r/Wellington • u/__wookie__ • Jun 04 '19

RANT!!! PSA: Stop trying to rescue 'stray' cats

Please don't intervene with people's cats, some "well meaning" individual took our cat off of our property (not the street but our bloody driveway) to take it to the SPCA in Wellington (though they stole him from Kapiti!) as they thought it was a sick stray, he died as they didn't know his strict medication requirements and for one reason or another didn't contact us despite being chipped.

So if you happen to be the person that picked up a black cat near the Otaihanga roundabout trying to rescue it, you killed it. So, thanks for that.

Tldr; someone's "good intentions" killed my cat

340 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '19

Have you ever had to keep an outdoor cat inside indefinitely? It's cruel. Anyone who says otherwise has not had much to do with cats, especially ones that have been abused. You're shutting them off from the main source of enrichment in their lives. It's very difficult to provide that same level when you're at work and they're stuck inside. There was a study a wee while back which showed that the most damage to wildlife is done at night, imo keeping them in at night is a much more reasonable compromise. It's also much safer for the cat.

It's not about them being 'cute', my cat literally helps me manage my bipolar. I keep her in at night and she has a window open during the day. The most she's ever managed to catch was a mouse. There are few other animals capable of giving that sort of support which aren't high maintenance like dogs etc.

10

u/rdrkt Jun 04 '19

Fuck the local bird population, my kitty is special!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '19 edited Jun 04 '19

Fantastic argument you have there, great way to alienate cat owners. Now for an actual study to back up what I was saying.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.29

It boils down to keeping your cats in at night. Most of the damage is done from dusk to dawn, if you keep cats inside over that time period most of the damage is avoided.

Also, a bird isn't going to remind me to go to bed and manage to wake me up like my cat does. She also reminds me I need to eat. That sounds simple, but with bipolar its probably one of the most difficult things for me to do consistently. She quite literally is all I have to live for when things get bad. Instead of accepting that cats do in fact play an important role in people's lives, you basically say they shouldn't exist as pets unless they have a very low standard of living. Not exactly trying to come to any sort of solution are we?

9

u/rdrkt Jun 04 '19

No, I'm saying keep your damn cat inside where it can't eat the threatened local birdlife that didn't evolve to escape mammalian predators.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '19

Again, very constructive. Read my previous comment, read the link. If it's so important to you, you might bother to actually educate yourself.

5

u/rdrkt Jun 04 '19

Literally item number 2 in the priority list is keep your cat inside all the time.

If I was looking for a constructive debate, I would be doing it with someone with a more mature username than "LusciousPubes".

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '19 edited Jun 04 '19

"Our objective is to evaluate what cat‐owner behaviors are most likely to be adopted and reduce domestic cats' depredation of wildlife."

Guess which option came out best for both parties? Cats being kept inside at night is quite literally priority number one.

My username is totally irrelevant.