Being told to pay vet bill

[majesticallycurvy]

Long story short, we accidentally hit a cat through no fault of ours and the cat unfortunately passed away. We offered our condolences to the owners and are sorry for their loss, but they are hounding us to pay their vet bill.

It's a no from us but we're being slandered over it...

Wwyd?

I was very upset when one of my cats was run over and killed on a very quiet residential street but it wouldn't have occurred to me to blame the poor woman driving the car. It was very upsetting for her as well.

If anything the cat owners should be apologising to you for the incident not trying to pay their vet bill.

I am sorry, I cannot afford it should do

I hit and killed a cat (the day before DS was born no less!) and felt terrible so put notes through the doors of the houses on the street to find and apologise to the owner. I offered to pay their insurance excess. I feel this was more than generous and was mainly to appease my own hormonal guilt!

I absolutely wouldn’t entertain it .

i would have no further contact with them .

Do you know them ? How are they contacting you ?

I would block

Yep - a definite ‘no’.

I had a free roaming cat but it was 100% my risk if they were to have got injured. Absolutely not your problem and don’t allow yourself to be bullied into backing down.

Thank you for your responses they're very reassuring. The thing is, I would have been willing to contribute something affordable as I am of course very sorry for their loss (although I agree that it's the pet owners responsibility - I certainly wouldn't expect someone to pay for my pet). However, they put my image along with a defamatory post on the local community Facebook page (prior to asking for the money!) and sent rude direct messages so I blocked them. But it makes going out and about locally rather uncomfortable.

I’d screenshot all that evidence and take legal action against them.

Yanbu I wouldn’t pay it if it were me, I can barely afford to feed my kids most of the time, why should I be forced to pay someone else’s vet bill!

No, I wasn't

I've got screenshots of everything and logged it all with the police. I guess it was making me doubt myself.

don't be ridiculous

So what do you suggest OP should have done? Swerving is highly discouraged even with large wildlife like deer, and could have resulted in a serious accident. You think the cat's owners would have offered to pay in that case?

Why lie? Just tell them that it's their responsibility to insure against this sort of thing and therefore you won't be paying.

Also, I wouldn't care what shit they're posting on Facebook, although I would be recording it as evidence. I suspect that sort of thing will severely backfire on them though.

Instruct you car insurance company to deal with it. I am sure they will tell the cat owner they have no basis for any claim.

Gosh thats terrible. I take that back, I wouldn't pay a penny.
If they are struggling to pay the vet bill, I presume there are charities who can help, but slandering you is not on

Oh my god, where did they get an image of you from? Did they just come up and take a photo? I understand how upsetting it is when a pet dies but they sound massively unreasonable.

Doorbell camera footage. My words exactly 'unreasonable'!

Not at all. Cats are fast.

I suppose you could put your side of the story on the same facebook group. It does sound unfortunately and like you did the right thing. You only need to see the amount of roadkill whe driving first thing to know it isn't just cats that leap out.

How did they get your details?

Yanbu they sound crazy and you don't owe them anything.

Excellent advice

OP, you mst be feeling awful re cat and these idiots are just making things worse for you. If you were as unreasonable as them, I'd guess you could ask them for your truma therapy sessions

Good luck

oh, 'facebook' again, the blight of our nation. Thankfully, my family and I have avoided at all costs.

OP, you are doing the right thing!!

Why are you assuming cats only cross slow roads? OP may have been going fast perfectly legally? You sound judgy AF.

I don't understand. Did the incident happen right outside your house?

Do not pay that bill. When they decided to let their cat free roam outside, they took the chance that it could be hit by a car. It's a shame that that's happened, but it's not your responsibility. I say this as someone who had a dog that managed to dash out of the front door and got run immediately run over outside. Luckily, she survived, but I'd never have expected the driver to pay the vet bill. And I was so apologetic and reassuring to the visibly shaked and upset driver.