A landlord stole his tenant’s cat. He did the right thing, no doubt about it. In fact he had to do it in order to rescue this sweet well-behaved cat. The landlord’s tenant is threatening to call the police but the landlord is holding firm saying that he has no choice other than to look after the cat.
Michael Moody, 40, is a landlord in the UK. His tenant is unnamed. However, his tenant’s behavior appears to be appalling. As a tenant he is clearly in breach of his tenancy agreement many times over. You can judge for yourself but it is quite obvious from the state of his flat that he is a highly irresponsible individual and should be evicted being in breach of his agreement.
However, it appears that he decided to adopt a cat and sadly the cat found an owner who is incapable of discharging his cat caring responsibilities properly.
Mr Moody seized the one-year-old cat from the appalling conditions. Neighbours had reported hearing the cat’s cries for help day and night. The thought of it is heartbreaking.
Mr Moody has called the cat “Bob”. He was found starving in Mr Moody’s property. Mr Moody was horrified when he found that his flat in Skegness, Lincolnshire was covered in faeces and rubbish. The photographs bear that out. Moody believes that Bob survived by drinking toilet water and tearing open refuse bags within the flat.
Mr Moody called his tenant who said that he would call the police if he did not return Bob, which would appear to have been an idle threat. However, technically this is theft so the tenant could call the police and the police would probably turn up but I don’t think they would do anything about it. I hope not.
Michael said:
“I think he [his tenant] just wanted some company, but he needs to learn to look after himself before he starts looking after a pet. I have never heard something as bad as this – he is just an innocent cat. We’ve taken control. The owner is not getting the cat back. He did get hostile and threatened to call the police, but what would they do?”
Mr Moody discovered that the cat had been left alone for a considerable time. Bob is house trained and friendly. He is now living with Mr Moody and his fiancee. I would suspect that his fiancee had something to say about this and probably encouraged him to take action.
“I believe I’m doing the right thing whether it’s legal or not. I’m hoping to find a loving home for a little black 12 months male cat. Bob is a lovely cat and we can’t let him down, so we want to make sure he goes to the right home.”
I am sure that all the regular visitors to this website would have done the same thing.
I wish that more property owners would take charge over the neglect of their renters. It happens far too often.
God bless that landlord. I have heard of people stealing pets, for example, a dog that was left outside 24 hours a day. The dog was stolen by someone who saw him out there every single day, and finally couldn’t stand it any longer. I believe it is courageous to save the life of an animal who is abused or neglected.
I applaud the landlord for doing what he did. Technically, since pets are considered property, a case could be made for theft; however, I doubt anything would happen. The landlord has a good case for eviction, as well as having a home check done on the tenant. It sounds like the tenant is incapable of caring for himself; therefore, he is also incapable of caring for a cat. A case could be brought forth that this was a case of animal abuse and the landlord did the responsible thing by saving the animal from dying. Let’s just hope cooler heads prevail. Too bad the landlord doesn’t just keep Bob for himself and his fiance. I wonder why that wasn’t touched upon?