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.

TBF not all cats kill birds
I've had two and neither could catch a cold. One brought me a leaf once

Do cat owners not bear any responsibility for allowing their cat to roam free in the first place?

Surely, when you let your cat out, you know and accept the risks of doing so. You can hope that if the cat does get hit, the person stops and assists the cat, at least in tracking the owner-but you can't really expect it to happen.

I think it's sadly part of the bargain when you choose to have an outdoor cat and allow them to wander freely. It's always a risk.

Maybe, if you all care so much, keep them indoors and it won't happen.

This
If I hit a cat, and I recognise that roaming cats take this risk, of course I’d stop. Who wouldn’t ?
Would you not want to know if there’s something you can do ?
would you really just go about your business knowing an animal is in pain/dying ?

Mine once brought me a Twix wrapper. Lucky that Twix wrappers have the right to roam!

I'd rather stop and locate owners of other species than for heartless humans like you. Different strokes and that 🤷‍♀️

What do you mean “it’s not an everyday thing”? Around 230,000 cats are hit by cars each year (630 every day on average), apparently. Just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it’s not common. 🙄

Why should anyone stop? It’s an animal that goes about as it wants. Sometimes, sadly, that means it will be run over, killed by a dog, get stuck somewhere or get lost. That’s life.

I've never hit a cat but I think if I ever did I'd stop and try and help. Christ I was an hour and a half late for work once because I hit a peacock and spent forever wandering up and down this country road, holding the injured peacock trying to find out which farm it belonged to. I think there are circumstances where not stopping is understandable, but they are infrequent and there are far more occasions of people not stopping because they simply couldn't be arsed.

Cat threads never go well on MN. Cat haters are some of the most unhinged and cruellest people in our society, and there’s a fair few on here who think nothing of proudly proclaiming they would poison / murder a cat.

Not sure why you think that is funny?

yeah that's a fair point, the location of a vet is top secret information only disclosed once obtained your pet license and demonstrated the secret handshake

Good thing it's not freely available information at the touch of a smartphone, poor vets would be overrun with potential customers.

Of course you accept the risks. Some cats get run over. Nor should owners blame a driver for an accident, and will hate the trauma it's caused a driver.

Most cat owners do not want to keep their cats in - cats hate being kept in.

However you can still appreciate if someone is nice enough to stop, check the cat's okay, even take it to the vets. It might save it's life, or at least you know what's happened.

100%

We know it's a risk. People aren't angry at those who hit their pet accidentally. When my DGF's cat was run over and killed, we were grateful that the driver stopped. Their passenger stayed with her whilst the driver tried to find the owner. If she'd been left in the road, it would have been doubly sad.

It's someone's pet, not a bit of rubbish.

Injury and death are two very different things. I’m quoting you ‘injury/death is a sad but accepted risk… ‘

If I ran down a cat and it was very obviously dead, which I would only know by stopping, then I might continue my journey not doing anything to contact the owners. If the cat was injured I would not be able to continue my day until I had got the cat some help. If you can leave an injured animal in the road when you can do something then there’s something wrong with you.

Because some people are so far detached from reality, you just have to laugh and move on. Literally no point arguing with them.

I would do that I was thinking from more wishing there was one singular place to check as an owner. When my friends dog went missing we knew to check the dog warden as all lost dogs get reported there whether they get picked up by public, police or dropped at vets.

I think as cat owners have no responsibility placed on them to control their animal, such is life.

If they are afforded the same duty of care that dog owners have in the uk, the legislation on stopping after hitting a cat would follow suit?

😅😅😅

I had an indoor cat and it was perfectly fine and happy.

The vet even said he preferred it as it meant less chance of getting into an accident.

It's nice to stop, don't get me wrong, and I think if I hit a cat and it was safe to do so-I would stop and try and help the cat. However, it can't be expected of everyone-and as such, you have to bear the burden of the risk when you let the cat out and know there's a chance that it may not come back-whether that's in getting lost, ending up getting lured by food to another home, getting killed in an accident, etc.

It's part of it and you have to understand not everyone is able to stop and help.

Quite

What sort of person would hit someone's pet and just keep driving! Fucking awful

How, practically, should someone deal with a cat they've hit? I've never had it happen to me, nor have I ever owned cats. If I hit a cat that seems injured or in pain - would you try to pick it up? Wrap it in a blanket or something? Transport it somehow in the car (I'm alone in the car most of the time so no-one to help)? Phone a vet to see if someone would come out and collect it? Presumably I could google a vet that might be in some nearby town or village, depending on where it happened, but are there designated late-night/all night vets? (I'm assuming it's likely to happen more at night). I would want to try to stop and help if I could and if it seemed safe to stop, but I've never really dealt with injured cats before and not sure how easy it would be to get it into the car and safely drive! Do cats usually have collars with their owners' phone numbers, or just a chip that has to be scanned by a vet?

I can totally why people don't . Cats are covered by a right to roam , they go anywhere they like . If you don't like the law don't get one .
They are not livestock so you can't have it both ways , a right to roam and make people stop for accidents . Choose one or the other , you can't have both
People don't just go out for a drive they have work to go to ,children to pick up and appointments to make .

I don't think the driver should have to go knocking on doors, hunting for an owner, but yes it is disgusting to hit an animal and just drive off without stopping, provided it was safe to do so (obviously I am not advocating for pulling up on the M25.)

The acid test is this: would you like to be left in agony on the road? If not, please don't do it to an animal.

It's the flip side to the free roaming law. It's the risk you take when you let them out.

Changing it to hold people accountable means a lot of cats on leads being walked or kept in. You have to stop for a dog but dogs aren't allowed to roam. People should be careful what they wish for.

YANBU. Our kitty is strictly indoors.
Personally I might not always be able to stop but I'd make a FB post or something.
Some roads are so busy I'm too scared to stop even when I've pissed myself let alone to pick up a dead cat.