Pet Forums 2000

Stealing is also a crime. Just notify your local animal control and they will bring the police with them. When they get there they will do an investigation to see if the animal is being harmed. If animal control finds that the people are guilty then the cat will be confiscated. The person(s) might be arrested or charges might also be filed.

I would take the animal if I could. The people mistreating it are breaking the law too. If i couldn't care for the animal I'd call the humane society.

I would call the local Humane Society and report it to them.

Several winters ago, my wife saw two dogs outside in very cold and wet weather, without any protection, as she drove to work. She went by there 3 or 4 other times, and I passed by there a couple of times in the middle of the day, and the dogs were still outside without any protection.

My wife called the Humane Society after getting to work one morning and the next morning there were two doghouses in the yard and the dogs could be seen inside them.

In that situation, at least, the Humane Society moved quickly to check out the complaint and then take action.

If I knew of any animal (it would not have to be a cat) that was being abused or not cared fro properly, I would call the Humane Society.

If they did nothing I would contact the police.

Only as a very last resort would I take matters into my hands and take the animal.

As you were told, such action would be a violation of law - at the very least you would be charged with theft.

I was in such a situation this summer. Since whoever these geniuses are decided that a small kitten should be outside in the street right near one of the busiest intersections in Boston, and since these people would not respond to us banging on the door and ringing their buzzer, I and a friend decided to take matters into our own hands.

I did have to keep the little guy quarantined in my bathroom for a couple days while we figured out what to do. It all worked out perfectly for little Zeus and his new people, I wonder if his other "people" even noticed he was gone as they never put up a lost cat sign or did an ad.

We were very lucky that my friend's friend and co-worker and her husband had been wanting to adopt a cat for some time and had just decided the time was right.

Since then he's had all his vaccines, has been neutered and is loved by the whole family.

If my friend and I had not grabbed him, he'd be dead instead of happy and cared for by nice people.

Did we do something wrong? Yes. But we righted a greater wrong.

Actually, I just re-homed another cat to the very same woman this week. No idea if the cat was owned, lost, abandoned or what. I do know she'd been coming by to get fed twice a day, that she was young and unspayed, and that the "found cat" signs I put up all over
the neighborhood got no response after 9 days.

I had the spay appt set up for this Tues. knowing if I got a call before Mon. I could cancel. Noone called so off we went to the clinic.

She is at her new home now, in her own room, and they'll introduce her to Zeus after her incision heals.

Did I do something wrong (again)? Did I steal a cat? I put up 3 doz signs in English with a photo - but everyone here doesn't speak English. What was I supposed to do? Make signs in Polish, Vietnamese, Portugese, Albanian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Chinese?

I thought the risk of an 8-10 month old kitten becoming pregnant (she was pregnant btw) and having feral kittens etc, etc, etc was far greater than the risk of maybe stealing someone's ( how can you know if they are outside day and night, no collar,hungry ) cat.

So if I were in your shoes, I would probably just take the cat. It IS wrong to take the law into your own hands. But sometimes not doing so is worse and we do have a moral imperative to act if a helpless creature is being harmed.

What if it were a small child with a whacko mama doing something awful to the child right now. She could kill or maim it for life. What do you do? Call child protective services and set up an appt for 2 weeks later while she kills her kid? No. You'd grab the child - right?