I don't think it's a good idea, either.
Posted on 08/12/2005 12:07:43 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
PET ATTACK: Gun curb call after cat shot
A WOMAN whose beloved cat was shot with an air rifle has branded the perpetrators as "barbaric".
Helen Porter is now too afraid to let her other cats play outside her house in Mewburn, North Bretton, Peterborough, in case they are targeted by gun-wielding youngsters.
Miss Porter (24) was horrified to find her black cat, Jenny, crying in pain outside the back door, with blood running out of her back leg.
She quickly rushed the pet to an emergency out-of-hours vetinary service, just after the incident on Wednesday, August 3, at about 9.45pm.
Luckily, the vets at the city's Broadway clinic, saved Jenny's leg – but she now has to hobble around with a metal plate in it for the rest of her life.
Miss Porter, who has three other cats, has now called for tougher rules on the teenage yobs she believes committed the crime, and for parents to have better control over their children.
She said: "We are now trying to keep our cats in. If these youths are willing to shoot one cat, I am sure they will not care about shooting a second. "What they have done is barbaric and I cannot believe they have done something like this.
"It is easy to say the police should do more to enforce the law, but I do not know what the answer is. "Perhaps one step would be to make sure people are licensed to use every gun, including airguns.
"If I was a parent, I would not allow my children to wander around with airguns."
Miss Porter said she and her partner, Miles Shepherdson (43), often saw teenagers playing with the guns and firing them in the street. She added: "How long is it before these people take a gun into a school and cause someone injury?"
Sarah Cooper, spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police, said: "We treat all firearms offences as serious offences.
"People do not need a licence to own an air rifle, but if you are caught with one in public and you are misusing it, it will be seized, and you could face up to six months in prison."
abandoned?
you mean .. SET FREE .... run free kitty ... run free puppy ... I can't count the number of animles I have had to put down because some city slicker apartment dweler decided to SET THEM FREE ...
/end rant
and what would you do if i walked on your lawn, stopped, took a crap, dug up your flowers, then screamed for a while in the middle of the night?
"I love cats. But arrest the kid and punish him (or her).
Why make everybody with a BB gun pay the price for one moron's actions?"
Ditto. I find kids who pick on defenseless animals or other smaller kids are displacing and acting out their rage over the abuse they endure at home. I'm hoping for our society 9 out of 10 of them don't grow into BTK serial killers.
I've got two Persians that were rescued and both were declawed. I guess people want the cat that looks like the one in the Fancy Feast commercial. They don't realize that their fur turns into a tangled mat in a matter of days if you don't brush them. It's also expensive to get them groomed once that happens. My wife didn't appreciate my suggestion of just pouring a bottle of NAIR on them.
Yes, the "rooster" is Jerry Cantrell's dad.
Shoot back!
Some of my Mickey's favorite places to be when out-of-doors:
a) Sitting just on the other side of the chain link fence irritating my dogs or walking along the top of the wooden privacy fence on the other side of their enclosure.
b) In the garage of the neighbor to the left. They keep the door ajar for him, he kills their mice for them. The wife is allergic so they can't have one of their own. And if you think cat urine stinks you should have smelled their garage after the rats had made it their winter condo.
c) Making his morning rounds of 3 different neighbors whom he greets each morning in their drives by letting them scratch his chin before beginning thier commutes. One must really give good rubs because he as often as not flops over for her to get his belly as well.
d) Resting quietly on the front lawn, surveying all that is his and chasing off any cats, dogs, squirrels or others that would dare come into the kingdom. From this spot he can also run to the drive when he sees my car coming home to assure me that I never feel unwelcome in my own home.
He does avoid the neighbor to the right as they have an 18 month old boy. But the rest of the neighbors within his domain have ALL remarked to me how much they like having him around. Even the ones whose pick ups he occasionally naps under in the winter. I'm glad you're not my neighbor.
thank you for doing this. You're very special people.
People don't appreciate Muffy making a mess in their garden.
My kitties have thier own special garden. And a sepaerate area for, uh, composting.
Get rid of the cats - then there wouldn't be anyone needing to pop one when they get into their yard ....
We have on rare occasion a stray cat or two come into our back yard. The dogs fix that problem toot sweet!
Now if I could do something about cats crapping on my front lawn I'd be much more neighborly while mowing my grass.
More like they shouldn't be entrusted with freedom.
I agree with you. We don't need gun control...we need cat control.
I don't think it's a good idea, either.
My cats love going outside, and do so freely though their own little door which is always open. My 19 year old (already declawed when I found him 17 years ago) seems to be doing just fine, as did the one I lost to heart failure in his early 20s, and the one I lost to kidney cancer at 14. In most places, the outdoors isn't a dangerous place for cats, and they get more exercise which tends to improve their health and lengthen their lifespans. I wouldn't dream of imprisoning my cats indoors. But I'd be happy to see people who go around shooting cats for kicks imprisoned.
Take the kid, make him face a wall and fire about 20 rounds from that pellet gun at his butt. Let him see how it feels when they dig the lead out of him.
In many places (including my area) it is legal to let cats roam free, and not legal to let dogs roam free. I made sure of the law in this jurisdiction before buying a home there. The fact is that cats don't do any damage that squirrels and other common wildlife don't do. They are not given to unprovoked attacks, and rarely cause any serious injuries even when provoked. Very different from dogs, although those little bitty dogs that are no bigger than cats aren't exactly dangerous. But dogs of all sizes tend to leave piles of poop in the middle of sidewalks, unlike cats who like do their business in out of the way places, and often cover it afterwards.
This was in England where it's the norm to let cats run free (as it is in many areas of the US). It's highly unlikely there's any cat leash law where this happened.
One jurisdiction in England has even begun putting up road signs warning drivers to watch out for the kitties.
http://www.petplanet.co.uk/petplanet/news/newsbody.asp?article_id=546
Where I live in a 55 and older community we don't have teenagers so we have a feral cat problem. The community had a meeting this week about it and they decided to trap the cats and neuter and return them with part of the ear cut off. The cats do keep the rodent population down.
"Dogs need the outdoors for exercise and elimination, but they can be fenced in; cats cannot."
I have a cat that stays in my fenced back yard. You just have to feed them ALOT so they can't jump over the fence.
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