go through the heartache or not knowing where he was or what had happened to him.
It's a shame if a cat is killed and they aren't at least put somewhere the owner can find them or find out what happened to them, but I'm not sure I'd campaign for it to be law.

People where you live are crazy.

There was a thread similar to this a while back and a few cat owners were insisting that anyone who wasn’t willing to pick up an unknown and injured cat to take to the vet, or who weren’t willing to knock on multiple doors no matter how late it was to find an owner, were evil and heartless.

If cats want the same rights as wildlife to go wander about when they want and where they want, then they get treated as wildlife.

Lots of countries now insist that cats be kept indoors. If you let your cat outside, particularly at night, then you run the very strong risk of it being hit by a car.

No, they’re not. And what damage anyway?

YABU. But I am someone who FAR prefers most animals to most humans and doesn't believe humans are superior to other animals. So you and I would probably never agree.

Hit it and leave it there writhing in pain? Because it's only a cat....

Would you stop for a dog or just not bother?

Would you stop for a child or just not bother?

If someone hit and killed my cat I would hope they would make some effort to let me know (I understand it wouldn’t always be possible) I’d rather know what had happened than be wondering forever more.

Yanbu. I hit a cat on the motorway, it really upset me. I didn't see it and then it was there on the road and under my car. There was absolutely no way I could safely stop where I was on the busy road and travelling at speed. I had two children in the car and it's not safe to be on the hard shoulder. I'm so sorry to whoever's cat it was 😔.

On a quiet residential road of course I would have stopped if it was possible.

I mean legally you don’t have to stop - but I’ve hit a cat, not sure how you could just drive off and not give a shit tbh.

I stopped on quite a busy road to pick up an injured cat. Everyone else was just driving round it. A couple of drivers gave me abuse for causing a bit of a tailback. I took him to the vets and heard from the owner a few hours later that he didn’t make it. She was so grateful that he hadn’t died alone in the road 😢

LOL ok

The challenge with cats is that the same rights that mean you don't need to stop are those that allow cats to roam free, go into other people's gardens, catch birds and fight other cats. I'd rather take the risk of not knowing what had happened than have to keep my cats inside.

Fuck anyone who hurts a cat or any pet and doesn't go to the ends of the earth to find the owners and make it as right as they can.

Fuck them. They're fucking awful people.
You hurt a pet, you do your damnedest to make it as right as you can..

To you it may just be a cat or a dog, to the owners, it's a part of their family and screw you for hurting a member of someone's family and not doing your best to make it right.

Morally most people care enough to stop and take the cat to have its microchip scanned and since cats either already need to be microchiped or soon will, the owner can be found.

You are supposed to report hitting a deer and they are always racing across or alongside the roads. Often leaving a corpse on the road is a hazard to others and a cat isn’t like a badger because owners will stop to check for their missing pet and that can cause a subsequent crash or injury.

When driving I saw a body of a cat at the side of the road. I rang the vet and they came and picked him up. That night I had a phone call from the vet to say they had contacted the owner and they wanted to thank me for reporting the accident as they weren't left wondering what had happened to their pet.

So I would say, the driver should stop and ring the local vet. If the cat has died it still makes a difference to the grieving owner. I'm not saying they should track down the owner. The vet can do that.

YANBU. Ideally you'd stop but it's not always safe, one got run over near me on a 60mph road and there's nowhere to pull over. Also who are you meant to give details to? If I hit a cat I would be distressed and not know what to do, you can't exactly call 999. It's best to just keep them indoors for everyone's sake.

It's bizarre. If I hit a cat I'd stop. No question. But then I'd stop if I hit a rabbit, badger, bird, whatever. I'm getting on a bit now but it has only been in the last few years that I have truly appreciated just how lacking in empathy a lot of the population are. It's hard to imagine not caring if you hit an animal but there are loads of people out there that just don't see it as worth their time to bother themselves with caring. I'll never understand it.

I wouldn’t think so, technically they are a wild animal.