Why did this woman shoot her sick cat rather than take him to a veterinarian?
We are told that a 73-year-old woman, Nancy Just, allowed her cat to become ill for months and then asked a neighbour to shoot him (and offered to pay). When he refused she shot her cat the next day with two bullets. She buried her cat in the backyard. Eight days later her neighbour reported the matter to Animal Control. They found the decomposed body buried in the backyard after questioning her.
“The next day, in the morning… I heard, pop pop and I went over there and talk to her later on and I said ‘you did it didn’t you Nancy? She said yeah.'” (testimony of the neighbour who was asked to shoot her cat)
It is extraordinary that this long time (20 years) cat owner ended up doing what she did. It seems inexplicable. Perhaps she was short of money and had decided that her cat was terminally ill and wanted to euthanise him. Or she foresaw huge vet bills and wanted to avoid them. The only way she could achieve these objecives was to shoot him. At the time she felt that she was unable to do it herself so she asked her neighbour. He who refused and therefore in desperation she shot her cat herself.
This is my explanation but it is guesswork. In my view it is a version of animal cruelty and a violation of animal welfare laws but apparently allowed in certain places in America. Whether she is successfully prosecuted or not will be a different matter.
Animal Control rightly say that under no circumstances is a person allowed to shoot their cat. What they’re saying is that it would be a violation of the criminal law. Some cat haters would disagree with that and they would be wrong.
The story is reported on wavy.com and they say that a judge has released her from jail on condition that she returns at the next court hearing in July. That means that she has been arrested and charged but I have no details.
Some people, cat haters normally, would argue that she euthanised her cat with a bullet to the head and therefore the cat did not suffer. I am sure that that will be her defence if there is a trial.
It does, however, highlight the necessity to have sufficient funds to look after your cat properly. It can be expensive. People shy away from veterinarians because of the expense. This leads to all kinds of additional problems such as the one described.
Thank you serve that information. I think in this case it has been deemed illegal by the way.
As I have stated previously, you are an alien to me. We live in different worlds. I live in the modern world. I live in a world where we don’t have to personally kill animals to eat by shooting them.
You live in the days of the native Indian, the wild West. You admit that yourself in your comment. You should be living in America about 150-200 years ago. You would fit into that society very well. But in modern society you do not fit in. You are a throwback. Jump on a time machine as soon as possible and get back to the middle of the 19th century and earlier as soon as possible and leave us alone.
We live on different planets, you and I. You like killing animals and I like conserving and protecting animals. I like defending animals. I like to respect animals. You like to kill them and eat them and pretend you are somebody living in the wild West in the last century. You have been raised completely differently to me. Your mentality is utterly different to mine. We will never agree on anything. So please desist from commenting and piss off.
I am sorry but you are talking absolute rubbish. Sorry if that sounds rude. I say it because this individual, this person let her cat becoming ill and we are told the cat was ill for some time before she shot him. The answer is not to let your cat become ill and remain ill but to take him to the veterinarian as soon as possible and let the vet deal with it. If the illness is terminal and chronic then perhaps euthanasia is the right course and in which case the veterinarian delivers the drugs. That is the way you deal with it. What you are saying is absolute rubbish I’m afraid to say.
Sorry Michael, but in parts of the USA it really is legal to humanely destroy your own animal. Shooting (a head shot) is a common method, especially for those unable to afford or obtain drugs.
Let’s see if this makes you grow-up at least one more year than you project to the world …
There’s a wonderful Native American tale that describes this “remorse” one feels for having to kill things to survive that explains it so well. I’ll try to tell it best as I can from memory, when it was told to me so-many-ages ago by a Native American elder.
A young boy and his elderly father were living alone in the woods, and one day the son befriended a yearling deer that had been lost or abandoned by its mother. The father was quite happy with this as it entertained the boy and his son was learning the responsibility of taking-care of something that he loved.
One harsh season he sadly called his young son to him and told him, “Son, we are out of food, I am too ill to hunt and fish and provide for us right now. You must go out into the woods and kill your friend so that we may survive.”
The son, shocked and saddened over this, but always respectful of what his father told him to do, went out to find where his friend the deer was playing. With much strength in his heart, and knowing his father was right, he killed his deer friend. Slinging the animal’s body over his shoulders and went back home.
He was wracked with grief over having to do what he did. And when he got home he just threw his dead friend down at the feet of his father and yelled through his tears, “Why Father! Why!”
His father called him closer, took both his hands, and said to him, “Son, when you feel the same way about all living things that must die so that you may live, as you feel about that friend of yours right now, then you will understand.”