When I was child I came out of the house and caught a large dog curling one off in our front garden. Yelled at it and the dog scarpered into the road, straight in front of a Renault 16. There was a loud bang and a yelp and the sound of broken glass as the car screeched to a stop. The driver got out and looked around but there was no sign of the dog, just some fur stuck to the tarmac. The front of the car was quite badly damaged with a headlight smashed and the grille stoved in.
A few days later I was out on my Raleigh Roadster when I spotted the dog at a farm. It was covered in scars and walking very stiffly, in pain. I stopped to look at it and the dog bared its teeth and growled at me - I guess it remembered me as the reason for its accident. Poor thing.
If it had a collar I’d try and make contact with the owner otherwise I’d just move it to the side of the road. Realistically what else could you do?
Take some responsibility for the situation and bring it to the vet to get its microchip scanned.
I guessed it wasn’t well.
For me guessed is not good enough. How long would it have taken out of your life to pull over and double check? A minute? I suppose the problem is would you have it in you to finish off an animal (wild, domesticated or a pet) if you did go back. I've finished off a sheep I found in the hills that had fallen off a cliff and was writhing in pain. Also a deer that I found at the side of the road in a similar state. Very unpleasant but in both cases I think it was the right thing to do.
At 3.30am I wouldn't expect you to set up a police accident scene and forensically search for a potential owner but I still its reasonable to convert a guess into a know and deliver the coup de grace if necessary.
As an aside - as an ex cat owner I never understand why other folk let their cats out after dark - significantly increases their potential so become road kill and significantly increases their potential to maime the local wildlife population.
I am also a bad cat murdering man.
Driving up my street having just turned in (so 15mphish) some daft moggy, shoots out from my left and goes straight under my wheels.
Drove a bit up the road (kid in car) and went and started knocking on doors and quickly identified the owner.
Apparently the cat had form for running front of cars and had probably run out of lives.
Did I feel bad for the cat? a bit, looked like a shit way to go.
Did I feel bad for the owners? Not really, as per UncleFred's post.
No idea why it's socially acceptable to purchase an animal (in this case an apex predator) and just let it roam free shitting in peoples gardens and eating the wildlife.
Years ago when I was a kid my Dad told me he'd seen a dog get hit by a Vauxhall Victor, the dog ran off & the bumper fell off the car. He said he'd never buy a Vauxhall after seeing that.
Also a deer that I found at the side of the road in a similar state.
Have you noticed when you see a dead Red deer on the side of the road there's usually bits of car strewn about as well?
Sorry, no cat input.
Have you noticed when you see a dead Red deer on the side of the road there’s usually bits of car strewn about as well?
That was also me years ago - did a lot of damage. Could not find the poor deer for ages though and had limped off into a ditch and died.
Not sure what your point is mind.
Have you noticed when you see a dead Red deer on the side of the road there’s usually bits of car strewn about as well?
I know a lass who spent a couple of months in hospital after hitting a deer on a dual carriageway
Take some responsibility for the situation and bring it to the vet to get its microchip scanned.
And if it's 06:15?
Some posts here show worryingly low levels of empathy and compassion.
Regardless of your personal views it’s a living creature who’s life deserves respect. If it’s a pet it’s owners feelings deserve respect too.
If you injure any animal - try and make sure it’s either ok, take it to a vet - or if beyond help, Don’t leave it suffering and try not to add needless worry to others.
It doesn’t take a lot to be humane - but some on this thread seem to find it so.
Realistically what else could you do?
Surely it's obvious!
And if it’s 06:15?
Shockingly there are out of hours services for this exact situation with vets so you don't have an excuse I'm afraid. You'll just have to let your morning coffee go cold while you deal with the animal you just killed. It's the least you can do.
If you injure any animal – try and make sure it’s either ok, take it to a vet – or if beyond help, Don’t leave it suffering and try not to add needless worry to others.
Advice that most domestic cats ignore whilst they're cruelly murdering the local wildlife purely for amusement
Won't anyone think of the baby robins?
Advice that most domestic cats ignore whilst they’re cruelly murdering the local wildlife purely for amusement
Don't go all lowest common denominator. That never ends well. Before you know it you'll be curling one down in your neighbour's garden "well if it's good enough for a cat, it's good enough for me'.
Anyway, I thought you WERE a cat?
Anyway, I thought you WERE a cat?
That's just an excuse I use for shitting in my neighbours garden before murdering them for my own amusement
I've killed two cats and one dog in my car.
All I stopped for and couldn't find owners. All rural.
The dog was at 11pm at 60mph. Not good.
I've had two cats killed by cars. Both times right outside the house. Nobody knocked to my knowledge.
Don't know what I think. Risk you take on letting your cats out I suppose.
When I was a kid my mum lived right on the A5 near corwen on a 60mph stretch. Poor Dilys got flattened repeatedly until she was a black fur blob on the road. We walked past her every day for weeks. Fun times.
Not sure what your point is mind.
Me neither, there must have been one somewhere along the line. Maybe to do with the Renault 16 mentioned earlier or something.
& i'm not even pissed.
Hoping olly2097's mum isn't called Dilys.
Hoping olly2097’s mum isn’t called Dilys.
🙂
"Hoping olly2097’s mum isn’t called Dilys."
laptop/coffee interface!
Just to redress the balance I'll tell you about the tiny kitten I rescued from the middle of the A56 on Hambledon Hill. I thought it was a crisp packet then realised it was a kitten, cringeing on the white line. Screeched to a stop, sprinted back and scooped it up. It had a bloody nose and looked to have fallen off a vehicle emerging from a farm. I went in and nobody was at home so I took it to a neighbouring farm where the farmer said she would take care of it. I wish I had kept it now; it would have made a lovely present for my wee boy.
“Hoping olly2097’s mum isn’t called Dilys.”
laptop/coffee interface!
No laughing, this is very serious. #CatsLivesMatter
Shockingly there are out of hours services for this exact situation with vets so you don’t have an excuse I’m afraid. You’ll just have to let your morning coffee go cold while you deal with the animal you just killed. It’s the least you can do
I live in a fairly rural area, a dog I would drop off at the vet no problem, owners tend to generally to take responsibility for them.
I've had to dispatch a few animals, and in the case where a dear jumped down an embankment and broke it's neck avoiding us on our push bikes we flagged down a farmer who happened to know the ghillie who came along with a rifle to do the job properly. So I feel I have taken responsibility for any situation that an animal has been killed or needed to be killed.
I reckon a facebook post would be enough for tiddles.
We lost our pedigree 1 year old on a local road - he's wandered too far and was clipped by a car. Fortunately, the powers of the local facebook page alerted to us that a cat had been hit and the description matched ours (very distinctive).
The main issue is we found him, despite the upset. We'd have wondered if he was stolen - we only let him out when we were at home. Anyway, we've got 3 more since, and they have an enclosed cat run !
TBH not much one can do, but the number of times drivers haven't given a sh1t about running me off my bike and leaving me for dead, then it's no surprise. The driver that broke my spine had clear intentions he was going to drive off - decided he better stop in the end.
Many drivers don't give a fark about us person's on a bike, so wouldn't about a cat/dog.
Many drivers don’t give a fark about us person’s on a bike, so wouldn’t about a cat/dog.
Wise words
You're a heartless ****! You've either left an animal to die a slow, painful and possibly unnecessary death, or regardless of your own thoughts on pets you have killed a member of someone's family and they could now go through weeks/months/years of anguish not knowing what happened to their pet, or they have to scrape their beloved cat off the road after another fifty cars have tuned it into mush. Either way it makes you a really shit human being.
Just about to approach my house a couple of years back, in the dark, I heard a thud on the car. Not having a clue what I’d hit (not a nice moment), hazards on, I got out of the car to discover the black cat that I would often see hunting mice on the moor, laid intact in the road. No collar and really rough old fur.
As I looked at this scraggy moggy with its eyes looking a bit ‘not quite right’, I was hopeful that maybe it was just stunned. I felt really bad and wondered where the hell it had come from; I could only assume it had launched itself into the side of the car. At this moment a fancy Mercedes then pulled up behind me and the young driver came hopping over to see what he could do to help. He hopped to and fro to his car and eventually armed me with an old towel so I could scoop up the cat and put my passenger seat. I thanked him, wondered how my day had gone so weird so fast, and drove to the only 24h vet I knew of. The cat obviously got wind that this was in Bradford and decided pretty sharpish it would rather die.
So there I was stuck in traffic, in Bradford, with a dead cat looking directly at me and its tongue sticking out. Every time I went around a corner its head rolled over the edge of the seat, and I had to then lift it back up to prevent the whole cat slipping away into the footwell. This ritual was only broken with fleeting thoughts back to how agile that bloke was with one leg. The whole episode was like a Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror special.
Eventually got to the vets, having been guilt-tripped by a dead cat staring at me for the best part of an hour, and swapped the moggy for a thanks.
Odd evening that was.
you have killed a member of someone’s family
Really? I thought he'd squished a cat.
Maybe cat owners (of which I am one) could fit moggy with a GPS tracker in case it goes missing.
And that's why I prefer animals to people, because people are *****, and in modern society only seem to be getting worse.
Shockingly there are out of hours services for this exact situation
Last time I used an out of hours vet (for my own dog) it was £200 just to walk through the door. Sorry, but no way I'd fork out cash for someone else's dopey cat that decided to end things by jumping under my car. I'd stop and check it was dead and do what I could if it wasn't but I'm not taking responsibility for someone else's roaming semi-wild moggy.
You’re a heartless ****! You’ve either left an animal to die a slow, painful and possibly unnecessary death, or regardless of your own thoughts on pets you have killed a member of someone’s family and they could now go through weeks/months/years of anguish not knowing what happened to their pet, or they have to scrape their beloved cat off the road after another fifty cars have tuned it into mush. Either way it makes you a really shit human being.
+1 to UncleFred - if they are a "member of someone's family" then don't treat them like a wild animal and let them wander randomly around the place. You wouldn't let any other member of "your family" do that so don't expect cats to get the same treatment as kids / wives / husbands etc etc.
And don't try and pass blame for that onto someone who had the unfortunate experience of hitting and killing a cat through no fault of their own.
Chin up, there are drivers out there who hit cyclists and carry on regardless.
Children are not cats. Cats are not children.
Whilst literally true, irrespective of whether you like cats (or dogs or whatever) folk do kind of get attached to their pets.
I had a cat who lived to be 18. She was my companion from the age of about 12 until I was 30. Eighteen years. I was distraught when the time came for me to make That call to the vets, it still upsets me thinking about it today.
When my dad went doolally and spent the last four years of his life either in hospital or a care home, my mum's only company was a stray moggie she'd adopted. He disappeared one day and never came back, I say without exaggeration that she was devastated (probably more so than when my father eventually checked out). She's vowed never to have another (cat, not husband) because the pain of losing that one was so great.
Now, you can pap on about "fur babies" and "mad cat ladies" all you like, and you can consider cats to be "vermin" if you so desire. Whatevs. But if you have a shred of human decency then forget the animal, show some basic ****ing compassion for the little girl who's crying herself to sleep for the next six months or the old lady who's now alone in the world. Or, y'know, the 47-year old bloke who has to read comments from people being utter shits.
What he said. ^^ It's just a complete lack of empathy and that your opinion is fact and everyone else is wrong. You think it's fine to fatally wound an animal and leave it to die because it's owner shouldn't have let it out? That only speaks volumes about you.
Last time I used an out of hours vet (for my own dog) it was £200 just to walk through the door. Sorry, but no way I’d fork out cash for someone else’s dopey cat that decided to end things by jumping under my car. I’d stop and check it was dead and do what I could if it wasn’t but I’m not taking responsibility for someone else’s roaming semi-wild moggy.
That's not true, a vet would not charge you for bringing in an animal involved in an RTA, they would keep alive/comfortable until the owner could be contacted regarding extensive treatment or PTS if it was in it's best interests.
even if it were dead, it would have been the decent thing to do to look for a number on the tag on it's collar to tell the owners of the accident - they might worry for weeks/months/ever over the cat.
pretty shitty thing to do really.
Should have stopped and checked at least.
I know a lass who spent a couple of months in hospital after hitting a deer on a dual carriageway
She must've been a fast runner.
So , to summerise .
Its a cat , but cats have feelings too , as do their owners.
I 'should' have stopped somewhere safely and either dispatched said cat to a better place , or made a token effort to find its owner(s) so they could have either got it fixed or put down.
But it is still a cat , and the over excited Audi behind pulled up . If I had gone full ABS stop the Audi would probably have rammed me from behind. Then we would be having the awkward conversation with the traffic police. " You caused an accident doing an E-stop for a cat?"
You look down and see a tortoise, Leon. It's crawling toward you...
Then we would be having the awkward conversation with the traffic police. ” You caused an accident doing an E-stop for a cat?”
That's just trying to justify it. This forum is weird, people get really irate over nothing (ie. "I got caught doing 35 in a 30", HOW DARE YOUUUUU"), but not many seem bothered about this.
This was an accident, hard to avoid, but you should have checked it out. No one wants to be knocking doors presenting dead pets, but needs to be tried.
This coming from some one quite selfish with a limited moral compass.
I hate the bloody things. I would've looked for the owner if my car was damaged.
This was an accident, hard to avoid, but you should have checked it out.
I've run over 2 both killed outright . Stopped both times cat 1 I found its owner and gave them the poor thing. Cat 2 I couldn't but took it to my local vet who scanned it for a chip, there wasn't one but nicely offered to dispose of it for £40 !! I declined and buried it in the kids pet cemetery in our back garden. I know to some cats are seen as a disposable item but they are often much loved family pets and deserve a bit of consideration.
@taxi25 - Good man, not nice but I'd appreciate it if it was me.
I have a cat, originally at the behest of the girlfriend, but I'd be upset if he got run over (part of which would be due to the gf being very upset).
I come from a dog family; people that do don't see that cat owners see them as a part of the family as much as dogs are to others.
You justify it anyway you like singletrackmind.
No one's seriously saying you should search the planet for the owners or cause an accident by checking the poor thing out but the breathtaking callousness shown here for someone's treasured pet is disgusting. At least check on its condition and put it at the side of the road to avoid it being smeared everywhere.
This place would implode if the OP was swapped with 'cat' for 'dog'!
Well it's not quite yet imploded when a few of us have sad many motorists hate us 'husbands/wives/sons/daughters/fathers/mothers on a bike, so can't expect someone to give a shoot about a cat/dog can you.
OP should ideally have stopped when safe then checked, fairly simple really.
I'd have backed up. Just to be sure.
