Someone shot my cat

[zuhnc]

I don't know who or where, but one of my outdoor barn cats was shot a couple of days ago. SO found her in the hay bales. Took her to the vet. X-rays showed a shattered rear leg and the bullet. No saving the leg, so she is three-legged now. Still at the vet, but recovering. She is now an indoor cat.

A pox on those that shoot cats just for fun or target practice. This cat is fed and well cared for, as all our barn cats are. They do hunt, but not chickens, cows or rabbits. Field mice and voles are the favorite prey. zuhnc

 

[NoDakInMN]

They deserve to be beat within an inch of their lives.

 

[old]

I don't know who or where, but one of my outdoor barn cats was shot a couple of days ago. SO found her in the hay bales. Took her to the vet. X-rays showed a shattered rear leg and the bullet. No saving the leg, so she is three-legged now. Still at the vet, but recovering. She is now an indoor cat.

A pox on those that shoot cats just for fun or target practice. This cat is fed and well cared for, as all our barn cats are. They do hunt, but not chickens, cows or rabbits. Field mice and voles are the favorite prey. zuhnc

Sad that you can report that but it will not do any good but that is the sad state of the legal system in this area. I have to tell the neighbor at times to slow down as they drive past my house due the the cats I have and even had a guy spin out and throw gravel in my face right in front of my horse barn. If the truck he was in had a back plate on it I would have taken the numbers down and filed charge but no back plate so not able to do so

 

[wore out]

I don't know who or where, but one of my outdoor barn cats was shot a couple of days ago. SO found her in the hay bales. Took her to the vet. X-rays showed a shattered rear leg and the bullet. No saving the leg, so she is three-legged now. Still at the vet, but recovering. She is now an indoor cat.

A pox on those that shoot cats just for fun or target practice. This cat is fed and well cared for, as all our barn cats are. They do hunt, but not chickens, cows or rabbits. Field mice and voles are the favorite prey. zuhnc

I am in no way in favor of wounding animals but I'm GUESSING she may have wandered somewhere she was not appreciated, and it probably wasn't the first time.

You say she will be an "indoor cat" now, perhaps she should have been before?

Unless she was shot ON your property, some one may have been dealing with a "nuisance" on THEIR property.

There's no reason a "neighbor" should have to put up with the filth and STENCH left behind by someone else's cats.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I don't know who or where, but one of my outdoor barn cats was shot a couple of days ago. SO found her in the hay bales. Took her to the vet. X-rays showed a shattered rear leg and the bullet. No saving the leg, so she is three-legged now. Still at the vet, but recovering. She is now an indoor cat.

A pox on those that shoot cats just for fun or target practice. This cat is fed and well cared for, as all our barn cats are. They do hunt, but not chickens, cows or rabbits. Field mice and voles are the favorite prey. zuhnc

zuhnc
I would never shoot a cat. 2 cats allow me to sit in my chair sometimes.
I installed 2 cat doors. One door allows the cats to get into the garage and the other door allows the cats to go outside.
There are times my neighbors cats come over and terrorize my cats. Our male cat sits in the garage late at night looking out the cat door. HE must think he is protecting his territory. I'm lucky the neighbor's cat doesn't know how to use a cat door.
What does a person do when a neighbor's at becomes a problem?
Cats are Cats.
Again I wouldn't shoot anyone's cat. Sad someone shot your cat.

 

[GChief]

They deserve to be beat within an inch of their lives.

Why stop if no one is looking

 

[MJMJ]

I am in no way in favor of wounding animals but I'm GUESSING she may have wandered somewhere she was not appreciated, and it probably wasn't the first time.

You say she will be an "indoor cat" now, perhaps she should have been before?

Unless she was shot ON your property, some one may have been dealing with a "nuisance" on THEIR property.

There's no reason a "neighbor" should have to put up with the filth and STENCH left behind by someone else's cats.

Exactly. Keep your animals at home, or they’re no longer your animals. To pretend your cat is the only one out of millions that doesn’t hunt rabbits or chickens is BS and everyone knows it. I have to deal with roaming cats non stop and have for decades, it pizzes me off people think its no big deal if their cat roams all over other peoples property, killing whatever they can catch. Take some responsibility for your pets.

 

[NoDakInMN]

Exactly. Keep your animals at home, or they’re no longer your animals. To pretend your cat is the only one out of millions that doesn’t hunt rabbits or chickens is BS and everyone knows it. I have to deal with roaming cats non stop and have for decades, it pizzes me off people think its no big deal if their cat roams all over other peoples property, killing whatever they can catch. Take some responsibility for your pets.

That's a bunch of BS. Animal ownership doesn't stop at the property line, or I would be able to shoot my neighbor's cattle when they get out and onto my property. Saying that ownership stops on the property line, making the animal fair game for anyone who wants to shoot it is completely disrespectful of someone else's property. You have to actually catch them doing something wrong before you have the right to shoot them and you'd better be able to prove it. The law is pretty clear on that. Further the fact that a badly wounded cat made it back into his barn suggests it wasn't all that far away when it was shot. Most states have laws that make illegal to fire a gun anywhere close to farmyards or dwellings, so shooting it may well have been illegal from that standpoint too.

 

[jdeere562]

Crappy thing to do, shooting a cat.

 

[MSD]

I think our governor was still in our state so rule her out. LOL

 

[ss55]

I don't know who or where, but one of my outdoor barn cats was shot a couple of days ago. SO found her in the hay bales. Took her to the vet. X-rays showed a shattered rear leg and the bullet. No saving the leg, so she is three-legged now. Still at the vet, but recovering. She is now an indoor cat.

A pox on those that shoot cats just for fun or target practice. This cat is fed and well cared for, as all our barn cats are. They do hunt, but not chickens, cows or rabbits. Field mice and voles are the favorite prey. zuhnc

A bright collar with an address is an effective symbol that an animal is someone's pet. Cats do roam a lot, just like most unrestrained dogs do, especially if they are not spayed or neutered. Years ago mom was shocked to find her favorite tom cat had three other names in three other neighbor's farm yards spread across a two mile range.

 

[sotxbill]

Exactly. Keep your animals at home, or they’re no longer your animals. To pretend your cat is the only one out of millions that doesn’t hunt rabbits or chickens is BS and everyone knows it. I have to deal with roaming cats non stop and have for decades, it pizzes me off people think its no big deal if their cat roams all over other peoples property, killing whatever they can catch. Take some responsibility for your pets.

Can you come over the tell my cats that?? Cats dont know about property lines or how to drive the speed limit. I keep trying but they dont listen. But hey, lets shoot that kid the keeps speeding down the road??????? Unless they are a danger to human life, NO you dont shoot animals just from coming on your property. I dont shoot the birds, the frogs or the rabbits till after they get out of high school and know better.

 

[Brown David]

Why stop if no one is looking

Someone's always looking.

 

[DoubleO7]

That is an expensive price to pay for having a free range cat.

Most barn cats elsewhere would be disposed of if found to be injured or sick.

Many would be left alone to see if they can suffer thru and recover on their own.

 

[Buckhammer]

That's a bunch of BS. Animal ownership doesn't stop at the property line, or I would be able to shoot my neighbor's cattle when they get out and onto my property. Saying that ownership stops on the property line, making the animal fair game for anyone who wants to shoot it is completely disrespectful of someone else's property. You have to actually catch them doing something wrong before you have the right to shoot them and you'd better be able to prove it. The law is pretty clear on that. Further the fact that a badly wounded cat made it back into his barn suggests it wasn't all that far away when it was shot. Most states have laws that make illegal to fire a gun anywhere close to farmyards or dwellings, so shooting it may well have been illegal from that standpoint too.

excellent post!!

 

[RedMF40]

I don't know who or where, but one of my outdoor barn cats was shot a couple of days ago. SO found her in the hay bales. Took her to the vet. X-rays showed a shattered rear leg and the bullet. No saving the leg, so she is three-legged now. Still at the vet, but recovering. She is now an indoor cat.

A pox on those that shoot cats just for fun or target practice. This cat is fed and well cared for, as all our barn cats are. They do hunt, but not chickens, cows or rabbits. Field mice and voles are the favorite prey. zuhnc

No excuse for shooting a cat. If it was a nuisance then get animal control involved. Sorry your cat was wounded, sounds like you have compassion for your animals.

 

[Caryc]

That's a bunch of BS. Animal ownership doesn't stop at the property line, or I would be able to shoot my neighbor's cattle when they get out and onto my property. Saying that ownership stops on the property line, making the animal fair game for anyone who wants to shoot it is completely disrespectful of someone else's property. You have to actually catch them doing something wrong before you have the right to shoot them and you'd better be able to prove it. The law is pretty clear on that. Further the fact that a badly wounded cat made it back into his barn suggests it wasn't all that far away when it was shot. Most states have laws that make illegal to fire a gun anywhere close to farmyards or dwellings, so shooting it may well have been illegal from that standpoint too.

If a neighbors cow winds up on your property and you shoot it, you better be able to prove that the cow did enough damage on your property to equal more than the cows worth.

 

[DoubleO7]

If it was a nuisance then get animal control involved

Our county will provide a live trap to you to catch the cat. Then you call animal control and they take it away.
And then it gets neutered and returned to trapping location.

 

[rustred]

Can you come over the tell my cats that?? Cats dont know about property lines or how to drive the speed limit. I keep trying but they dont listen. But hey, lets shoot that kid the keeps speeding down the road??????? Unless they are a danger to human life, NO you dont shoot animals just from coming on your property. I dont shoot the birds, the frogs or the rabbits till after they get out of high school and know better.

my dog sure knows the property line. and i have a lot of cats also, but they are not wondering around off the property also. and i dont like to see animals hurt either.

 

[zuhnc]

Thanks all for the kind words. The cats do roam, and all the nearby neighbors know we have four outdoor cats. They get all their shots, worming, and are well fed to keep them from hunting the birds, of which we have a lot. Maybe a dozen birds from the four cats in the four years we have had the cats. We tried very colorful cat collars for bird alarms, but the cats got them off in a day or two.

As to all the "nasty" things cats do on other peoples property, does those individuals consider all the wild animals (racoons, squirrels, birds, occasional fox, deer, etc) that do the same on the property? Seems not. And, if ones cats are out at night, how does one know where they go? Radio collars? Dogs are trainable to a great degree; cats - not so much!

Ours was shot with a .22 caliber pellet gun; I took the round to a local gunsmith, and we compared it to other rounds. This round was in pretty good condition, even after shattering the bone, but cat bones are tiny. It looked to be a round with the teflon "shield" on the front of it; a tiny piece of orange teflon was still adhered to the mushroomed-over head.

Again, thanks to all for the kind words and thoughts. zuhnc