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’m not sure it was a particularly important distinction, I was simply saying I was glad you’re a responsible cat owner 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm glad that you're glad. Now we're both glad!

The police?? Really???

Wtf do you want them to do about it? Have they not got enough to do?

As a PP has said, you can't report hitting a cat to the police. It's not a legal requirement and there is therefore no process available to do so.
You should stop and help the injured animal to the best of your ability just out of ordinary human compassion but if its dead its dead and there's nothing you can do for it and you have no further legal or moral obligation.

I am not convinced that all such instances of a car hitting an animal are unavoidable.

I doubt this will be popular with the cat lovers...

If a cat ran into the path of my car, I'd ease off the accelerator and hope for the best. That's it. I certainly wouldn't put my or my family's life in danger by swerving or attempting an emergency stop.

I don't know if you realise but to me you sound callous in the extreme. I would be devastated if I killed someone's pet though I understand the difficulty finding the owner. I would always stop and at least move the animal out of the road.

Wow.

That’s the correct thing to do. Certainly no heavy braking or swerving

Couldn't do it. I would never put a person at risk but I would do everything in my power not to hit an animal. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't really try to avoid it.

Hyperbole much. If you can safely stop you absolutely should,

You don't have time to assess whether you can safely avoid the animal.

When my friend ran over a cat in France, the cat darted from the verge and straight under the driver's side front wheel. We were towing a caravan and any evasive manoeuvres or emergency braking could have jackknifed the car/caravan or flipped us over. My friend did the right thing and drove straight over the cat.

If it were a child, then of course you'd do whatever you could - but a cat? Forget about it.

If you don't have time to decide, then you probably shouldn't be driving, or you are driving too fast.

That could be a person, or a child. Do you still plough through them?!

If it were a child, then of course you'd do whatever you could - but a cat? Forget about it.

Well there lies the difference. I would do whatever I could for any living being.

So glad my cats aren't at risk from people like you.

Cats just move too fast for any person to stop sometimes.

Humans just don't move as quickly. And children are much less likely to be unsupervised next to a motorway.

There are other threats, but cats are by far and away the worst, and hardest to protect other pets from. They are so much bolder and more persistent than any other threat, and there are so many more of them. I can protect pets against foxes, but cats are nigh impossible.

Don't get me started on not being able to leave the lid off the sand pit for even a moment...

Would you stop for an ant or not bother? Oh are there lines and limits in how we treat different living things?

I would stop if I could, but when I think about it, it's surprising how often it's not possible. Motorway or busy road. Kids in car. Dark or dangerous conditions.

HTAF would you know you'd run over an ant?!!! Listen to yourself! Plenty of flies come to die on your windscreen in warm weather!

Cats aren't only killed on motorways. I agree it could be problematic to stop there and because of the speeds involved, it is most likely that the cat is toast anyway.

That’s an interesting point actually. Normally i’d be fine with doing an emergenxy stop, but if i’m in a situation where I have my 3 year old and baby in the back of my car, with other cars behind me, and an emergency stop would risk me being rear ended, not sure i’d do that for a cat.

But then again, it’s all down to how fast the situation occurs and how long you have time to make this decision.

I’m not really understanding the comparisons on here to little kids tbh. A cat is more difficult to stop and the move a lot faster, more likely to come out of nowhere and dart across the road.

I can't imagine why someone wouldn't stop 😞 and it makes me so sad that so many people agree with you.

A cat is someone's pet, how can you not stop and try for them if you took their fur babies life 😞

Well for a start, we don’t all see cats as ‘fur babies’. That term is rather cringe to me.

It’s more a case of stopping if safe to do so. I will stop depending on the situation. I would be less likely to stop if i had my 2 very young kids in the car with me. Also depends where it would be safe to pull up etc. I am not stopping if it will make me late for a medical appointment, or depending on the day, late for work.

This thread has just confirmed for me how many horrible, uncaring people there are out there. Depressing.

No, it’s just that depending on the situation, people have to put themselves above cats.