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 hit a cat on the motorway at speed. I still feel awful about it. There was no way to avoid the cat due to amount of cars on the road and the speed of traffic. All I could do was take my foot off the accelerator, if I had braked it would have caused an accident. Couldn't stop as there was no where to pull over.

If it had happened in a residential area I would have stopped and taken the cat to a vet. But there's no way I'd knock on random doors trying to figure out whose cat it was.

I'm not sure why someone living near a motorway would let their cat be an outdoor cat though. It's just an accident waiting to happen.

I think morally people should stop if they hit anything - even if just to see if they can put it out of it's misery but I don't agree with making it law.

I would always stop if I could (and, in fact stopped when someone else hit a cat) but I think the comments about leaving enough time for your journey are a bit harsh. A trip to the nearest vet here is about an hour's round trip - and I'm not even that remote. No one can leave an hour's grace for every single car journey, surely? Which means there will be some journeys I cannot stop that long for - enough to take the cat out the road, maybe (road depending).

Knocking on hourses may work if there are nearby houses but when I think of most my car journeys 75% of the journey is not near houses.

The 'post it on Facebook' suggestion only works if you happen to hit the cat in your local area where you are already a member of that group. The suggestion about about the universal reporting site is better.

I really wish cat owners would keep their cats in overnight though, as the Cats Protection etc recommend. They are hit by cars massively more often in the dark (almost 80% of all cat RTA are at night) and do most their killing after dusk and just before dawn. Keeping them in overnight (even if allowed to roam in the day) is safer for them and for the wildlife.

Letting them out at night really is playing roulette with their lives and the lives of much of the local wildlife.

Agree. I don't think anyone expects you to be knocking on doors til you find the owner, but to leave a cat in agony on the roadside... No.
In fact, that is a reminder to me to put a random box back in my car, just in case it's needed.

Surely most people who hit a cat would take them to the nearest vet to be scanned? I'm not a huge cat lover, but I can't imagine knowingly letting someone worry about and search for their dead pet.

I thought the cats were often found by passers by because they tend to run when injured so often die away from the place they were ran over?

No, that’s not what I’m saying at all… why don’t you have another go, with your glasses on this time? 🙄

Our cat was killed and I was so grateful someone stopped and picked him up so the children could bury him.

We did try and keep him in, but he was so determined to get out he would jump out of the upper windows nevermind the lower ones! He was a rescue cat and he would stop at nothing to be outside, even hiding behind things when I opened the door to dart out. Who lives with all windows and doors sealed all of the time!

I'm absolutely in agreement with you, & the shitty comments from some on this thread are the reason why I prefer animals.

I've fatally hit 3 wild animals on the roads in nearly 30 years of driving & was distraught at each of them.

Owners of cats are not legally required to keep their felines under control because the owners can't train their cats to stop them running across roads in front of cars. It means that the owner can't claim for the loss of the cat, and equally the car owner can't claim for any damage to the car.

I don't see what the cat owners are trying to achieve but it's pretty silly. Do they imagine the police have time to worry about each instance? They don't.

If it was safe to do so I'd stop and deal with the cat by taking it to the vets. If no vets are open I'd at least move it to the side of the road and alert the local lost animal person.

However, I live in a rural area with 60mph windy roads with lots of blind bends. I will not risk mine and my children's life to move a cat.

Thankfully I've never hit an animal in my 18 years of driving. Hopefully it stays that way.

OtterlyMad
Genuine question could she not come back the following day (I do see your point). We had someone knock on our door at midnight. Got a fright but I appreciated it (but it was a man and from the area so different)

And what if the person doesn’t have Facebook? Or if they’re not from the area so can’t post on the local page?

I’m very sorry to hear about your cat but you’re completely failing to grasp the point.

Do they imagine the police have time to worry about each instance? They don't.

That's exactly my point about dogs. Nothing will happen if you don't report it, even though you're legally meant to. A decent human wouldn't just leave the dog there though.

Cat owners want to know their pet has been injured/killed. That's not an unreasonable want. Driving away after you know you've hit an animal is a vile thing to do.

It's not about compensation or recompense. It's about knowing what has happened. The anger is towards those that don't stop because their time is too important or they simply can't be bothered. Those people deserve the anger.

I hit a cat once, I was very upset about it, but no I didn't stop.
It was dark and late, it was a fast road (60mph limit) and I was about an hour from home. No idea where the nearest vet was, nor did I have anything to lift the cat with or put it in. Do people have stuff in their cars for these eventualities? In hindsight, I could have gone door knocking, but I was on my own and it was late and I didn't know the area so it didn't really occur to me in the moment as something that would be safe or sensible to do.

That said, I think some of the suggestions in this thread of locking cats inside are pretty horrible. I'd rather lose a cat to a swift death to a car than keep it inside all its life, what a miserable way to live.

I find it upsetting that people seem to think a cat's life doesn't matter. If I hit a cat I'd be devastated and probably wouldn't get behind the wheel for a while. If someone hit my cat I'd like to know that they weren't just left on the road and given some dignity in death , and sometimes they can be saved if they're taken to the vet in time.

I've had a cat that was hit by a car, they didn't stop but the car behind did and a neighbour recognised the cat and came to get us. We could get it to the vet for treatment, sadly she died the next day but at least we were given that chance.

I've been driving and seen a dead cat left at the side of the road, I couldn't just drive by so I stopped wrapped it in my scarf and took it to the vet. That's someone's much loved family member and deserves dignity in death not just left for a fox or bird to get at.

I think if a driver hits a cat they have a duty to take the animal to the vet (either for emergency treatment if the cat is still alive or so that the vet can hopefully contact the owner). There are also emergency vets if the cat is hit after normal opening hours. I think it’s extremely cruel to hit a cat and then drive off as if nothing happened because you have a job to get to or an appointment etc! My beloved cat didn’t return home one morning for breakfast. He was later found lying dead in the middle of the road. The person who hit him didn’t even have the decency to check if he was alive and move his body to the side of the road. There wasn’t a mark on him. He looked like he was sleeping. I have never forgotten.

So in my case the cat ran off after being hit, perhaps in many cases the cat that has been found wasn’t actually hit in the place it was found. I’m sure that the person who found the poor cat I hit (and couldn’t find) was berating the thought of the driver who had committed a hit and run. Yes, in many cases a cat is found where it was hit but not all. What happens if a poor cat is found suffering, will the presumption be that someone heartless has left it to suffer?

Deer are a prime example of animals that run when injured, often if hit by a car they run in pure shock only to die in a different area. Sadly this also happens with other animals.

I'm just going to answer with what I would do if I hit a cat. If it was safe to stop, I'd stop and try and help. That's because I love animals-all animals and wouldn't want an animal in pain at the side of the road and alone. It would plague me too much.

However, if you own a cat and let it roam free, it's the risk that you take and you have to willingly sign up to that and not blame other people because you couldn't be arsed to keep the cat indoors.

Ultimately, I don't think I much agree with allowing cats to roam free-and I agree even less with owners who do that and think it's everyone else's responsibility when a perfectly foreseeable accident happens.

Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers.

Running over a cat is a sad but everyday thing. Of course you shouldn’t have to stop, report or do anything else. Any more than you should stop after running over a squirrel or a pigeon.

Stopping for collision with dogs is because the dog’s owner may have committed an offence by letting it be dangerously loose. The obligation has nothing to do with the welfare of the dog or its owner.

In the case of cats the only reason to stop - if safe - that I can think of is to despatch a cat that’s apparently in pain.

There was no way I could have missed the cat that jumped out of a hedge 3 feet in front of me when I was doing 30mph along a village road.

I did stop but it had crawled back into the deep hedgerow.

I spent 20 minutes trying to find it purely because I was distraught at the idea of it suffering.

I knocked on a couple of doors, found the one it belonged to but they weren't home so I explained to the neighbour.

I went back later that day and they answered and said they had found her but she had already gone. They were grateful I had stopped and tried to find them so that they knew what had happened.

To those questioning damage, it cost me nearly £250 to replace the parts that broke off my bumper and fog light (that's not the reason I stopped though).

Ah yes, I’m a truly terrible person for responding with sarcasm to the halfwit throwing around unfounded accusations.

And because I partake in sarcasm, that must also mean I enjoy murdering defenceless animals…

Seriously, why even bother replying to a post if you can’t be arsed to read it properly?

What the fuck! It's not an everyday thing, I've never run over a cat and I drive every day.

I've had multiple cats in my life time only 2 have been hit by a car and neither time did the driver stop to check on the cat, one was found by the bin men the other the car behind saw what happened and stopped I can not understand why the car that hit her couldn't It was not a busy road.

Stopping for collision with dogs is because the dog’s owner may have committed an offence by letting it be dangerously loose. The obligation has nothing to do with the welfare of the dog or its owner.

This is often forgotten, I think. You report some animal accidents to the police because their owners may be prosecuted for their animals being out of control - as with dogs. The law is not concerned with the welfare of the animal hit, just with the law broken by the owner.

Stunned at how callous people sound. I think it's basic human decency to take it to the nearest vets where it will be taken in and scanned so the owner knows. That doesn't require a lot of effort. But I'm a cat lover so...

Pretty sure everyone on this thread knows who the halfwit is…