Posted on 05/06/2026 8:56:56 PM PDT by Red Badger
Sometimes what seems like a good idea at the time doesn't quite work out the way you pictured it.
For example, when a firefighter in Spencerport, New York, was called in by a frantic owner to rescue a cat from a tree and all the usual methods like ladders drove the cat higher in the tree, he thought, "Wow, that's really high. There's got to be a better way."
So, he got some people to stand under the tree with a blanket, and then cranked up the water cannon on top of the fire truck to spray the feline out.
And it worked, sort of.
pic.twitter.com/PyTaU2KRkn— Davy Jones (@itsNTBmedia) May 6, 2026
On the video, you can see the utter disappointment on the rescuers' faces as the cat goes flying out of the tree — in the wrong direction.
The cat did not survive, and that's why the firefighter now faces charges for torturing and injuring an animal under section 353 of New York State Agriculture and Markets law. It did not die on impact, as you can see from the video.
News10NBC reports,
‘The issue was, is that there comes a time sometimes that we've done all we can. What is another option? Instead of trying to force an issue,' said Reno DiDomenico, Vice President for Humane Law Enforcement.
‘And that's one of the biggest things in this. It has to be an unjustifiable act. And that's why he was charged because of the unjustification. In other words, he didn't have to spray it with a hose. You have to use common sense and figure out the best way to help something without causing a potential injury,' DiDomenico continued.
The investigators asked for a misdemeanor charge since it's clear the firefighter was trying to help.
He'll likely face a fine, but he also lost his job with the fire department.
Maybe he should have used a laser pointer to get the cat down?
They're best that way ... ( wink wink nudge nudge ...)
Once there was a clipping in Nat Lamp’s “True Facts” — the new fire dep’t head of some major city said they’d not be rescuing cats from trees any longer, same claim, “you never see cat skeletons in trees.” As part of his hands-on approach, he was helping put out a minor fire, was on a ladder, and glanced over as he manuevered past branches of a large tree. He spotted a cat skeleton.
This one caught my funny bone. Good Lord what a fail.
We have three cats. One we’ve had for at least ten years. She prefers to be outside most of the day. Comes in to eat and sleep. She will allow us to pet her, but I wouldn’t call her affectionate. One we got from a lady who takes in strays. Will only let us touch her if it’s all her idea. Wakes me early in the morning and allows me to pet her. We refer to her as the Ice Queen. She’s very beautiful. The third one is a sweetheart. A neighbor gave him to us when she found some young kittens. He spends his days in our bed sleeping. Come to think of it, he’s asleep in our bed all night, too. We had a really great young cat who contracted incurable bobcat fever and died. She loved to be carried around on my son’s shoulder. We miss her.
I’m wondering if it was one of the volunteers who came to my house.
They did more damage than the piddly one room “smoldering” fire I had walked up the steps and looked at three times before I called them.
“ we’re here to break things and kill people”
😑
I regret looking.
😢
Other than your cat, Mrs. Lincoln, how was your evening?
I was going to suggest turning a big dog loose under the tree but I like your idea better.
Did it bounce?
C- for execution.
Not trying to humanize it, but that was a life unnecessarily exterminated, albeit without intention (as far as we know). A firefighter ought to know the strength of a water cannon vs. a cat that was probably less than 10 lbs.
And, no, cats are not all alike. Animals have different characters/”personalities”. Unlike dogs which can only have 2 litters in a year, cats can have up to 5. That’s why they can be practically free, although shelters charge for vaccinations and spaying/neutering.
Cat used all 9 lives at once
Cats can have so many litters cause the females ovulate AFTER copulation. So the eggs are fertilized by the cat sperm already present...if the females are in heat, the males show up real fast.
1) Never had a cat, but from reading all the above, a cat is a craps-shoot as a pet. (While a dog is almost always your best friend). And is highly unlikely to transfer an infamous parasite from a litterbox to your brain.
2) My supervisor’s wife fed outdoor cats. One day, a male cat jumped from a fence and sank his teeth into her neck! He was “taken” the next day (by .22) and dropped off at a drive-up window, where the County would be checking for rabies.
Why did you have to blurt it out like that? The first thing you say when we get back from our two-week vacation is, "While you were gone, the cat got blasted out of a tree by the fire department's high-pressure hose! It's dead!"Regards,Couldn't you have broken the bad news to us more gently? Couldn't you have begun by saying that the cat had been missing for a few hours, and then you found that she had climbed to the top of a tree, and that you had called the fire dept., and they tried everything to get her down. And then one clever fellow had the bright idea to use their fire hose on her, and blow her out of the tree, and catch her with a blanket as she was falling? Couldn't you have informed us of this tragedy more gently?
By the way, where Grammaw?
Well....
Playing down to the worst ofthe Freeper stereotypes...
Guess a pellet gun would have been better....vice a 12 gauge
That’s almost as bad as the firemen that rescued the cat out of the tree, then pulled out in the firetruck and ran over the cat!
Spencerport, for those unfamiliar, is a suburb of Rochester.
Nuff said, eh?
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