A study conducted in 2003 in Cambridge, UK, threw up a disturbing statistic which may not be significant because of the rather small sample size but which stands out against the other statistics.
More than twice as many cats involved in a road traffic accident wore a reflective collar compared to non-road traffic accident cats. The authors of the research could not determine why this may have occurred because of the small sample size.
What comes to my mind is the possibility that some car drivers deliberately fail to avoid a domestic cat crossing the road. Obviously, a cat wearing a reflective collar at night or in the early hours of the morning will be far more visible and therefore if a driver is predisposed to hurting cats because he dislikes them intensely then this would be an opportunity to carry out his desires.
It would also be completely safe in terms of the potential for criminal prosecution. It would be impossible to prove that a person deliberately ran over a cat. I can remember, many years ago, reading the words of a cat hating car driver who said that he enjoyed driving over cats whenever the opportunity arose. Obviously the opportunity arose very rarely but nonetheless his malicious nature stood out and made an impact upon me.
You will see from the chart that the chances of a cat being hit by a car is unaffected by the time of year, the coat colour of the cat, the hours spent outside, the time lived at a certain address and whether the cat is allowed out at night or not. There is a small difference between night and daytime accidents but it is small.
P.S. Only 25% of cats hit by a car are killed. And male, random bred cats under 2-years-of-age are the most likely to be hit by a car. If your cat falls into this category and is lost check the side of the road near your home as he may have been hit by a car and gone into hiding under a bush.
The study: Rochlitz (2003).
I read about a study that said men’s hatred of cats is directly proportional to their insecurities regarding their own sexual function. These are primarily men who try to bully and dominate women, but are incapable of doing so with any woman in possession of a spine.
Where I used to live, there was a man with a similar cat-hating bumper sticker on his truck. Unbeknownst to him, he was about to get a neon X spray-painted over the bumper sticker and surrounding surface, but he moved before said action was completed. I think fluorescent pink works the best.
Yes, many people make a point to swerve and run over an animal, especially cats. I witnessed it first hand.
I was driving down a very wide street with minimal traffic on my way to meet someone. There was a grey Tom waiting to cross the street. As I passed, he stepped off the curb and was making his way across the street. The oncoming car was close to the center line when it went past. As I watched in the rear view mirror to see if the cat made it across the street, the driver swerved the car. If he’d kept going, there would have been several feet of empty road between them. The cat was only about 1-2 feet from the curb when the POS ran both passenger tires over the cat. On my way home, I stopped and put the body on the grass between the curb and pavement. I knew that more POS would continue to run over the cat and didn’t want his owners to find him that way.
The upside of the story? The car was very low to the ground. When it ran over the cat, part of the ground effects fell off. Hopefully that part was VERY expensive.
Thanks for this terribly sad story Cat’s Meow. It does not surprise me on bit.
Not only will the target a cat out here there seems to be at least a few points for seeing how flat you can get them by every driver after running a tire over the. I have to use a shovel most of the time.
There is a sod who lives in my town with a bumper sticker’s on his truck saying (Cats make good speed bumps) and also another sticker saying (Cats,the other white meat)and if I ever catch him on my road trying to run over one of my ferals I will be in jail because he will only have stubs left to walk on when I get done with him.