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.

....and if you don't own one shit in your garden and destroy your flowers plants which you've been growing to try and attract bees.

We’ve got to over 30 pages and not even mentioned Toxoplasmosis yet…. for which cats are the only known definitive hosts. That means they’re the only species in which the parasite reproduces.

Toxo can be deadly to wildlife, as the symptoms change their behaviour and are not conducive to survival. It can be spread to humans as well. While it often doesn’t produce noticeable symptoms, it can actually induce miscarriages, or cause serious health defects for the child after birth.

So while your cat is out defecating on your pregnant neighbour’s veggie patch, it could actually end up ending her pregnancy or disabling her child. Lovely.

I am pretty certain they never did. They spent a lot of time in our garden. They were not out at night. They never stalked birds, and they were only allowed out when I was at home. I think I said it before, the birds seemed to know our last old boy was no threat, and ignored him, whereas if another cat came into the garden, they flew away. Plus cats very often bring their kills home as a gift for their owner. Mine never did. I think I knew my own cats!

I'm sorry about the pigeons. It must have been heartbreaking. I really hate it when cats do that. I have wood pigeons nesting in my garden and the cats can't get to them. A couple have tried. I am way more worried about the pair of magpies that have started to frequent the garden recently. I chase them when I see them but I am not going to be able to protect the eggs or the chicks, even though I wfh in my dining room and can see the garden at all times through the patio doors.

None of the numerous cats that have visited my garden has ever destroyed any flowers or plants!! My garden is full of flowers, plants and tress that attract bees!

You'd have to be pretty fucking stupid not to wear gardening gloves, especially when pregnant!!! Can you cite any evidence for your allegation?

I actually despair of people, I really do!

Cat lover places cat above unborn baby.

Nice.

Ever heard of 'personal responsibility'?

Thanks for the sympathy. It was a feeling I’d never felt before and simply cannot describe. My rage for the owners still continues. I hate them.

Cats often don’t bring their kill home. And even if they only touch or play with a bird, it will still die from the toxins in their saliva and on their claws. Every cat catch needs antibiotics, even if they look fine. Most won’t get it, those that do comes out of the pockets of people like me, who rehab wildlife.

I won’t take cat attacks anymore. I’m tired of picking up the pieces from other people’s poor choices. You should have seen the state of the juvenile wood pigeon I rehabbed the other year. His skin was ripped off him right the way from his chest, over his shoulder and off his back. One massive flap that opened his whole body up. Big hole in his crop. I just looked at him and thought “shit”. Piled him with antibiotics and painkiller, glued him up as best I could and expected him to pass overnight. He didn’t. Each day I did the same. Meds…. tube feed (he wasn’t eating).

Eventually, his skin started to grow back. The skin flap died and came off. Some time later, after lots of aloe Vera gel, his skin was supple enough to allow flight without the skin bursting open. About 3-4 months later, I released him, and I pray he has the life he deserved before someone’s pet got hold of him. All those weeks cooped in a box recovering. The sheer pain, fear and stress he went through, not just with the cat, but with me. Wood pigeons are truly wild and they do not cope well in captivity. But I hope those weeks of trauma allowed him a chance at life. Being a juvenile went in his favour to some degree.

Even if, by some miracle, your 3 cats never even touched an animal, the figures show you that most do. The replies on this thread alone show the heartbreak they cause, the death, the injury, the nuisance. It’s just not fair on anyone.

Each time I see the ubiquitous “flat cat” Facebook posts, I just roll my eyes. These people will never learn…

“Allegation” 😂😂

Yes. I didn’t just make it up, obviously 🙄

Google will provide you with plenty of information, but as you seem to be more into ranting nonsense than educating yourself:

https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/toxoplasmosis-cats

”Pregnant women and immunodeficient individuals are the two populations most at risk of developing health problems after T. gondii exposure. In utero infection is of the greatest concern in humans. Between one-third and one-half of infants born to mothers who acquired Toxoplasma during pregnancy are infected. The vast majority of women infected during pregnancy have no symptoms themselves, and the majority of infected infants will show no symptoms of toxoplasmosis at birth. Many of these children, however, are likely to develop signs of infection later in life, including loss of vision and hearing, mental retardation, and, in severe cases, death.”

Well…. it seems somewhat that you haven’t…

I would have the opinion that if a cat is deemed a wild animal and can therefore roam, kill and shit where it wants, then as a wild animal I have no responsibility to deal with it if it's run over...well that's the theory whether I could actually do that in practice I won't know unless it happens 🤷

You're such a good person. I can understand your anger, and it's justified. We've tried to save birds several times, even taking them to a local vet who took in wildlife. I'd rather the bird died in peace in a cardboard box in our garage than let the cat rip it apart. I am heart scared for the wood pigeons nesting in our garden, because I think the magpies will get them.

I couldn't say 100% that my guys never killed anything, but they never showed any inclination. Elderly DCat used to have birds fly down near him, and he couldn't have cared less.

I can see both points of view. I do know that a lot of people don't think cats can be happy indoors. I am here to verify that they can. Though if my current three rescues had been crying at the door and pissing around the house with stress, I would have found it hard to keep them in. All three were used to being outdoors, so I am lucky and very happy that they are content indoors. There's so so many cats in rescue, and people in rescue picking up the pieces the same as you are.

I know that - I've been a pregnant cat owner several times!

Perhaps I worded it badly. Is there any evidence that women have had miscarriages or birth defects due to cat poo when they were gardening?

Come again? I took precautions when I was pregnant! My cats are indoors. Where do you get that from?!!

I was meaning that you’re putting all the onus on the person who is minding their own business in their garden rather than the cat owner allowing their cat to roam on other peoples property and put them at risk. Surely they owe some responsibility too?

I haven’t looked for specific incidents, but transmission to humans is clearly possible by contact with and ingestion of the parasite, spread by cats who defecate where they like, including people’s gardens, allotments etc.

If it never happened, the data on the effects wouldn’t exist.

Thank you.

I hope your woodies make it to fledging safely. Pigeons are wonderful birds, very sweet and very loving. And very cheeky!!

Not many vets will do anything other than euthanise wildlife, luckily we have a brilliant wildlife friendly vet, who will even operate on pigeons.

I preferred to take responsibility myself, rather than take a risk. I think any sensible person would.

Always good to, yes. But a non cat owner likely wouldn’t even know about toxo. Even if they did, it’s just another thing that’s not fair to inflict on other people and wildlife.

I love birds coming to our gardens but worry sometimes that by feeding them we are making them a target; however I think the benefits outweigh the risks. We have wood pigeons, collared doves, feral pigeons, robins, wrens, bullfinches, goldfinches (I love them and how they fight with each other!), blackbirds, several varieties of tits, crows, starlings of course etc, seagulls sometimes and swallows/house martins overhead in the summer. Funnily very few sparrows, though a few years ago we had a gang of about 20 of them. Occasionally we might see a thrush, and I once saw a jay on the garage roof. I'm not happy about the magpies and they have gone from coming occasionally to every day more than once, which makes me fear for the wood pigeons.

Lucky you!

I have some goldfinches in my garden at the moment too, they’re lovely little things.

I’m coastal, so we have loads of starlings. Proper little characters, and the murmurations are incredible. They’re meant to be great pets too, if you raise one.

I knew about toxo and it's why I cannot fathom owners letting cats sit on their kitchen counters while cooking having just been roaming outside.

I have to admit, starlings are my least favourite! They're noisy and they shit everywhere! I remember one day at the start of lockdown, there were so many starlings in our garden at one time - it was apocalyptic! - the garden was black with them! Never seen anything like it. Fortunately it didn't happen again!

I do admire the murmurations. Somewhere I worked years ago was treated to the display every night. Haven't seen one now for ages.

I'm anal about that!