To consider stealing this cat?

[BibiBlocksbergv2]

Awful title and horrible to even think it, i know. I feel i've got myself thoroughly trapped and no one in RL to talk/reason it out with, especially not real cat lovers so apologies if this gets long and thanks in advance.

I moved to a shared house six months ago with my own cat. I was told before moving that housemates cat was an outdoor cat and by choice did not come in to the house.

Once i had moved in i discovered that resident cat was basically neglected, not allowed into the house and fed a handful of dry biscuits once a day. Cat was skinny, fur matted and knotted (long haired) incredibly shy but starving hungry (so would come near to back door with coaxing for bowl of wet food)

I slowly managed to gain the cats trust and now he is like any other pampered puss, sleeps in my bed, plays, plenty of love and food, toys, grooming etc.

When questioned, housemates reason for neglecting his cat is that he is allergic to long hair but did not want to re-home him as he would miss seeing the cat. The allergy has turned out to be non existent now cat is in the house and hm has been happy to turn all responsibility and expenses for his cat over to me (i have done gladly, just to illustrate the situation further)

Housemate is driving me mad for various reasons and for my own sanity i want to move asap.

Trouble is, HM won't let me take his cat on permanently (have even offered to pay him) but i know the minute i go his cat will be returned to the life of being neglected again.

Hard to describe but the attitude seems to be one of a toddler like 'no, mine' with no consideration for the animal just so long as hm controls his fate iyswim.

What the heck do i do? If i just take the cat its theft of property like any other, i could leave cat behind for a few weeks (neighbour knows situation and would keep an eye on him)

Apart from that being crap for the cat though, it will still be obvious where he is likely to be if he goes missing a short while after i go.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, i feel stuck between a rock and a hard place with no way out other than to stay until cat dies of old age (he's only 3 bless him :))

Hmm this is a true moral dilemma. Legally speaking this could be a theft. Morally speaking any animal lover would agree with you. However has he abandoned rights of ownership by neglecting the cat? Would the fact that you are appropriating the cat for the right reasons (morally) negate the dishonesty?
Have you got photos of the cat when it was ill looking? Any other evidence eg of your expenditure on the cat or of his cruelty to the cat? Could you report the owner to the rspca so there is a record of your concern? Keep a record of how you have voiced your concerns to the owner and what his responses were.
I think it would depend on where you live whether the police would be interested. In London-I doubt it, too busy. Somewhere quiet, maybe. I would imagine at worst the police would come round and have a word with you. Then it would be down to them whether they thought it was a civil matter. Wonder if there is case law on the matter-have a look on line. The Theft Act is complicated and like all laws it is open to interpretation.

The fact that living creatures are treated in law as property is what is morally wrong here, there is no moral dilemma in stealing the cat for its own safety.

Leaving it to suffer just because you don't want to break a law would be immoral - the consequences for the cat would be far greater than any possible consequences for any of the humans involved.

The only moral question here is how to leave your housemate without feeling tempted to go all Tarantino on his ass and beat him to death with a hammer for being a cunty cat hater.

Take the cat, leave the hammer.

Well said catsofa, the cat's welfare has to come first here.

When we were adopted by William, our lovely stray cat, we didn't know whether he had an owner. He was thin, always starving hungry and you could tell that, even if he had an owner, he wasn't being looked after. I took him to the vet and had him checked out and then he moved in with my Mum. I did wonder if I had stolen someone's cat but I really didn't care - he was being neglected and I could do something about it.

Please don't leave him behind.

How's it going with the housemate and cat op? Have you moved yet?