Friendly Reminder to tap your car hood before starting the engine!

The title comes from Twitter and it accompanies one of the best photographs that I have seen (and I have seen a lot) of cats inside the engine compartment, entangled with the engine, of vehicles. It’s a bit scary to look at this because you can see how devastating the injuries can be when you start up the engine.

Picture of cats in a car engine
Picture of cats in a car engine. Photo: Project MEOW on Twitter.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

The recommendation is to tap the car hood before you get into the car. This may cause the cats inside to vocalise if they are in there. I don’t think this test is 100% guaranteed to work but it is better than ignoring the possibility completely. It’s the kind of situation that car owners will naturally ignore. You can’t blame them.

The only guaranteed way to check whether there are cats or a cat in your engine compartment is to lift the hood and have a look. Pretty well nobody is going to do that on a freezing cold winter morning. So, despite best intentions cats are going to be injured.

Scenario: it’s a very cold morning and they are in a rush. They are working on autopilot and don’t think about what might be under the bonnet. I don’t think about this possibility. So, it takes a bit of self-discipline to think about it. We have to train ourselves to open our minds to accept that it may happen.

I also suspect that the problem of young cats in particular crawling into spaces within the engine may occur more often in certain parts of the world. I guess that is obvious because if it’s very cold in winter in say Chicago, USA then it is more likely that you’ll find a kitten or even a mother with a kitten within your engine compartment.

So, we’re looking at cold winter climates. The problem may be limited to those areas where it is very cold, sub-zero, in winter which forces cats to find warmth.

Once again, the root cause of the problem is irresponsible cat ownership creating unwanted, stray cats. It’s boring to state that but you have to go back to root to get to the bottom of the problem. Protecting cats who crawl into engines is a reactive measure to save them from injury but the proactive, long-term solution is to dramatically improve companion animal ownership standards. Maybe it is time for legislation to achieve that?

SOME MORE CAR ENGINE PICS AND STORIES:

Kitten - one of 2- rescued from an engine bad in Malaysia. Their mother took them away
MALAYSIA-NEWS AND COMMENT: It is not uncommon for an individual cat to seek shelter and warmth in the engine compartment ...
Cat survived long motorway journey in engine compartment
This lucky tortie-and-white survived a hair raising experience when she crawled into the engine compartment of a car in Birmingham ...
This cat picture is by the Animal Services Division of the City of Rancho Cordova in California. It is a ...
New York cat survives a ride around the city while stuck in engine of SUV
A Cohoes, New York cat is lucky to have survived a ride around the city while stuck in the engine ...
Tampa Police officers rescue young cat trapped in engine compartment of abandoned vehicle
Tampa Police Department Squad 209 became a hero to a young cat who found himself trapped inside the engine compartment ...
Cat rescued from car engine
This is the best video I have seen of a domestic cat being extracted from a car engine! I know ...
Cute rescue kittens found in car compartment
This must be the ultimate cat-trapped-in-car-engine-compartment story. You know how cats like to crawl into the engine compartment of a ...
One eyed cat's dangerous escapade
Ronney's dangerous escapade lost him another part of his anatomy...... A one-eyed cat has survived a 150 mile trip on ...

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

3 thoughts on “Friendly Reminder to tap your car hood before starting the engine!”

  1. This should be on the mind of every driver at all times!
    It’s a pity for our smaller animal brothers who get into such situations!
    Be kinder and don’t neglect such actions because it can save their lives!

  2. Honking the horn works too I hit it 3 or 4 times. And I cut off the bottom of my radiator shroud cuz the neighbors chicken kept sleeping on it cat sleep there too.

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