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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that you should STOP if you run over someones cat in a village!!

84 replies

rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 09:48

Someone in a car ran over a cat in the village I drive through this morning and didn't stop!! We swerverd to avoid the poor twitching creature. This is not a main rd it is a village next to the local primary school. I'm horrified!

a) it could have easily been a child
b) little children will see it on the way to school
c) it could get squashed again
d) if you have squashed something that belongs to someone and is obviously loved it's courtesy to STOP, at least move it off the bloody rd!

Why to people become so disconnected when they get in their car?

Is it not common courtesy to stop or am I being unreasonable?

OP posts:
DeJaVous · 29/09/2008 09:50

Blatantly not being unreasonable.

pooka · 29/09/2008 09:51

Did you stop? I don't think I could have carried on driving if the cat was still alive and would definitely have stopped if I had been the one hitting the cat.

Do you think they maybe didn't realise.

Is so so sad.

shootfromthehip · 29/09/2008 09:52

YANBU IMO as Ihave 2 cats and would be gutted to find out someone didn't stop for them. Bad enough to have hit them with your car but to not stop is horrid. Legally though I don't think you have any obligation to stop as you do with dogs (or is that an urban myth?). Just think morally you should do your best to see if the poor thing needs help.

Some people !!!!!!

Cappuccino · 29/09/2008 09:54

I ran over a cat when I was about 22

it was dark and I drove on

I was terrified, shaking and crying, and I didn't know what to do

there is no way on earth I could have dealt with it - I'm 38 now and I still have to get dh to move dead mice etc out of the garden, I can't even be in the garden till they have gone

cut people a break; some people are not so hardheaded that they can just jump out of the car and deal in a mature manner with something that they have killed

TigerFeet · 29/09/2008 09:58

I live in fear of doing this, I really do, especially because our much loved moggy likes to sit in the middle of the road and sunbathe

I would stop, of course I would, but I would have no idea what to do. Who to ring or whatever.

Of course it's possible that the driver was a hard hearted bastard but it's also possible that he/she panicked and effectively ran away.

shootfromthehip · 29/09/2008 09:58

I am the least hard hearted person I know and would be devasted to kill an animal but I am responsible and would have to ascertain at least if the animal needed help

shootfromthehip · 29/09/2008 10:01

sorry- misquoted cappuccino- I should say I am not 'hard-headed' either

Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:08

My Dp was driving otherwise I would have stopped and hammered on the window of the car in front and caused a hell of a scene!! Sadly he swerved as he could see it was twitching and does know about these things and I was crying and shouting and my dd was in the back asking all about it..

It's about responsibility, I can understand if it is dark and you are on your own and in a state, this was broad daylight in a busy built up area.

We had a puppy that was run over so it strikes a chord.

OP posts:
pooka · 29/09/2008 10:09

Oh blimey - didn't realise that the cat got knocked down in daylight by the car ahead. Absolutely horrible.

Cappuccino · 29/09/2008 10:12

"a) it could have easily been a child "

no it couldn't, it was a cat. They move quicker, they are lower, they are generally less unpredictable

when I was in local newspapers we always used to joke about the 'it could have been a child' thing, people always use it to make something sound worse than it was

people would find something sharp in their bakery sandwich: 'it could have been a child'; their elderly granny would fall over a pavement: 'it could have been a child'; someone would drive into a lamppost: 'a child could have been in the car'

but it wasn't a child, was it? it was a cat

Cappuccino · 29/09/2008 10:12

I meant more unpredictable, sorry

Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:15

Yeah it was a cat but the point is that driving at that speed and with that little care in a built up area next to a primary school isn't responsible..

OP posts:
NorbertDentressangle · 29/09/2008 10:15

My neighbours cat got knocked down by a car that didn't stop last year -luckily for the cat a motorcyclist who was following picked up the cat, put him inside his jacket and took him to a vets.

A few ops and a lot of money later (luckily they had pet insurance) he is fine.

It hasn't stopped his wandering though -I think hes a long-lost relative or soul-mate of Fabio

MaryAnnSingleton · 29/09/2008 10:16

so you didn't stop either rebelsmum ?

Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:16

I was on the rd with my dd at the age of 2 when my dog got run over, she was pretty low to the ground and the car was going at great speed.. I left the dog and grabbed her..

OP posts:
Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:17

No as I said I wasn't driving or I would have.

OP posts:
nervousal · 29/09/2008 10:17

So you didn't stop either? I don't think you can criticise someone for not stopping if you didn't?

MaryAnnSingleton · 29/09/2008 10:17

didn't you tell dh to stop then ?

Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:18

I would take responsibility.

OP posts:
HeadFairy · 29/09/2008 10:19

isn't it illegal to leave the scene of an accident? I might be wrong, but even if it's a cat that's injured the driver has to stop. Even so, pretty mean of the driver not to stop and do something, even if it was to put the cat out of it's misery.

Cappuccino · 29/09/2008 10:19

so we have three types of people on the thread

  1. responsible, wonderful citizens who can look after or dispose of a wounded animal discreetly
  2. blubbering wrecks who can't deal with it at all
  3. irate people who drive past and then post about it on the internet

well I know which one I am, and bizarrely I don't feel I'm the lowest of the low anymore

Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:20

Of course but he said it was already dying. I have no issue with any of the drivers that then followed and didn't stop that's not the point. The point is person who killed someones pet should at least stop and move it and take responsibility.

OP posts:
Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:21

or

  1. people who think people's pets are fare game and you can run them over and drive on.
OP posts:
Original poster
rebelmum1 · 29/09/2008 10:22

'fair' game I mean

OP posts:
Cappuccino · 29/09/2008 10:24

oh yes 'fair game' because people run over animals on purpose

they drive off laughing big comedy laughs like villains in James Bond films

in fact they have a little card in their glove box, and when they have driven on a discreet distance they pull over and give themselves a sticker

fgs