Deccie
Jul 13 2007, 12:55 pm
Ok, first this did NOT happen, but it very nearly did.
Driving along a lunchtime a cat wanders out (very rarely see a cat on the streets here!) in front of me, I emergency braked and avoided he/she/it.
Then the thought entered my head, what does one do if/when i hhad have commited catslaughter?
- Leave it there and pretend nothing happend?
- call the cops?
-try find its owner? (do cats have tags with their address?)
ThePigsInBlankets
Jul 13 2007, 12:59 pm
Put it in a hatbox, wrap it with colorful wrapping paper and a bow, and leave it in front of your ex-girlfriend Jenny's house with a note reading:
"Nevermore, Jenny. Nevermore.
Signed, Your Biggest Fan.
P.S. Nice outfit today."
So, to answer your question, I don't know.
sarabyrd
Jul 13 2007, 1:08 pm
If the cat is alive call the police. They took great care of Emily when she was hit by a car and drove her to the nearest available vet, and I have yet to receive a bill - don't think I will.
If it is dead cover it and or drag it off the road (if you can stomach that).
In both cases: Ask around in the neighborhood where a cat of such description lives/d, especially the kids. They are more likely than adults to know to whom which cat belongs.
Our cats did wear ID collars but scratched themselves bloody underneath them (cloth, not too tight) so we removed them. Merde happens.
sea-king
Jul 13 2007, 1:20 pm
As far as I know, you are under no legal requirment to report or do anything, cats are feral and not domestic animals. If you hit a dog, then you must report it.
sarabyrd
Jul 13 2007, 1:21 pm
Legal, shmegal. Cats do tend to have owners although they would never admit it.
Johnny English
Jul 13 2007, 1:21 pm
That is the score in the UK I think. Reports dogs but not cats.
oozen
Jul 13 2007, 1:23 pm
I thought it was the other way around. Cats adopt humans, no?
Captain Ridiculous!
Jul 13 2007, 1:33 pm
What you need is a cat detector! Refer to Monty Pythons Fish License Sketch:
Palin: There's no such thing as a bloody cat license.
Clees: Yes there is!
Palin: Isn't!
Clees: Is!
Palin: Isn't!
Clees: I bleeding got one, look! What's that then?
Palin: This is a dog license with the word 'dog' crossed out and 'cat' written in, in crayon.
Clees: The man didn't have the right form.
Palin: What man?
Clees: The man from the CAT DETECTOR VAN.
Palin: The looney detector van, you mean.
Clees: Look, it's people like you what cause unrest.
Palin: What cat detector van?
Clees: The cat detector van from the Ministry of Housinge.
Palin: Housinge?
Clees: It was spelt like that on the van. I'm very observant! I never seen so many bleeding aerials. The man said that their equipment could pinpoint a purr at four hundred yards! And Eric, being such a happy cat, was a piece of cake.
SleeplessInMunich
Jul 13 2007, 1:34 pm
Aye, same thing in Ireland. Report a dog, ignore a cat. And you shouldn't slam on the breaks if there is a chance of causing an accident with another car, you should just drive straight over the animal seemingly.
boomtown_rat
Jul 13 2007, 1:38 pm
is that the same if a child wanders into the street too
TE610
Jul 13 2007, 1:40 pm
My mum always used to say "If you run over a cat wipe your feet before you come in"
I've ploughed through all sorts of animals. The cat I hit head on disappeared! I never saw where it landed. I was on a long journey at night in Morocco and I kept expecting it to have wedged itself under the engine somehow and a magled cat was going to suddenly pop up out of the front grille as I was driving along!
Anyway I dont see the point of reporting it. Its dead right! You arn't going to get it into trouble!
BirdBrain
Jul 13 2007, 1:49 pm
Make the purrrfect Dinner ...of course!!!
Deccie
Jul 13 2007, 2:04 pm
thanks for the posts.
So here in Germany is the same as in Ireland, you must report a dog but not necessarily a cat...
Some how I find that dogs in the city are much better behaved. This cat today just wandered straight out as if "you stop coz I own this patch of road"
Carm
Jul 13 2007, 2:09 pm
there seems to be an 'Amt' for everything here, why not a roadkill crew? They have them back home- there is a number you call, if you run over an animal, and they go scoop it up for you. Makes no difference if its a cat or a dog or a deer. Well, a deer will do damage to the car, so a police report is a must, but they are easy about that.
kitkat64
Jul 13 2007, 2:14 pm
Well, that is the typical cat attitude (you stop coz I own the road).
No, you apparently do not have to report it, but please do the decent thing -STOP! See if you can help it. Do what Sarabyrd said - call the police if you have injured it and ask around at the houses nearby.
My cat was run over by a car 3 weeks ago and I'm still pissed that the people didn't stop (OK, maybe they did not know they hit her). But, had they stopped, I would have felt much better.
Responsible pet owners put collars or some other type of identification on their animals (chip or tatoo). Poopy is not allowed out without her collar with her tag (with her name, address and phone).
Deccie
Jul 13 2007, 2:18 pm
I would stop and try to find the owners, I was just wondering what one would do if they could not find them, and what the legalities are.
Lexicon
Jul 13 2007, 2:22 pm
What happens if you run over cat?
Back up, run over it again of course.
If you have the time you should go around the block and get up some speed, then when you get close again slam on the brakes so you can smear it a bit...a warning to all the other diseased felines!
Maybe there's also a reward for ridding the world of one more cat...
sarabyrd
Jul 13 2007, 2:33 pm
From
Tier im Recht, a site dedicated to rights concerning animals:
Q: May I keep on going after hitting a cat or dog, injuring or killing it?
A: No. You can be punished according to Art. 51 Par. 1 SVG (Straßenverkehrsgesetz). In case of an accident all persons involved must stop immediately. If an object is damaged - animals are objects according to German law! - you must inform the owner immediately, including your contact details (Art 641a Par. 2 Civil Code and Art 110 Nr. 4 StGB - Strafgesetzbuch). If this is not possible you must contact the police or you can be punished under Art. 92 Par. 1 SVG for neglecting your obligations.
You can also be punished for inflicting pain on an animal as you are obliged to take care of it and try to allieviate pain and suffering* due to the accident or bring it to the nearest vet. The owner can also sue you for damages.
QUOTE
Darf ich weiterfahren, wenn ich mit meinem Auto eine Katze oder einen Hund angefahren und verletzt oder gar getötet habe?
Nein. Wer sich so verhält, macht sich strafbar. Im Falle eines Verkehrsunfalls sind alle Beteiligten zum sofortigen Anhalten verpflichtet (Art. 51 Abs. 1 SVG). Ist ein Sachschaden eingetreten, was bei einem verletzten oder getöteten Tier nach Art. 641a Abs. 2 ZGB und Art. 110 Ziffer 4bis StGB der Fall ist, so hat der Verursacher unverzüglich den Geschädigten zu benachrichtigen und Namen sowie Adresse anzugeben. Falls dies nicht möglich ist, hat er unverzüglich die Polizei zu verständigen (Art. 51 Abs. 3 SVG). Unterlässt er dies, hat er nach Art. 92 Abs. 1 SVG eine Bestrafung mit Haft oder Busse wegen pflichtwidrigen Verhaltens bei einem Unfall zu gewärtigen.
Darüber hinaus kann sich der fehlbare Fahrzeughalter auch der Tierquälerei oder anderer Tierschutzwidrigkeiten schuldig machen. Wer ein Tier anfährt, hat die Rechtspflicht, sich um das Tier zu kümmern und ihm durch den Unfall bedingte länger andauernde oder sich wiederholende Schmerzen oder Leiden zu ersparen und die tierärztliche Versorgung sicherzustellen oder das Tier zum nächsten Tierarzt zu verbringen (sog. Garantenpflicht aus Ingerenz) Steht das Tier im Fremdeigentum, kommt auch eine Strafbarkeit wegen Sach-beschädigung in Frage.
*Like my aunt did when she ran into that deer. She had to drive over its head twice to kill it (Washington state).
So yes, you must report any vehicular contact with a cat or dog, be you in a car, on a motorcycle or any other motor-driven vehicle. BUT: If you ran into it when you were e.g. roller-skating you count as a pedestrian. I am not sure if the same laws apply.
SleeplessInMunich
Jul 13 2007, 2:40 pm
The owner can sue you for damages?

For having their cat run in front of your car?
sarabyrd
Jul 13 2007, 2:43 pm
My cat was trotting along the side of the road with a mole in her mouth, minding her own business, when some bozo from Microsoft "nudged" her into the ditch (left front leg paralysed). You bet I want my €1000 vet bill off of him!
osmachar
Jul 13 2007, 3:02 pm
Just right.
Lexicon
Jul 13 2007, 3:18 pm
QUOTE (sarabyrd @ Jul 13 2007, 3:43 pm)

My cat was trotting along the side of the road with a mole in her mouth, minding her own business, when some bozo from Microsoft "nudged" her into the ditch (left front leg paralysed). You bet I want my €1000 vet bill off of him!
This is what I don't understand about cat owners. Your cat belongs in your yard. If anything people should be able to take cat owners to court for failure to contain their pets. if someone's dog is out of the yard or off a leash people call the police, but cat owners seem to think other people actually like having someone else's cats destroying their property.
I've had two cars that had the paint on the hood ruined by neighbors' cats. Maybe non-cat owners should just do like some people I know, put a try of anti-freeze on the floor of their carport. Then it's the cat owners fault if something happens to their pet, but at least the neighbors can live in peace.
sarabyrd
Jul 13 2007, 3:21 pm
My cat was not destroying property, she never has and never will. She was hunting for food, a thing cats do in the country. My cat leaves your car alone, your car leaves my cat alone. Fair enough. If, however, my cat shits in your yard, I wallop my cat, remove the crap and replace any infested soil.
cabbagefairy
Jul 13 2007, 3:35 pm
Of course you should report it to someone because that cat could very well be someones beloved missing pet. I would be an absolute wreck if my cat went missing back home and found it had been hit by a car and not helped.
Deccie
Jul 13 2007, 3:52 pm
QUOTE (cabbagefairy @ Jul 13 2007, 4:35 pm)

Of course you should report it to someone because that cat could very well be someones beloved missing pet. I would be an absolute wreck if my cat went missing back home and found it had been hit by a car and not helped.
I have already said that I probably would:
QUOTE (Deccie @ Jul 13 2007, 3:18 pm)

I would stop and try to find the owners, I was just wondering what one would do if they could not find them, and what the legalities are.
But what Iwas looking for was the legalities and not the moralities.
sarabyrd
Jul 13 2007, 3:57 pm
Isn't it nice that you can get both off of one forum?

Have a nice weekend!
Deccie
Jul 13 2007, 3:58 pm
Yup
tiya_ivy
Jul 21 2007, 11:38 am
Is nobody else appaled at the fact most people seem to think it's fine to anihilate a cat? It's not a question about legalities, it's more about morality I should think. If someone ran over your pet and left it there just because they weren't bound to legally let you know? And yes, fair enough, cats can be unpredictable and run out on streets randomly but do you not drive at a decent speed through residential areas to avoid such accidents, children included? If someone ran over my cat I assure you I wouldn't be amused by have the comments left on this page.
BattalionBoy
Jul 21 2007, 1:30 pm
The only cat I have been able to bag so far in Germany is a mangy tabby that lived around the corner. It took three passes – the second pass only managed to disorientate it and it hid under a parked car, however luckily on the third pass it was stupid enough to make a high speed dash for it and I caught its tail with a front wheel which caused the cat to spin around under its own momentum and its head got totally squashed by a rear wheel. This poof of a guy that may have been its owner came running from a nearby residence and started to have a go at me so I told him to piss off. No police arrived afterwards so you can assume you don’t have to report these things.
Ruthie
Jul 21 2007, 5:15 pm
Lexicon I hope you are joking, and if not, I hope I never meet you in person. We had a cat which we had adopted off the street, Cedric. Beautiful: black and white, with green eyes. The most elegant, well-behaved cat I have ever met. We found him dead in the gutter just in front of our house because someone had dumped anti-freeze there. The expression on his face was terrible. But I guess it wasn´t our worst cat-death experience. Our drug-dealing neighbors kept a mistreated pitbull on a two-foot leash in their yard, and one day he got loose and started chewing on Charlie, an orange cat we were adopting off the street. One of his eyeballs was hanging out by his ear, and his guts were falling out, and my older sister wrapped him in a towel after the pitbull finally let go of him. We kids were home alone, and by the time we reached an adult to take us to the vet, Charlie had died. He seemed really calm, just looking at us out of the one good eye and softly meowing a couple of times.
I don´t understand anyone who would wish harm to a dog or a cat.
Keydeck
Jul 21 2007, 5:25 pm
QUOTE (tiya_ivy @ Jul 21 2007, 12:38 pm)

Is nobody else appaled at the fact most people seem to think it's fine to anihilate a cat?
Lou Reed said, "My mother said she saw him in Chinatown, but you can't always trust your mother". Well I trust my mother implicilty. What I don't trust is anything that I read on the internet unless I know the person involved and even then I'll often take it with a large pinch of salt. Don't take to heart the things that people say in an internet discussion forum. They're not always saying what they actually believe.
Supergill
Jul 21 2007, 6:30 pm
You mean people don't really hate me because I have ginger hair? *sobs with relief*
sarabyrd
Jul 21 2007, 6:38 pm
BB, you were lucky. As I quoted before, you are obliged under law to report such incidents. I bet the poof of an owner got your license plate and will scratch the hell out of your new paint job.
eurovol
Jul 21 2007, 7:04 pm
Hutcho
Jul 21 2007, 7:23 pm
QUOTE (Lexicon @ Jul 13 2007, 4:18 pm)

This is what I don't understand about cat owners. Your cat belongs in your yard.
Exactly. If a cat is out wandering and "hunting" all day, it really isn't your pet, it's just a wild animal that decides it will return to you because you feed it once in a while. If your cat gets hurt outside your home, too bad for you (and the cat).
iain
Jul 21 2007, 7:26 pm
actually a dog a friend of mine was looking after got ran over. It caused damage to the car and the big issue was that the dog's caretaker was held liable for the dog causing damage. It was a big fiasco because haftpflicht insurance only covers such things when you buy extra coverage. So I do believe from what I have seen that the caretaker of the animal is actually responsible for making sure that the animal doesn't enter thoroughfare. I think the person driving the car would only be liable if he hit the animal while breaking traffic law (ie running a red light)
luvlein
Jul 21 2007, 8:06 pm
Sarabyrd, I am not sure about that.
The website seems to be a Swiss website, so maybe the advice is meant for Switzerland only.
I have seen people claiming the opposite to be true on other websites.
Diane
Jul 21 2007, 11:24 pm
QUOTE (tiya_ivy @ Jul 21 2007, 12:38 pm)

Is nobody else appaled at the fact most people seem to think it's fine to anihilate a cat? It's not a question about legalities, it's more about morality I should think.
I am appalled, extremely, but then again you know there's always wankers that take pleasure in writing such filth, just ignore them...
QUOTE (Ruthie @ Jul 21 2007, 6:15 pm)

I don´t understand anyone who would wish harm to a dog or a cat.
Psychopaths that's who, it is well known that those who take pleasure in killing a living being won't stop just at animals as they don't seem to value life the same way full functioning humans do, there's something lacking in their brain.
Carm
Jul 21 2007, 11:31 pm
QUOTE (Diane @ Jul 22 2007, 12:24 am)

I am appalled, extremely, but then again you know there's always wankers that take pleasure in writing such filth, just ignore them...
Psychopaths that's who, it is well known that those who take pleasure in killing a living being won't stop just at animals as they don't seem to value life the same way full functioning humans do, there's something lacking in their brain.
okay, I take offense to that post, I grew up on a farm, where we had tons of farm animals, and cats belonged to that group. Often cats would be in the field chasing mice when we went thru bailing hay, and they ended up dead in the bale of hay, shit happens, so, were we responsible, it was our cat to begin with.
I am not an animal hater, but also not an obsessive animal lover. I appreciate the love for animals, but don't judge others because they don't feel the same way as you.
so maybe something is lacking in my brain... no, got the tests done, and the Docs said everything is normal so, that 's not it.
iain
Jul 21 2007, 11:50 pm
Carm I think the difference from what your talking about and what Diane is talking about is people who go out of their way to see the cat go through the hay bailer. Which is slightly different to not getting upset by the fact of life approach.
Diane
Jul 22 2007, 12:50 am
You got it in one!
QUOTE (Carm @ Jul 22 2007, 12:31 am)

don't judge others because they don't feel the same way as you
Ok you take offence to a post, I take offence to the murdering of an animal, somehow I don't think you can even compare those two...
To me someone who enjoys the killing + suffering of animals = psychopath
Whoever might feel offended or disagrees just remember the words of Carm: 'don't judge others because they don't feel the same way as you'
BattalionBoy
Jul 31 2007, 8:43 am
Not everyone who enjoys harming animals is a psychopath. I went to a fox hunt once in the UK – it was a lot of fun. Everybody there seemed reasonably normal, in fact I was the only psychopath there. I think some people here should get off their high horse and get their lips stretched so that they can suck their own toffee noses.
QUOTE (luvlein @ Jul 21 2007, 9:06 pm)

seems to be a Swiss website, so maybe the advice is meant for Switzerland only
@luvlein
You're absolutely right. The information contained in that excerpt describes the situation under Swiss law, and the provisions cited are those of the Swiss Road Traffic Act, Civil Code and Criminal Code.
kitkat64
Jul 31 2007, 10:24 am
anyone who things a cat should be confined to a yard is just being unrealistic. That is like trying to confine a 16 year old to the house - not possible.
BattalionBoy
Jul 31 2007, 10:42 am
Kitkat64 I think the law is - if a cat runs across the road then it can be legally run over and the cat’s owner is liable for any damage to the vehicle.
parnell
Jul 31 2007, 10:47 am
QUOTE (Ruthie @ Jul 21 2007, 6:15 pm)

One of his eyeballs was hanging out by his ear, and his guts were falling out, and my older sister wrapped him in a towel after the pitbull finally let go of him
Ok I'm not a big cat fan cos they're tremendously arrogant assholes (odd exception I'm sure) but I feel bad for ur cat - specially the second one ... that's a shit way to go out.
sarabyrd
Jul 31 2007, 11:01 am
QUOTE (Kay @ Jul 31 2007, 10:24 am)

The information contained in that excerpt describes the situation under Swiss law
Thanks, Kay. Never realilzed that in the heat of the moment.
Fuchs66
Jul 31 2007, 1:47 pm
QUOTE (sarabyrd @ Jul 13 2007, 3:43 pm)

My cat was trotting along the side of the road with a mole in her mouth, minding her own business, when some bozo from Microsoft "nudged" her into the ditch (left front leg paralysed). You bet I want my €1000 vet bill off of him!
Thanks for pointing out why I'm not keen on cats. So your cat goes out and kills a protected wild animal and you think it's ok? (BTW cats dont eat moles they just play with them, kill them and leave them as they have a disgusting taste apparently). Cats are also one of the reasons why the European songbird population is being slowly but surely decimated and to tell you the truth if a cat is run over, sad as it is, I dont have an awful lot of sympathy, if you cant keep them from hunting in the wild (I make an exception here to cats kept on farms where the small mammal populations are usually more than enough to keep them busy) then dont get a cat.
QUOTE
Obwohl der Maulwurf ausdrücklich per Gesetz geschützt ist, es also verboten ist, ihn auch nur zu stören, geschweige denn zu töten,
http://www.nabu.de/m09/m09_06/03204.html
sarabyrd
Jul 31 2007, 2:09 pm
Sorry, Fuchs, my cat can't read. The moles around my rural estate are rejoicing anyway as she cannot jump the fence any more, and she never went for songbirds. The neighbors admit that their gardens profited from the Mighty Hunter's protection although it was unpleasant to stumble over a freshly killed mouse or vole just about every time they went outside. Guess they have to put up their mole-deafening traps again.
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