Would you have done as well as Ben Allen? I am not sure I would have.
A cat jumps out in front of your car. You can’t avoid him. You run over him. You stop your car and wait from a gap in the traffic before grabbing him and rushing him to the nearest vet.
The cat has a damaged jaw and broken pelvis and the vet gives you two options: euthanise or pay several thousand dollars for surgery.
This is not your cat. You have no idea who cares for the cat. You decide to save the cat and pay up.
You then go in search of the cat’s “owner” using the Lost and Found Pets of Lexington Facebook group.
This is one of the good things about Facebook. This is when it really can be useful. He hasn’t found the cat’s owner yet but he has received some donations. Nowhere near the amount paid but he may get it all back. Something good often comes out of a good deed.
“I know it was the right thing to do,” Allen said.
An FB comment states. “Thanks for doing the right thing”.
It is about doing the right thing but how many of us could or would do it? The big decision was paying the large vet’s bill. I think a lot of people would stop and take the cat to the nearest but even that could be tricky. It can be difficult to handle an injured cat, find a vet in a possible a strange area and get priority treatment. But the money? A lot of people wouldn’t be able to afford it. They’d have to instruct the vet to euthanise and that makes the whole event doubly traumatic.
The truth is that a lot of people wouldn’t even stop. There is a moment when you are driving along and a cat shoots out and you know you have hit the cat when you decide to do the right or wrong thing. It is a split second decision which tells you what you are made of and what you know.
If you know and understand cats and care for a cat you’ll stop. If you are a dog lover and dislike cats but are a decent person you’ll still stop. I guess it is a test of character.
My thanks to Ruth aka Kattaddorra for finding this story.
I have never hit a cat with my car, I have hit a few small mammals and frogs, where there has never been a chance to avoid them. Each time this has happened, I have stopped to see if there was anything I could do to save the little one, or at least put it out of the agony I caused the animal. I feel sick to my stomach each time. Not squeamishness, just genuine distress.
If I ever hit a cat, I would do all I could to get the cat the vet help it needed and I would pay for it. I would raise the money somehow if I did not have it. I’d also do all I could to find the cat’s human.
Laugh all you want if you need, I have been called all the names under the sun for my choice of action over this sort of event.
In the eyes of some, they may only be the tiny, insignificant lives of mice and frogs (or cats) but until I turned up it was still a life that I had no right to end. So hy not do th right thing.
I think that Ben did the right thing. It is a sad world where simply doing the right, humane thing is questioned, especially with regard to punishing the owner with law suits.
Ben is a gentleman and a very compassionate person if only there were more like him who just wanted to do the right thing.
I remember the time I ran over a cat and I only did so because it was lying injured in the road. The car which was driving iin front of me ran it over and didn’t stop had he/she of done so then I would have had to stop as well but no I ran it over and felt it go under the wheels of the car. I got out and cried because the cat was squirming in the road his tail going round and round. I picked him up and someone living nearby stopped after seeing the whole thing and bought a blanket. I wrapped him up and placed him on the bonnet of the car which was warm but the cat lived for only minutes after and luckily we located the owner who lived not far away naturally he was devastated but thanked me for stopping.
If only the person before me has stopped that cat may have survived with only minor injuries.
I walked into our house with blood down my front and on the bonnet of the car and sobbing naturally my husband wondered what the heck had happened. I was devastated but at least I know I did the right thing as best as I could at the time.
What a nice chap Ben must be I wonder if her’s married lol I could do with him around or any of the saints among men like him.
The right thing has to be another woody alias only he lurks waiting to pounce and repeat the same old rubbish he always writes stupid man can’t get it into his sawdust no one cares a jot what he thinks.
Ben Allen is a real gentleman! Kind and compassionate and caring about all living creatures. Wouldn’t it be good if all men were the same!
I feel sure that the men (and women) of our PoC family would do the same as Ben did (apart from Woody of course who even has to try to spoil this story with his predictable, sarcastic, mean comments)
‘I know it was the right thing to do’ said Ben.
Well good on him, he is to be much admired.
So right. A very good man.
The ways some people are today (let’s not mention any woodchip people), Ben even needs an award for stopping at all!
I think a whole lot of people would want to do what Ben did if they had the means. It would be horrible to be in Ben’s position and be broke. It would be time to launch those survival skills, like begging.
First, he needs to sue the cat’s owner for all expenses and time-lost from work.
Second, he needs to report the owner to animal-control or any and all law-enforcement agencies and have the cat’s owner fined and convicted of all laws that clearly define animal-neglect, animal-endangerment, and animal-abandonment.
The very same way that any dog owner who lets their dog roam free is then reported, fined, then convicted for putting their animal in harm’s-way. You can even be thrown in prison for just leaving your dog in your car on a warm day with the windows shut — that is animal-endangerment. Showing just how much more that dog-owners actually do care about their animals, they’re the ones that pushed to have laws.
If you want the same laws for cats that protect your dogs, then you’re going to have to finally become responsible pet-owners and have the same laws applied to cats as dogs. — That’s never going to happen. Cat owners do all they can to evade being responsible pet owners. Even encouraging other cat-owners how to evade laws. Find yet another excuse to take an identifying collar off of a cat so you can’t be held responsible for its actions or its death due to your own neglect.
Hi, you call yourself “The Right Thing”. I think you mean “The Things I Want”. They are different. Dogs are potentially dangerous to humans from bites, which is why the laws are different. Quite a lot of people are killed by dog bites annually.
If you think the law is unfair and biased you should tell your representing politician. Lobby him/her etc.. However, you have to accept that the people of the USA agree the current the law.
If Ben Allen sued the cat’s owner his case would be thrown out of court before it started. It is a non-starter, obviously. For a start no one knows who the owner is! For you to suggest that indicates to me that you have a “problem” with thinking straight. You are probably Woodsman again. The law allows cat owners to let their cats go outside.
Anyway this cat probably has no owner. It may be a stray.
Don’t respond to this unless (a) you can write something sensible and (b) it is polite.
There are laws already in place that protect animals, even cats – and, especially from maniacs.
I am a responsible pet owner but who the hell are you?? I’m just glad that I live in the UK where thank God cats are still considered a ‘free spirit’ and are still able to roam around I would imagine you live in the states where to keep your cat safe you have to lock it away to protect it from people like YOU!