This is a novel way to ‘rescue’ a cat stuck up a tree. They must have run out of ideas because the video clearly shows the tree surgeon cutting off the branch on which the cat is perched. She falls a long way to the ground. About 50 feet I’d guess. As the cat is inside the branches of the tree she has no opportunity to fan out her legs and body to slow the descent and break her fall. It appears in the video that she fall straight down but misses the branches of the tree which is fortunate. She hits the ground hard but it is soft and it clearly breaks her fall.
Interestingly, the news report on 14 News website says that she fell ‘several feet’ from a tree! You can multiply that figure by about 10 because this cat fell a good 50 feet perhaps more than that. There was a big potential for injury. No question about it. So the ending is fortunate. The report says that the video could be disturbing to some viewers which I agree with but at least we know that the outcome is good.
In a video after the fall the cat is seen playing with a lady working with Another Chance for Animals which is a network of foster homes to help animals from Evansville, Vandenburg Animal Care and Control.
PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK IF YOU’D LIKE TO SEE THE VIDEO – IT OPENS A NEW TAB SO YOU STAY ON THIS PAGE TOO.
The cat suffered no broken bones but was dehydrated and spooked. She needs spaying and that will be organised. She would then be rehomed apparently to a person who worked for the tree pruning service called DJ Tree Service. Perhaps it is the man in the video who sawed off the branch.
There is a Facebook fundraiser that has raised almost $2,000 to pay for veterinary bills. Although the bills are actually quite small because she survive the fall very well. Therefore some of the money will go to the rescue organisation’s usual services of spaying and neutering cats.
Is the first time that I’ve seen a branch been cut off a tree to cause a stuck cat to fall to the ground. It looks brutal and wrong but, as mentioned, I suspect that they had run out of ideas. Nobody has mentioned the strangeness of that method of rescuing a cat. It is hardly rescuing, in fact. It is jeopardising the health and welfare of the Cat.