Can You Take Someones Cat?

[Taceas]

If you stole it out of her home or off of her property, then that's illegal. It's called property theft, like it or not the law deems our beloved pets as property.

If its wandering freely around and is on your property, then its yours to do with whatever you choose. It's obvious to you that she's not taking care of it properly nor providing a safe home for it. And if you feel that you can do better when you move, then by all means, do so. If she cared about it turning up missing, then she would put ID's on it or not let it out the door for extended periods.

Here in rural Indiana, if my neighbor's dogs or cats come onto my property I have the right to do with them what I choose. And I have taken full advantage of it many times. Feral cats are a real problem around here and our native wildlife is showing troubles from that. So I don't even turn the cats in if they're obviously feral, they just "disappear" never to return.

Although I will admit I have been bad. I did steal our neighbor's dog and 3 pups when they left on a 3-week vacation in August and left them without food, water, or shelter in 95+ degree temps. They just left the mom, a beagle mix, tied to the clothesline pole in the middle of the yard with out an ounce of shade. The mother dog kept howling and howling bloody murder for a week before I walked through the woods and found her and the pups in a dire situation. The mother was skin and bones from drawing on her own reserves to nurse her pups, and the pups were starting to look emaciated as well.

After getting them all well fed, vaccinated and de-wormed, and fixed like they should have been, and micro-chipped I successfully re-homed them in loving homes. I still get pictures occasionally of them with the family's kids playing, which makes my heart melt.

As a rationale for my decision to "commit a crime", I had taken their dog to the shelter 5 times at least for being a nuisance by coming to our home, eating our garbage and our dog's food and never going home. Each time they returned the dog to the owners for a $20 fine.

I only started taking it to the shelter because of the fine imposed to reclaim your pet, I thought it might be a deterrent to the dog continually running off. Never mind that before I started taking it to the shelter, I personally carried the dog back to the front door of my neighbors' home countless times and told them to try to keep it home.

Each time they'd take the dog back, I'd hear the sound of a dog being beaten, the yelping and screaming. The last time, I just snapped. I couldn't do it again. And I don't regret that decision at all.

I'm not going to tell you can or can't do it. Do what you think is best for the animal, which is more than one can say for the current owner.

 

[EAD063]

As an update, that small bald spot on her head seems to be not affecting her... hopefully the women didn't do something harmful to the animal (like burn it) but nonetheless the cat was curled up catching some rays in front of my window yesterday afternoon .. for the first time I Picked up the cat up and examined it.. the bald spot was neatly combed over so I assume it's not hurting her.. I didn't want to overstay my welcome with the animal by checking to see if it was spayed but I'm sure if she's friendly enough I can get her to submit herself and check it out..adorable cat though, I will eventually do the right thing even it if means she stays an outdoor cat that I feed and water and welcome in on cold nights, it's hard in a condo to keep her indoors all the time, I will try to pull at my parents heart strings haha, they live in the country and a geat enviroment

 

[pinkzebra]

I personally have "taken" many a cat that was not being cared for.

 

[bugmankeith]

I've seen alot of people do it if the cat was neglected, they captured it, took it to the vet saying it was a stray and kept it as their own, but they did take very good care of it. So obviously the cats had no form of i.d. or the vets would have said something.

 

[thisgal]

thisgal, it's just my own personal opinion on the matter, that's all. I can try and explain why I started feeling like this - or at least I'll try:

When I was a teenager I worked with my vet in Germany. The first time I saw an embedded collar I became nauseous.

I've seen countless dogs whose owners just don't realize their dogs' collars are obviously too tight because when the collar is removed there's no skin in many places. On long-haired dogs I've seen badly mangled hair due to an improper fit.

My best friend's Doberman (who wears his collar 24/7) became entangled in some sort of electrical cord with his collar while she was running errands, and when she found him he was barely alive.

I don't question those folks who opt to keep the collars on their pets 24/7, but I don't follow that practice and have never had a problem. (knock on wood).

I should add here that when I trained my dogs, they wore a collar on a regular basis - for training purposes only though.

Again, it's simply my own personal preference, nothing more and nothing less.

---
Wendy
---

Gah, I understand why you feel that way after seeing that firsthand. I guess I feel the same way when it comes to the typical idiot dog owner who buys a cute little puppy, ties it out in the yard once the cuteness wears off and the annoyances begin, and doesn't bother with any care except throwing it scraps.

I think we made the passive decision to keep our four dogs collared because of one who somehow KNOWS when the battery in her electric fence collar is dead. I've been awakened many a morning by my dad yelling at me to come help find the dog (translation: come find the dog FOR me because, if I'm too retarded to remember I let the dogs out, I'm too retarded to go find one :wall: ). One of my greatest fears is something happening to one of our dogs because they escape from the yard and can't be identified.

We don't keep the chokers on them except for thirty seconds before we walk or run them, and I think that we have enough slack in their regular collars for them to be able to get their heads out if they're caught on something. Some might say it's too much slack, but I'd rather them be alive and lost than dead.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the local humane society dogcatcher lives barely two blocks from our house, which only adds to my panic when the one dog gets out!!! I guess the fact that we have an invisible fence hugely adds to the list of reasons why we do have collars on them. If we had a regular fence, or if we took them each out on a leash every time they needed to go out, it might be a different story.

I'm wondering, do you think you'd feel differently if you had a few escape scares because of a dead battery in a collar?

 

[Barbedwirecat]

I have worked as a vet tech as well and I have to agree with the embedded collar thing. I've seen many gross and disgusting things working with animals, but seeing a choke chain type collar embeded and a 10month old chow's neck so deep it was suffocating him was probably one of the worst.

My dog Rocky has an allergy to metal. Weirdly enough the same metals I am allergic to, nickle and steel. I have yet to find a dog collar that doesn't have this that touches the dog. He also has a very thick neck (little jackrussell mutt ) So collars do not stay on him very easily. He's also allergic to the rabies tag that my vet gave me. I alsmot had him allergy tested to see what was causing the bald spot on his neck where his rabies tag rests...until I took it off and let it heal.

Collars can cause chafing, matted fur, infection, and other nasties (think about a big blood engorged tick under a collar where you can't see it), I agree dogs should wear them, due to laws in the US, when you cannot afford Micro-chipping. Most shelters have microchip scanners that can see ALL of the chips, or at least that the dog has a chip. I have actually returned dogs to owners that people have found using this method. As part of the checkup after a dog or cat is adopted we also scan the animals again just in case.
Any person that allows an untagged unchipped and intact animal anywhere outside is just irresponsible. My personal opinion.

It is illigal to take an animal that belongs to someone else. Belonging to someone means they have to feed it and care for it. FEEDING being the big word here. if this person is not feeding it and its just eating from other peoples food bowls then it is not owned. However you cannot just take an animal, you HAVE to take it to the shelter. There is a certain amount of time that the shelter has to keep the animals to be claimed before offering it for adoption. Intact animals are kept less time than spayed or neutered animals.
Most shelters will take your number after keeping the animal after awhile and you will be allowed to adopt it. If you have a no-kill animal shelter in your area you might want to check this out before going to the local county humane society, so at least if you cannot adopt it, it will always have a home.

Goodluck to you, keep us updated.

 

[Varden]

It is illigal to take an animal that belongs to someone else. Belonging to someone means they have to feed it and care for it. FEEDING being the big word here. if this person is not feeding it and its just eating from other peoples food bowls then it is not owned. However you cannot just take an animal, you HAVE to take it to the shelter. There is a certain amount of time that the shelter has to keep the animals to be claimed before offering it for adoption. Intact animals are kept less time than spayed or neutered animals.

Most shelters will take your number after keeping the animal after awhile and you will be allowed to adopt it. If you have a no-kill animal shelter in your area you might want to check this out before going to the local county humane society, so at least if you cannot adopt it, it will always have a home.

This part is true, except that part about taking the animal to the shelter. In the Springfield/Eugene area of Oregon and in the Redmond/Issaquah area of Washington (two places where I live and where I know this for sure) the shelters will NOT take strays. They will take pets you want to give up on appointment basis only, as they have room for it. Strays are on their own. So check with your local shelter and if they have this same policy, just take the cat one day when it comes on your property. If the owner asks for it back, say "Oh, sorry. I thought it was a stray." and give it back. Otherwise, she's yours.

 

[bugmankeith]

For all your cat questions go to www.thecatsite.com forums, they have info on any cat question, even about what your asking. Doesnt matter where you live there are people on it from all around the world.