Do you become as enraged as I do by stories like this? This is the extraordinary story of an unqualified Michigan man who thought he would save money by neutering a male domestic cat belonging to his girlfriend’s mother. Yes, he is not a veterinarian but he had seen a procedure called ‘banding’ used on farm animals. He thought he’d try it himself. He used a small hair tie band with metal wraps, which I presume he tied around the male cat’s testicles in the hope that they would drop off.
He left the banding on the cat for a couple of weeks which made the cat angry because it is presumed that the cat felt pain. A reasonable presumption under the circumstances don’t you think!? The area turned red and purple. Eventually another family member took the cat to an animal clinic. The staff there notified animal control who investigated the incident. Subsequently the cat was taken into the care of the local Humane Society on 25th February.
The incident has come to light because it found its way into the criminal court which I presume is the source of this report today on the Michigan Live website.
The incident reminds me of another one which occurred some time ago. An unqualified man tried to do a DIY declawing operation on the family cat which as one would expect caused serious injury. That person was also charged with a crime.
Some details – names & places
It occurred in Michigan, USA. The man concerned is Travis Jon Nelson, 29, of Boyne city. He was convicted of a felony charge of the attempted torturing of an animal on October 3. He pleaded guilty. His sentence is to serve a community service order and pay $1,847 in restitution. The money goes to the Humane Society to pay for their services in treating the tortured cat.
The judge, said that Nelson did not mean to harm the cat but that his actions showed the lack of common sense and they caused injury.
Comment: I would tend to agree with the judge that this is a case of ignorance, stupidity and an idiotic approach to cat caretaking. And how much money do you save doing this sort of DIY veterinary work? Not a lot because neutering a male cat is quite cheap, relatively. As I said it was an extraordinarily bad decision by Mr Nelson.
For those (very few) who don’t know what DIY stands for it is ‘Do It Yourself’.
