Loose dogs and owner responsibilty

lovethesticks · Apr 12, 2006

I have attempted to reply to this several times, and just couldn't make it come out right. I am sorry for the loss of your pet, but what would your reaction have been had your cat been hit in the drive or the road? Would you be gunning for the driver of the car, or just shoot the tires out? I agree that dogs need to be supervised and controled when they are outside. As pack animals, they can do a lot of damage. However, I feel all animals should be restrained when outside.

I have looked over all the posts again, and no one mentions the fact that the cat was simply turned out to be an outside cat. Was it confined in a cat kennel? Provided with a safe environment? Dogs are not the only danger to outside cats. A pen has two purposes: First, to keep an animal safe, and second, to keep predators out.

It does't sound as if you have made any effort to track down the owner(s) of the dogs. I agree that there are many lax animal owners, but please put aside your extreme anger and try some preventive work. No one should make the presumption that their pets don't wander. It is their nature. All the more reason to provide safe penning.

I have cats, and they are kept inside. I have a dog and he is inside or tied. And he is inside when we are not home. When my son was young, he developed allergies to cats. Rather than just turn the cat out, I found a new home for it, that seemed to be the kindest thing to do. I have always thought that it was just hard on cats - one day a beloved pet with the freedom of the house, and the next, in the garage.

So track down the owners and make sure they are aware of their dog's roaming and what occurred. If you get another cat, make sure it has a safe place to live. And please don't turn into a Rambo neighbor. We have one. They aren't pleasant to live near.

Chris

greatrandini · Apr 12, 2006

I don't follow why you are posting this reply to me. If my one of my cats gets killed by a dog I am not going to have an all out war with dogs. Is this what you are asking? I think the owner of the offending dogs are the guilty here!

greatrandini · Apr 12, 2006

You could try a large kennel and a huge fenced area to play in. Why do kennels have to be small? In Topeka Kansas it is now illegal to tie a dog up for more then one hr at a time or more than 3 hrs a day.

greatrandini · Apr 12, 2006

I stand corrected. I am not a firearms law expert. Illegl here to stick a milk jug on the end of you firearm. I don't want to have to kill any dogs. Thanks

greatrandini · Apr 12, 2006

I agree with you.

KentT · Apr 12, 2006

This whole discussion reminds me of an old saying that my father taught all us boys on the farm, both literally and figuratively...

You have to be able to shoot your own dog...

Think of the movie "Old Yeller" if the meaning isn't obvious....

The owner of the dog (or any pet) is always responsible, regardless, and needs to be strong enough to do the right thing....

greatrandini · Apr 12, 2006

Understand what you mean but you can take them to the Vetrinarian!

KentT · Apr 12, 2006

( Understand what you mean but you can take them to the Vetrinarian! )
Yes, it's possible to find someone you can pay to do about any unpleasant task that you do not want to perform for yourself...

But, "no pain, no gain"... and the more painful a lesson, the more it is remembered and taken to heart....

IMO, too many people today try to find "the easy way out"... and that's not limited to just our pets, either....

Sigarms · Apr 12, 2006

I could be wrong, but cats are strong creaturs of habits.

Since the cat was a "stray" and brought into the house, chances are the cat will always want to go outside or may cause some issues.

From what I've seen, cats are best "trained" while they are kittens. Since this one (cat) was found, it was most likely used to "outside habits" that although not mentioned here, most likely caused no harm to anyone other than small rodents.

I think the issue is that the dogs came onto the cat owners property.

If the cat was hit by a car, it would be the owners responsibility for allowing the cat of the property, thus you couldn't balme a motorist.

For ourselves, we have an "outside" cat who comes into the house at night to eat, sleeps in the kitchen, then goes out in the morning and we won't see her unitl that night. We took her in from someone who found her, she has always been an "outside" cat. If by chance she gets killed off our property, it is our fault. But...she does what she loves to do outside and has the best of both worlds. Honestly, other than some people who treat cats like varmints and using them for target practice, can't see a cat doing much harm to the point that a human would want to kill it. If she (our cat) did harm anything and was killed for doing so, I couldn't blame the person in question doing the killing.

Since we do have some land, can't help but think our cat is in heaven.

rswyan · Apr 13, 2006

( However, I feel all animals should be restrained when outside. )

( I am sorry for the loss of your pet, but what would your reaction have been had your cat been hit in the drive or the road? Would you be gunning for the driver of the car, or just shoot the tires out? )
Depends - if it were an accident - I'd feel sorry for the driver - knowing that most likely they would feel worse than I or my wife did.

If it were intentional, I'd be following up with the police to see if they had apprehended the driver and had cited them.

( I have looked over all the posts again, and no one mentions the fact that the cat was simply turned out to be an outside cat. Was it confined in a cat kennel? ..... snip ...... Rather than just turn the cat out, I found a new home for it, that seemed to be the kindest thing to do. I have always thought that it was just hard on cats - one day a beloved pet with the freedom of the house, and the next, in the garage. )
Well I think you might be making some assumptions of facts that weren't stated - they weren't "just turned out" - both of the cats have multiple beds (at least 4) in the garage, including a couple in high places (up at least 3' or 4') - two of the beds have heating pads in them, and one of the boxes has a light (for warmth) The overhead garage door was generally kept down to within 5" - 6" of being closed during the day (so the cats can go out), it is kept completely closed after dark (and in the winter) and the cats are put in if they are out when we close it. Sometimes the overhead door was up although whenever it was we were home.

Unfortunately we haven't been completely sucessful in training my daughter-in-law close the overhead garage door after she leaves for work in the morning - we often had to lower it ourselves after she had left.

( It does't sound as if you have made any effort to track down the owner(s) of the dogs. )
You shouldn't assume that that's the case just because I din't mention it. Actually, my wife and I spent several hours out driving, combing the local area (about 1 sq. mile) trying to sight the dogs - with no success. We also stopped at the local hardware store and checked the bulletin board for any "Lost Dog" notices, as well as stopping and checking all such notices that we saw on telephone poles while we were out driving.

After we came home and were in the process of burying the cat up in the field, the local deer population (about 8 - 12) came running up thru the woods - with the cat killer dog chasing them. We stopped the burial and then spent about another hour chasing after the dog thru the woods and the underbrush. Unfortunately we couldn't catch him, although my wife did go to a neighbors place (who has similar dogs to the one we saw) about 800 yards from where we live. That was after she had made three calls to other local neighbors, and I had made one.

( So track down the owners and make sure they are aware of their dog's roaming and what occurred. )
If it is reasonably possible I will - mainly from the standpoint of I want to know where to direct the police so they can cite the owner. However - if the dogs that killed my cat come back on property their owner should not be expecting them to return home.

( And please don't turn into a Rambo neighbor. We have one. They aren't pleasant to live near. )
Well I really don't know what that means - if you think it means I should cede my right to protect my family and my property then I'm afraid that's not going to happen. I'm pretty tolerant of alot of things - but there are a few things of which I'm not. This is one of them.