What you have the guts to put a cat out of it's misery?

Question

Last night well thismorning about 4am i got woken up by this awful yulping ,screaming noise first of all i thought it was some woman screaming down the road...i couldn't find my glasses in the dark so i couldn't see nothing outside...my boyfriend woke up after a while and looked out side and he could see just down the road a cat had been knocked over and was screaming,yulping ....i feel so bad coz it was havin a slow painful death and i didnt have the guts to put it out its misery! the yulping did stop soon after my boyfriend had woken up so it had obviously died :( Am i a bad person for just letting the poor thing suffer?i feel so bad where as my boyfriend said that's life ! :(

Answer 1

This is my story:
last year i found a kitten outside of my office and it seems that half part of the body has been ran over by a car. so i brought her to the vet and they said that i have 2 options:
1) operate her, cost will be a bomb but chance of recovery is very slim as the internal organ has been badly damaged.
2) put her to sleep.
by then, i got so attached to her that i can't make that decision. She looked so young & small then i realized that there were tears in my eyes.
Maybe after few minutes when i can't make the decision, the vet told me that i have the 3rd option i.e. leave her in the hospital as it is a training vet hospital. they will decide whether to use her in their operation training or euthanized her.
i signed the document & left.
even though it was only a cat (a kitten) now i realized that it's not easy be the person that have to make decision when it comes to the life or death of other people.
The End.

Answer 2

No,you're not a bad person at all, your reaction to such a horrid event is normal. Suddenly waking up to a situation that you've never encountered before and expecting yourself to suddenly know what to do is not reality,you reacted as most people would.

Now is the time to think about what to do if you encounter such a situation again....

1) See if there's a night time emergency vet near you. Wear heavy gloves and use a carrier to avoid handling the animal as much as possible if you decide to transport the animal to the vet for help.

2) If you can't take the cat to an night time emergency vet and it's in the day time,contact your local Animal Control. If it's at night you can contact the police. In my area (U.S.A), the police will come out and put the animal out of its misery or find help for it.

3) This would be a good time to just call a police station or even Animal Control or a vet, tell them what happened and ask them what you should do next time. They'll know more about who to call in your area.

Don't feel badly,it sounds like you cared a lot and just didn't know what to do. I wouldn't have been able to kill the cat either but since I do rescues I already know how to handle such a situation whereas you didn't at the time.

You at least looked outside and was prepared to help if you'd known what to do. Most people do nothing even when they hear human screams so I applaud you for your attempt and desire to help.

Answer 3

This is so hard. I was feeding a stray cat in Singapore & he was knocked over by a car. He made his way into our garden but he was obviously beyond any hope - he was twitching & his head was at a funny angle and his eye was bulging. It was horrible. Me & my husband spent a while deciding what to do & decided we should put him out of his misery. We were just deciding how when he expired. Do not feel bad, it is an awful thing to deal with. If you had finished the cat off, you would have felt bad for doing that even though you knew it was the right thing. Doing nothing you also feel bad.

Answer 4

There is a good chance that even if you had called a vet the cat would have died and you would be faced with the bill. It takes an enormous amount of courage to put an animal out of it's misery. I had my dog put down after he contracted a Bovine worm in his lungs. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.
Try not let it bother you. There was nothing you could have done and the cat is now at peace anyway. You did nothing wrong.

Answer 5

After having very loving relationships with many cats, over many years, I'd have to say that I'd hope and pray that I'd have the guts to go down and see if I could help or relieve the injured cat/dog. I'm not sure I could put it out of it's pain though. That's hard to do.

Situations like that are why I keep my cats indoors all the time. They're happy, warm, safe and healthy. Plus .... I don't run the risk of coming home from work and finding one of them killed on the street in front of my home.

Poor little critter.

Are you a bad person? HEAVENS, NO!

Kev

Answer 6

Personally, I don't think I could do it. I'm just too much of a wuss and a coward when it comes to stuff like that.

My Husband would have done it though, he once came across a deer that had been hit by a car and was dying slowly. He didn't have anything to kill it with, so he had to whack it on the head with a tyre iron. It worked and he put it out of its misery. He then put the blanket we kept in the car over it on the side of the road, he didn't know why really, he just didn't want to leave it there, exposed. I know some people would find that apalling, but I think he showed a great deal of mercy and kindness in making sure the poor thing didn't die slowly and in pain.

I still couldn't have done it though.

Answer 7

That was an awful experience for you.I can't see that you could have done much more than you did.perhaps you could have phoned the police(oh boy would they be pleased---but they may have an emergency vet number).As you did not know what was making the noise and the creature died soon after you realised try not to feel too badly about it ----but you will for a while.I certainly couldn't have done much and definitely couldn't have killed it.

Answer 8

It's tough, very tough on you, but remember too the poor cat.
I (a man of 60), have cried many times in putting an animal down. Recently a kitten with a broken leg was loose on a highway after dark. I tried to catch him but had to leave him be. Otherwise he was going to get both of us killed. I kick myself over that one, and have trouble convincing myself I made the best decision by leaving it to its fate on the highway.
But if you do your best, you can be expected to do no more.
Probably the best thing in an emergency situation like the one you enountered would be a sharp tap between the eyes with a hammer or other heavy object. (say even a steak-hammer or a rolling pin).

Answer 9

I can do it(not without a lot of crying and uncertainty), you can not change what has passed and you may not have been able to have changed the outcome. What you can do is try to understand your own fear, so that in the future if you ever have something similar happen you are better prepared to attempt to help in what ever way possible or necessary.

Life is here to teach you, blame does no one any good(but it is part of our humanity, it makes us look at our selves and our actions and that in its self has to be a good thing.)

Sleep well and trust that there is a plan to all of our lives and deaths(yes even cats).

Answer 10

Some very similar happened to my mom and dad when they were engaged. They were outside when they saw a cat get runover. It was still alive, but it was obvious that it wouldn't survive. Mom was ready to grab it and rush it to the nearest vet; my dad grabbed a shovel and hit it, thereby killing it. My mom, needless to say, was shocked. However, she realized that perhaps his way was more humane in the situation, since the cat wasn't going to survive either way, and his way was much quicker.

Anyway, no, you aren't a bad person. I probably would have stayed in bed, too shocked to do anything.