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.

'Decent human being' = swerving recklessly in an articulated lorry to avoid a cat (which shouldn't even be roaming) and killing multiple road users.

WTAF am I reading. This is one of the most depressing threads I’ve ever read.

Newsflash - nobody is really that bothered about your cat apart from you. Opinion ranges from the people who downright hate cats and go out of their way to cause them harm (admittedly a minority) through the majority of people who are ambivalent to cats, wouldn't actively harm them but wouldn't "go to the ends of the earth" to reunite a dead animal with its owner, through to the minority at the other end who are obsessed with cats and make statements about liking them better than people.

If you are a cat owner, you obviously cannot choose which of these people is driving a car if your animal gets hit. The driver has zero legal obligation to do ANYTHING, yet many posters have said they would call a vet or whatever, that is going above and beyond what is legally required. Yet that's still not good enough for the fanatical cat owners, who love their animals so, so much that they let them wander around the streets to get hit by cars.

Yet it's the drivers who are the batshit ones...

Oh that’s ok then. May as well cause a load of unnecessary suffering on the daily then! 🤣

christ 🙄

This thread is full of bonkers posts. There’s an epidemic of cats breaking into houses to steal pet gerbils?

Indeed. It is quite a useful example of that perspective, though.

Same. If you want to act like fishwives go and do it elsewhere.

Well that's us told!

Who's swerving recklessly anywhere ? Bit of a leap there into a articulated lorry killing multiple road users.

Seemingly cat haters not only over react to a bit of cat shit, they seem to have very over active imaginations when it comes to disaster. I wonder if there is a correlation.

Apparently so

My bird, actually. I'm normally quite passionate about animal welfare, but I really wanted to wring that cat's neck.

Keep it up and I'll ban the Nintendo, too.

No, please not the Nintendo 🥹

Same. Hard to describe the heartbreak.

I’m sorry you had a beloved pet die.

was this bird a native species that normally lives in caged, restricted conditions? Because if that’s your normality for keeping if a pet I’m starting to see why you’d calling for all pets to be caged. However wrong I think it to be.

No. An introduced species, hand raised, and very modified from the wild form.

I hit a cat but didn’t stop. It was on the slip road to the A1, in the pitch black, pouring rain and I had a lorry right behind me. By the time I’d hit it and the lorry had inevitably gone over it, there wouldn’t have been much cat left. I wasn’t going to risk my life because someone had decided to own a cat, despite their garden backing onto an incredibly busy road. That’s not a loving pet owner, imo.

If I hit a cat on a road in my estate, for example, I absolutely would stop.

No, I was talking purely in terms of a dead animal.

From OP:

"Some of the people on my town’s Facebook page lose their minds when a cat is killed by a car."

I would edit my original post to clarify, but I cannot.

If you hit any animal surely you should stop and make certain it's not suffering? I certainly would.
The anomaly in the law between dogs and cats is what worries me though. Cats are just as much beloved pets as dogs are. Both species should now be chipped by law, so why not force drivers also to stop if they hit a cat? It's not always possible to find out where they live but you should make reasonable enquiries and report to police.
PS The only animal I have ever hit is an escaped puppy.

What do cat owners do to make sure their animal isn't a pest ? To other home owners pet owners like rabbit owners ? The answer is absolutely .

Would you have stopped if you had hit a dog? @TheFairyCaravan

It's the law to stop - when safe to do so - if you hit a dog.

Not so a cat.

No, not where I was because I’d have likely died. I’d have phoned 101 from the car, hands free.

If you hit any animal surely you should stop and make certain it's not suffering? I certainly would.

I don’t stop after hitting wild animals unless they’re of a size which could potentially have damaged the car. Not much point looking for a rabbit that’s just been hit at 60mph.

It isn't. The law says you have to report hitting a dog to the Police. It doesn't compel you to stop and render assistance to the dog.

@wintersgold

"You would honestly prioritise a flight or an interview over potentially saving a life? "

I eat meat which results in multiple animals being killed for my dinner plate. I don't consider animal life to be equivalent to human life.

There's no way I'd be stopping the car and missing the flights for a family holiday because I'd hit a cat (that shouldn't have been roaming in the first place).