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.

Then if the risk caused by swerving outweighs the death of an animal, why are we expected to stop for a dog? What makes dogs so special?

What a deeply horrible OP. You do realise that cats are very much family members, right? That to some elderly people they’re the whole world? To children they’re best friends? Cats can live up to 20 years - that’s a long time and a lot of love to build up. Yet apparently extinguishing that and then driving off not giving a shit because you might be late for work is fine.

vile.

have you ever seen a cat? Maybe google one.

Wow. Genuinely cannot believe how bad some people’s reading comprehension is!

I think drivers should have to stop for any animal they hit- whether that be pet or a wild animal.

I can't understand why anyone would keep on driving knowing they had just knocked down someones cat (or any other animal) and not stop to help it. It's disgusting behaviour but it doesn't surprise me that people do this as there are plenty of people have no empathy or morals when it comes to animals.

Someone ran over my cat, we lived near a busy road & he was usually happy indoors but for whatever reason had wandered out past the gate & ended up being killed. I was devastated, he was only a baby. He did have a collar on with my phone number but nobody called. I can understand someone not wanting to touch a heavily bloodied & clearly dead animal to look at their collar & ultimately it was my fault for not keeping him inside. I hope whoever hit him did stop to make sure he wasn't still alive. I would always stop if I thought I had hit ANYTHING. Not because I'm a saint who does no wrong but because I would want to make sure some poor animal wasn't left suffering needlessly. I understand it's not possible on a motorway etc though.

I agree with this. If I found out a friend ran over an animal and didn’t stop I’d struggle to continue to be friends with someone so vile TBH

I do wonder what a cat owner would say if one of their kids answered the door to find you holding the bloody remains of their squashed cat.

I doubt you’d be thanked.

If my dog causes your car to crash, you can claim off her insurance. Many dogs are also large enough to cause damage to your car of your passengers.

Ok Chris Packham. Your animal xenophobia won't wash with me. We had cats, Wildcats and Lynx, until we pushed them to extinction in England and Wales.

If you want to be overrun with rats and mice, that's fine. But rats decimate ground nesting birds by eating both eggs & chicks.

There are unintended consequences we can't foresee when you remove a predator from an ecosystem.

"... the thing". How charming.

I keep my cats indoors because I couldn't bear to lose them that way. They are very happy and contented, in spite of having been outside before I adopted them from rescue.

I love cats, have always had them. I was very distressed years ago when I hit a cat. I was doing less than 20mph in a 30mph residential street. I emergency braked, and though I felt the wee soul's body hit the bottom of my car, I managed to avoid running the wheels over it. I pulled the car in and knocked on doors trying to find the owner. The cat was crying in a hedge, and then it ran off across the road in front of another car.

I wasn't able to find the cat, or the owner. I hope it was ok. I couldn't avoid it - it literally came out of nowhere.

I don't care where a driver is going. Surely they could spare a couple of minutes to check whether the cat is alive or dead, and place its body somewhere it's not going to get mangled by other cars? Unless it's very dangerous.

The normal thing would be to wrap it in something rather than stand there holding it with its guts hanging out

Dogs aren’t special. The reason you have to report hitting a dog is because unlike cats, they don’t have a right to roam, therefore the dog’s owner may be held accountable for causing the collision.

I took a flea ridden rabbit to the vets and yes my DC were with me. I even went half on the price of having it PTS. I'm not even convinced I hit it but it ran out in front of me and when we stopped it was running around in circles. Think it had something else wrong with it

I couldn't in all conscience leave an animal in the road

I've also lost a cat to a car. Since then my cats are in the house by 16:00 in the winter and we try and have them in by 18:00 in the summer although this does tend to slip more as the little buggers like to stay out, usually have a bit of a sleepless night and anyone getting up to go to the bathroom has a yell for them

I hit a rat the other week what would you suggest I do when I stop?

should we stop for every pigeon that flies into us?

what about insects, if you don’t stop when you hit one do you have no morals?

A life is a life, and if I hit a life I would get medical help or at least put on the grass if passed.

I find it odd that people can't stop if they hit an animal because it might make them late for work. I would have thought that running over an animal is a very rare occurrence and not even something that happens in a whole life-time to most people. In such an exceptional circumstance I would think you would be excused from arriving a little late for work/dentist/school etc.

I recently glimpsed a cat running like hell up the pavement not far from my house, he was going so fast he’d almost taken flight. I instinctively braked, of course the cat shot out and the dickhead driver behind me decided to toot at me. Whereupon a cocker spaniel ALSO ran out in front of my car - in hot pursuit of said cat! If I hadn’t slowed for the cat I’d 100% have smashed the dog into oblivion. I do feel like unless a cat is crossing a 60mph road you can usually at least slow enough that they can get out of the way? I’ve seen dozens of cats run out over the years but have yet to hit one. However, I also saw a dog running across a dual carriageway once and people in the opposite lane were emergency stopping and taking massive risks to save him, so maybe lots of people just don’t give a fuck about cats?

Not stopping when you hit any animal is disgusting behaviour. FGS, when did society become so callous?? Unless it’s unsafe, I would always stop if I hit an animal. Any animal.

A cat is someone’s beloved pet.

I think if a driver hits a cat they should stop and contact a vet. If it looks like the cat is still alive the decent thing to do would be take the cat to the vet to avoid any delay in treatment, but I accept many people wouldn't want to do that. Contacting a vet means that at least the owner knows what happened to their poor pet. Expecting the driver to track down the owner themselves or hand over their contact details is poorly thought out nonsense.

Check it's dead?

Some people seem to hit a lot of animals- Other than a few flies I don't recall ever knowingly hitting an animal. Never had a pigeon fly into my car either. I have had birds fly into the house windows and knock themselves out- always checked they were ok if I saw them and gone out and put the somewhere safe to recover away from cats.

One of my mum's cats was run over. The young woman who's car it was was really upset about it and went and found my mum to tell her.

I wouldn't stop if I hit a cat.

I am not a pet owner, I don't know where the nearest open vet might be. I am not putting an injured, bleeding, scratching and biting animal in the car and driving around with it looking for a vet, or posting on social media until someone reclaims it.

I think it depends where you live. I am in rural Scotland and routinely things seem to throw themselves under my wheels. This year I’ve hit 3 grouse, a rat and a stoat. I’ve managed to dodge many grouse , deer and rabbits. No cats roam around here at nights as local gamekeepers would shoot them thinking they were foxes. Obviously in more urban areas there might be lots of cats and not much else.

"only a dog" - that's utterly disgusting. People like you make me sick.