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.

Yes as I said in my post, I’ve had pets all my life.

To be clear - I have never hit a cat (or any animal to be fair… I don’t drive much!) If the circumstances allowed then I would take the cat’s body to the nearest vet so the owner could be informed, but I feel uncomfortable with it being a legal requirement to hand over my contact details etc. It just feels like a step too far.

If I hit a cat I'd stop. Thankfully I've never had it happen but I have lost cats to to the road twice in my life, plus one who survived. Its a sad risk when you let them roam.

However, I don't think car drivers should have to hand over their details. For what reason? To pay for vets bills? They should be insured.

The two I've lost to RTAs I've not doubt in my mind they will have ran out and died before even knowing what happened. I don't blame the drivers, they may not have even known what happened, esp given one made it to a neighbours garden before passing.

If I did hit one, I'd take it to a vet for scanning if I could. If I couldn't I'd move ot to the side of the road, but also, sometimes a pp have said, you cannot stop.

Morally you should make every effort to find the owner, bit on the flipside they should be chipped. I couldn't leave then in the road unless it was dangerous to stop.

Not gonna lie, our cat was outside one day for 5 mins when some fuckwit hit her with their car and left her to die alone in the middle of the road.

Yes, I blame the fuckwits that speed down what is an otherwise fairly quiet road, and if I ever find out who it was, I am likely to lose my shit.

She was right outside our drive, it would have taken very little time to alert us that she had been hit, or even if they had scooped her up and taken her to a vet- she was microchipped and insured.

But no, that fucker chose to leave her to die alone. She deserved so much better. I don't understand that lack of basic humanity.

If you hit something with your car why wouldn't you stop to check on it?

I’m a cat owner and I don’t see the point in compelling people to contact the owner. My concern would be about someone hitting one of them and leaving them in pain but not dead.

I can’t imagine hitting any type of animal and not caring enough to stop though, it’s really cruel to leave them potentially suffering and it would play on my mind indefinitely if I was the driver. I hit a pheasant on the way to a job interview and stopped at the next safe spot so I could go back and check on it (totally fine, running across a field happy as Larry).

"it's horrible" ≠ "gleeful"

I acknowledge that in some cases it is not possible to stop safely, but there's no way I could drive on if the chance to stop was there regardless of appointments etc. The thought of leaving an animal in pain is awful. You don't have to find an owner, you'd take it to the nearest open vets who would scan it (should be chipped) and they would contact the owner.
You legally have to report hitting dog but morally I'd hold the same thoughts for cats.

Yanbu about handing over details etc but you are being a bit ridiculous saying someone shouldn’t take the time to at least try a few houses to see if the cat lives locally.

And of the cats killed around here (both belonging to us and to neighbours) most of the cats were found because the person was speeding and people heard the noise (happened just the other day actually where we heard revving and a loud smack). So actually they should be looked into because they could have killed anything or anyone (on their way speeding to their wedding job or some other excuse)

"Yes, I blame the fuckwits that speed down what is an otherwise fairly quiet road, and if I ever find out who it was, I am likely to lose my shit."

This might be partly why people choose not to find owners of cats they have hit.

Ps we’re in the country and there’s dogs, cats, rabbits, foxes and badgers dead at least once every two or three weeks on a little country road where if people were driving safely they’d be able to stop (I get not necessarily at night but this happens during the day too). People assume rural equals less chance of other people/cars being about

If I killed a cat on my way to something like work or the dentist of course I would stop and find the owner.

Many of the 'important' things you list really aren't the be all and end all and can easily be rescheduled/ rearranged.

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.

I have fortunately only ever hit one cat, which appeared out of a hedge next to the road and I had no chance to avoid it. Yes, I felt like crap, and yes I stopped - but the reality of cat ownership is that if you don’t want your cats run over, you need to not let them run around the roads. Plenty of people manage to cat-proof their gardens or build catios, and keep perfectly happy cats.

I agree with this tbh

What kind of person hits a cat and doesn’t stop to see if it could be saved ? Or to find the owner if not?

I wouldn’t campaign for it to be law but I would certainly think pretty poorly of anyone who just drove off.

Exceptions if there is no safe place to stop (but most cats are killed on residential roads) or if you have a woman in labour in the car or similar.

I hit a cat once but I didn’t have a chance of missing it. It ran straight in front of my car, a passerby thinks it was spooked by the building works on the street. I didn’t have a chance of stopping or even swerving. I hit it hard sadly but it ran off, poor thing must have been terribly injured though. I got out and tried to locate it but couldn’t find it anywhere. The passerby helped too but it’s a densely populated housing area, the amount of hiding places is huge. Am I bad because I didn’t spend all day trying to locate the cat? I also had children in the car. Should I have been climbing fences in the hopes of finding the injured cat?

I put a post on a couple of local Facebook groups but barely had a description of the cat as it happened so fast.

I was doing 25 in a 30 zone, I wasn’t speeding but the cat ran out a few feet in front of my car. Unfortunately, cars don’t come to an immediate stop no matter how hard you slam on the brakes!

Perhaps cat owners need to take full responsibility for their family member ie cat proof the garden so they can’t get out. I’m sick of the neighbours cats always in my garden. Poo everywhere.

I laughed out loud at "If cats want the same rights as wildlife" I don't think the cats know anything about rights/laws etc 😆

You are coming across as a bit heartless.

A better idea by far would be to try to avoid hitting the cat in the first place.

How are drivers in presumably built-up areas not seeing cats in the road or going so fast they have no time to stop?

And I don't exclude people going to various appointments from my expectation of driving with care. The fact you are late isn't a random cat's problem, or a problem other drivers should have to deal with.

What damage exactly do you think a 4kg bag of flesh and tiny bones is going to inflict on a 1000+kg metal machine?

Of course cat owners accept the risk that their cat may be hit by a car - they want their cat to have a full life and that is a consequent risk.

Just as parents of teenagers accept the risk that their teenager may one day step into the road without looking.

Doesn’t mean they have to accept that it’s ok for the driver to drive on regardless.

Completely agree.

You aren’t an animal lover OP.

Actually you'd be surprised. Pheasants often cause a fair bit of damage and they're lighter than cats.

It's usually the radiator grill.

I'd stop (unless on a motorway - 100 people a year are injured or killed on hard shoulders) and drop into a vet, but I'm not sure I'd leave my details.

Imagine that little girl crying because her parents were irresponsible cat owners who let the cat roam and get hit by a car. Blame the actual villain in this story.