Is it a sin to abandon a cat?

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Some time ago the neighbors next door moved to Utah. They say that they are very happy with this move and have made some good friends. Unfortunately, they had a few cats and left them here. One cat was begging me for food and so I felt sorry and I gave in and have been feeding him. Unfortunately, this cat has attracted several other cats in the neighborhood and it is difficult to sleep at night as they are making loud noises, and then they too will sometimes beg for food. Would it be a mortal sin for me to take this cat to a park and let it go free.? Already, the cat seems to enjoy being outside. I would not be hurting the cat in any way, only letting it go free in a park. Unfortunately animal shelters have a habit of putting stray cats to sleep, if you know what I mean, so I would not be inclined to take the cat to an animal shelter. .
 
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I think letting the cat go in the wild is a bit of “washing of your hands” but if the only shelters near you will kill the cat, then you don’t have much choice, unless you know a family that would adopt them?

Personally, animals and harm to animals gets me a bit sad and emotional, so I’m going to leave my advice at that. I hope whatever happens, these cats are shown mercy
 
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GospelOfMatthew said:
you don’t have much choice, unless you know a family that would adopt them?
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Yes. That is it. I asked people if they would take the cat and I would give them the food I have left, but they were not too enthusiastic or willing to do so. The cat is kind of big and older. I am sorry to abandon a cat like that, but it is difficult for me to get any sleep, with him and his friends and their loud and shreiking meowing in the middle of the night. And their begging for food during the day.
So what is your verdict? We should take care not to be cruel to animals, but would releasing a cat in the park be considered cruel?
 
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AlNg said:
I would not be hurting the cat in any way, only letting it go free in a park. Unfortunately animal shelters have a habit of putting stray cats to sleep, if you know what I mean, so I would not be inclined to take the cat to an animal shelter. .
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I recommend looking specifically for No-Kill Shelters, shelters which have a policy of never killing healthy or treatable pets. This way the cats have a chance of being adopted, or at least of having food and shelter.
 
The no kill shelters in my area require you to pay $25-50 plus the cost of spay/neuter if not already documented or they won’t accept the animal. They claim the money is for shots and food, etc, but they have tons of donors and a vet clinic that offers free shots in the area. They do not allow you to just drop off strays and will not allow you to foster the animal while they list it for adoption on their site. If you want it listed, you have to pay the price for a drop off first.

I do not think it is a sin to abandon or drop off an animal, but I also don’t think it is kind to do so either. Sometimes you aren’t left with much of a choice though. I think it is kinder than sending them to certain death, and I think it is WAY kinder than the no kill shelters here refusing to help unless you pay them first. As you may have guessed, there are a ton of abandoned animals here because people are left with no other choice.
 
Take it to an animal shelter. Or get it desexed and keep it inside. And have yourself a new pet. Sometimes its better for an animal to be PTS rather than suffer and die.

So Man or woman up (although that can be hard to do with animals, knowing they will be PTs) and do the right thing with this cat, either Shelter, or keep it and turn it into a pet. Trap the other cats and give them to the shelter as well.

The last good thing we can do for an animal is to put it out of its suffering or prevent its future suffering
 
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13pollitos said:
I do not think it is a sin to abandon or drop off an animal, but I also don’t think it is kind to do so either.
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Your comments have been helpful.
I agree that abandoning an animal is not a good thing to do, but considering the circumstances of this case, (it was not my cat in the first place and now the cat and his friends are annoying) I surmise that it probably would not be a sin to do so. The cat seems to like the wild anyway, and I don’t see where I have an obligation to feed him and to be awakened at night by him and his friends.
 
I totally disagree, it is irresponsible. trap him and his friends and take them somewhere they will be accepted, or ring a cat protection society to catch them and deal with it.
 
May I make a suggestion? We live in the country and have for many years in several different states. It is common to have barn cats that just show up one day. We never have minded another barn cat coming, especially since cats that are outdoors require very little interaction or care. We just put food and water out for them, as do most of our neighbors. Most likely some of my barn cats are also some of their barn cats. Instead of dropping the cat at a park, could you possibly drop him/her in the country? Cats in the country tend to have a better, safer life (fewer cars, less chance of being poisoned or otherwise killed by people, better hiding spots, etc) than cats in neighborhoods or cities. My husband severely dislikes cats but outdoors in the garage, shed or barn he’s fine with. They are good at finding their own food, make no mess, and help keep rodents to a minimum.

I don’t share these feelings about dogs. Dogs don’t do nearly as well when they are strays as cats. Cats are very in tune with their instincts and dogs are more domesticated. Dogs I find are better dropped in a neighborhood where they are quickly found and taken in. But cats do great on their own as long as somebody supplements their food supply.
 
The problem with this is, Cats breed, they breed fast, they breed a lot.
Where is that chart of how 2 cats become over 4 hundred thousand in a lifetime


I have been trapping cats dumped on my place. Its a huge problem. They breed. They kill native wildlife. They fight, they become ill.

Do the right thing, take them to a shelter or desex and keep them yourself.
 
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Roseeurekacross said:
Do the right thing, take them to a shelter…
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The cat is big and old. The shelter informs me the following:
Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats.Each year, approximately 2.7 million animals are euthanized (1.2 million dogs and 1.4 million cats).
They say that there is no guarantee that the shelter will take the cat and even if after reviewing all the paperwork, it ends up doing so, there is a good chance that the cat will be euthanized. They cannot get someone to adopt a cat for each cat that they have. And they cannot pay for the keep of the cat.
 
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We have never had the problem of being overrun by cats. None of my neighbors have either. We have wide open spaces and there has been no shortage of wildlife. The shelters in our area will not accept drop offs unless you pay and most people here cannot afford to pay to drop off somebody else’s cat. The shelters that will accept drop offs for free kill them within a few weeks.

I am glad it is different where you live and that there are options for shelters. It is not the case here. I do often wish it was because dogs especially need a home.

The cats that we have had dropped off here don’t need to be trapped. They will willingly come to anyone with food or a kind word. These aren’t wild or destructive animals. They are simply cats that like to eat cat food and sleep on the barn. If we had a shelter willing to take them anywhere in the county, I wouldn’t need to trap them. I could simply pick them up and put them in the carrier like when I take them for rabies shot each year. Rabies shot is $3, shelter would cost me $25-50 plus cost to spay/neuter. Not happening. I am not paying for fostering another person’s or to get rid of it either.
 
Roseeurekacross said:
Do the right thing, take them to a shelter or desex
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Desex? Is this what God wants? Does God want me to go around violating the natural law and to rip out the sex organs of other people’s cats? It isn’t my cat. I can’t find it in the Bible where it says that I should do such?
 
Roseeurekacross said:
The problem with this is, Cats breed, they breed fast, they breed a lot.
Where is that chart of how 2 cats become over 4 hundred thousand in a lifetime
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I’ve been thinking about this. The problem with this estimate is that it assumes all females have 3 litters a year and they all have 3-6 kittens each litter (mostly females), and they all live 15 years or more. That is a very false premise, especially with feral cats.

Most feral cats have 2-5, with an average of 3, kits per litter. 75% of feral kittens die before they are 6 months old. A kitten under 6 months cannot bread. Most females only have 1-2 litters per year, and many fewer than that. Also, a relatively high percentage of cats are sterile so they never have kittens, and many cats have at least one stillborn each litter. Feral cats tend to have much shorter lives than 15 years (2-5 years average). So that chart is really kind of meaningless and is used as a scare tactic to promote spray/neuter campaigns.
 
It is better to be euthanized then fend for itself in some park and be left to breed. Like I said before, sometimes we must make these decisions. And they are the best decisions for the animal.
13pollitos said:
We have never had the problem of being overrun by cats. None of my neighbors have either. We have wide open spaces and there has been no shortage of wildlife
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Come to Australia, the feral cat population has wrecked havoc with the native wildlife. Feral cats are on the diet of indigenous living traditional lifestyles here. And have been since the early 1900s.

They grow huge and breed fast. We have huge wide open spaces here.

If people don’t want to pay the 25 dollars to drop the cat off, then be responsible and drop it at a kill shelter. its the kindest thing for the cat. Jump on fb sites like pet vet corner and read all the people wanting free advice for their sick and injured barn cats. Quite frankly many of those animals are in quite neglected and sickly states. And that spreads disease.
Cats also carry a disease that affects unborn babies. And rabies.
spay and neuter here costs several hundred dollars.
If people want pets or animals, ensure they are not going to breed and breed and breed.
AlNg said:
Desex? Is this what God wants?
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Yes desex Exactly like your steers or wethers or pork, or geldings. Do you eat meat? You are likely eating desexed male animals. It is not violating the natural law. Read the Old and the New Testaments and how often they mention livestock.
For example, oxen are castrated cattle
It is incredibly irresponsible to take a cat and dump it somewhere. Do the right thing.
 
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These figures are pretty robust. Cats breed like rabbits so to speak. A cat is sexually mature quite young. Its offspring will be sexually mature within that year, look at the calculators. There are plenty of them online. Unfortunately its a fact. And its a problem Australia has faced with feral cats. And I am sure we are not alone in this problem.

I am not sure where you are getting the information that a high percentage of cats are sterile, and feral cats have shorter life spans. I have a feral here, she is almost 15 and lived most of her life outside as a stray. But I put it to you that your information is not correct.

Feral cats are quite capable of and have wiped out native animal and bird populations here. I am sure they are doing the same in other countries. We have cat curfews here at night now, and very strict cat control laws. We have almost lost populations of fragile species like Bilbys, Quolls, night parrots…etc
 
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I don’t know if the Church has ever definitively ruled on this one, but I have the general feeling that if you take in an animal and make it dependent on you, blunting it’s natural survival instincts, that it’s somewhat unethical to simply abandon it.

Now, along that line of reasoning, you, OP, did not ask for these cats, they were foisted on you.

I don’t think you’re doing wrong to take them to the park and leaving them there, because they were already abandoned, you’re just relocating them.

But I think the kinder alternative is the shelter or no-kill shelter if you have one and can afford it.

We are allowed to kill animals, but we are also supposed to show compassion to living creatures who can suffer.
 
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