Lock Your Doors! They're Going to Shoot Your Cat

Zombiefauna Apocaylpse! Sounds like you need a belt-fed, not a shotgun.

 

haha, thanks for the LOL MSD

 

MSD - have you not thought of vaccination? Son had to have it, and I dont think he was ill afterwards. Might make some things less frightening. Sadly, in uk they will soon start slaughtering the badger population - some think they possibly may carry TB, cows can be innoculated, but then europe wont take our dairy products. Seems evident to me, that if it is being carried, cows may well be infecting badgers. Poor Mr Brock, so few of them dead by the side of the road proves there are less of them left.

 

Microchips. THIS is why it should have been investigated further. There is no excuse for this. Also, a police officer is not qualified to say whether or not an animal should be euthanized. The cat could have been panting for a number of reasons.

I also call BullShit!

 

Hah... I had the exact same issue with the article and was going to make a comment based on Middle Eastern culture (which does not like dogs and cats at all).

That it happened in the US is unexpected.

 

There is a town called Lebanon in Pennsylvania, but the OP said it was a local paper and her location says Ohio. I have no idea if there is a Lebanon, Ohio.

As for the cat and officer in question; I have no sympathy at all for these folks. Feral cats are a serious PITA as well as potentially dangerous. There is a reason some states have feral cat hunting seasons, and you can be reasonably certain feral cats were the reason this policy was implemented in the first place.

Don't want your pet cat treated like a feral cat? Keep the thing on your own property and get it tagged just in case.

 

A cat is a thing the same as you are, Hektore. Indoor cats are not nearly as happy & self-realizing as those allowed to roam are. Most of this neighborhood's cats I recognize as neighbors. I know they mean something to somebody. If the policeman who shot that cat in the head had nothing more useful to do, perhaps Lebanon, Ohio's department is over-staffed.
A raccoon came to our koi pond again last night. I momentarily wished it hadn't, but then just tidied up. The animal is not at fault, neither here nor there.

 

I understand that it's better for cats to roam. I have no problem with people doing what's best for their animals, unless they're doing it at someone else's expense. If your cat needs room to roam, then go buy a property big enough to give it that room. If you aren't able to or don't want to, then don't buy a cat.

Feral cats are dangerous and indistinguishable by sight from neglected pet cats. It is not the officer's responsibility to sort the mess out, it's the pet owners responsibility to make sure their cat doesn't end up in that situation.

 

Feral cats are dangerous to what? Rodents & birds. I watched a cat of mine snatch a wren that was nesting in a birdhouse we'd hung & DID NOT blame the cat, though I mourned for the bird. My cat didn't need to do that, but couldn't help herself, I guess. I also am only guessing that the shooter could have not.

 

How are feral cats dangerous?
Toxoplasmosis

Rabies
They can also spread disease through their waste.
and that's without considering the claws and teeth.

They are also a nuisance, they can be noisy and destroy property. They are also a nuisance in all those fun ways that most other introduced predators/animals are in terms of upsetting ecology.

 

Alrighty, cat hater. May I assume you've been scratched or bitten or otherwise contracted a disease from a cat? Toxoplasmosis isn't as interesting as it sounds. In upsetting the ecology, & as our tag-alongs, I think their cohort/emotional supportiveness for so many outweighs their alien aspects. My dog is looking at me like I'm an idiot, but my older son's cats no longer scratch or bite me, & without any violent training. Close the window before throwing the shoe.

 

Seriously? I suppose I hate dogs too because I have a problem with people who let theirs shit on my sidewalk. Right?

I don't have a problem with cats, I have a problem with people who let their animals do whatever they hell the feel like doing, even when it creates problems for other people. And I don't have any sympathy for the owners when other folks solve the problem in a way that they don't approve of.

 

No, not seriously. When other folks are the authorities & local legislation allows them to use their taxpayer-provided ammunition to kill other folks' pets is what got my dander up. If I see a fellow dog-owner not picking up its poop, I publicly scold them. Cats are a different story. If you're withholding your sympathy from someone who's grieving, & minimizing the killing by mincing words, I hope you can remember the previous thrust of this thread. Do you keep pets?

 

I'm not mincing words. Not deliberately at least.

I do keep pets, not that it matters, but right now I have two gerbils, four fish and a ball python. I grew up with dogs, have taken in stray dogs and even kept a stray cat for about a day. Most of my friends have cats, there are three 'outdoor' cats that are regular visitors to my yard. I get the cat thing. That it's very commonplace to have an 'outdoor' cat doesn't make it a responsible decision for a pet owner.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in favor of taking it out on the animals, but the animal itself is the only locus of control for the people that have to deal with the problems they create.

 

Its usualy animals that get to pay the ultimate price. We, mankind, in recent years, have had dogs PTS with slaughterhouse stunners. Slaughterhouse men were appalled by this. No crime, no bad dogs, just scared dogs. Cats here, by law, are classes as 'free spirits', expected to be such as it is their nature - so you can run one over and drive on - for a dog you are supposed to stop. Me, I stop for anything the car in front has hit, and either pick them up and carry them to a quiet safe place where they can spend their last moments - I dont know why, but throwing a blanket over a pheasant stuck to and flapping from the tarmac road tends to finish it off. I block the road with my car if need be. Last time, as I appologised to people for having held them up, not one was horrid, one had done it themselves, done the right thing even by wringing its neck.
Look at the dangerous dogs act and Bruce, legaly held in conditions in which he deteriorated so terribly whilst under sentance of death for being a staffy - Boris Johnson wanted to round up mastiffs too in London for being dangerous dogs. In a straight out fight, my money would be on Borla, but they send out police geared up - for pets that have done nothing. There are calls now for breeders to have pups chipped and take a lifelong responsibility for the welfare of the animals they choose to bring into the world. I forsee many hidden corpses in future.
Sometimes the right thing is done, sometimes our debts are paid'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ygt7ySe_Ro&feature=related