Is it a sin to abandon a cat?

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Totally agree. We had a close neighbor in a big, expensive house next to woods. They seemed nice and responsible. But they had a cat that was outside a lot, so when they moved, they just abandoned her. She was too shy to some near people. When I tried to call her to my back yard, she ran away immediately. I just saw her a couple of times. I’m sure she died over the winter, probably of starvation. It made me rethink just what a nice couple this was!

What dismayed me as much as anything else was that they had several children between the ages of 15 and 10. In other words, old enough to know that their parents were driving off and leaving their cat to die. Is this how people are “taught” that cats are worthless? I couldn’t believe they would do this, as they had enough money to pay a shelter to take their cat.

I had thought that maybe they just couldn’t find the cat when they were ready to leave. The woman had given me her e-mail address, so I e-mailed her twice and said that her cat was sitting at the house, and did she want me to try and trap her and send her along to the new house? But I did not hear back from her. I guess that says it all.

I saw the cat when the owners were gone a day or two, looking in the sliding doors off the deck, and seeing the empty house. She looked for a while and then turned and stomped off, and you could see that she knew she had been abandoned.

This whole episode was just sickening to me.
 
I think you should see if you can find a home for the kitty. Ask around, maybe put out a notice. I am sure there is someone willing to adopt a domesticated adult cat. My family adopted a six year old from the SPCA 2 years ago after our old kitty died.
 
Why don’t you call aspca , they can cone, set up a humane trap, and get kitty a new home.
 
AlNg said:
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.
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It appears you received the answer you wanted, and no one can be blamed for seeking confirmation of something they wanted to do all along. You know it, we all know it.

IT’S FREE to list a cat on certain social media sites and Craig’s List. A big cat with a story like that would have found a home in an hour, your phone would have been ringing off the hook. Bleeding heart cat lovers would have been knocking down your door, and it’s the most charitable thing you could have done.
 
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Reproductive capacity of free-roaming domestic cats and kitten survival rate - PubMed

Results illustrate the high reproductive capacity of free-roaming domestic cats. Realistic estimates of the reproductive capacity of female cats may be useful in assessing the effectiveness of population control strategies.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

“RESULTS: Pregnant cats were observed in all months of the year, but the percentage of cats found to be pregnant was highest in March, April, and May. Cats produced a mean of 1.4 litters/y, with a median of 3 kittens/litter (range, 1 to 6). Overall, 127 of 169 (75%) kittens died or disappeared before 6 months of age.”


“indoor cats live longer than their outdoor counterparts. Cats who are kept indoors can reach the ripe old age of 17 or more years, whereas outdoor cats live an average of just two to five years.“

I didn’t make any numbers up. These are well known numbers from well known sources. As someone who has been living around cats for many, many years, I have seen them as quite accurate.

I honestly don’t know about Australia. Never been there. Where I live, euthanizing an animal is not viewed a better alternative than allowing a cat to live in a few families barns.
 
SPCA isn’t available everywhere. Humane society isn’t either.
 
DENNYINMI said:
IT’S FREE to list a cat on certain social media sites and Craig’s List. A big cat with a story like that would have found a home in an hour, your phone would have been ringing off the hook. Bleeding heart cat lovers would have been knocking down your door, and it’s the most charitable thing you could have done.
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I wish that were the case everywhere, but it is not. It is also dangerous to list cats in some areas because of dog fighting rings. Many people like to get free or cheap cats that no one else wants to use to train dogs.
 
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I think it is wrong to drop the cat off at a park. As you have said, the cat is older. It is likely to die of starvation if no one feeds it.

I know it’s not a feral cat but since it has been abandoned and living on its own, are there any groups in your area that work with feral cats? They may be willing to take the cat and have it neutered and release it with an established feral colony that is fed by volunteers.

Also, listing for free on Craigslist doesn’t mean you have to give the cat away for free. Ask $25-50 for it to discourage people who may want to harm it.

There are also many cat groups on Facebook where you could list such a cat and you would be amazed at the number of people who may want to adopt a cat like this. With the two such groups I am a member of cats are often adopted within 24 hours of being advertised.
 
Anyone who gets a pet and can’t look after it doesn’t deserve one…personally I’d make it mandatory that if anyone buys a pet that it’s registered and microchipped…if it’s found abandoned then the owner should be banned from owning another pet…to many people buy their kid a little puppy or kitty because it’s cute…then when it pees on the floor it’s kicks outside…throw it some food once a day…or if it’s a cat let it fend for itself…so it kills native wildlife to survive…dogs that are abandoned can form packs and kill livestock…so these things happen because of stupid people who shouldn’t have any right to own a pet…if you think I’m too tough then ask the farmer who loses livestock because of attacks by wild dogs…or they have to shoot someones sick pet because they just dump it out on the road…or the people who work in pet shelters who have to euthanize dogs and cats because of idiots who should never have been allowed to have one.
 
Call your local animal control. They likely have a policy for dealing with feral cats. They can trap them and release them in a suitable location.
 
No, you are just making them someone else’s problem. You get rid of your problem by dumping it on someone else. And that’s what the person did who left them. So fix the problem, don’t dump, deal with it in a responsibly human manner.

I have animals if I have issues or face drought or feral issues I don’t simply dump them elsewhere, I put my big girl pants on and deal with it in the best interests of the animal.

And believe me, I have done that, every farmer does. Look at all the farmers shooting their livestock because there is no feed left. Can you even begin to imagine how heartbreaking that is.

But compared with dumping, releasing or neglecting them it’s the only moral option.

So think in terms of moral options. Your neighbour couldn’t deal with the problem. You can if you choose to, in a morally right way.
 
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So morally irresponsible and cowardly.

I have seen a lot and had to deal with it, with animals. It’s part of dominion over animals, Not leaving them to starve and die, get hypothermia and die, be hit by a car and die an agonising death over days or weeks.
 
The rate of pregnancy is higher in those months because that is the traditional breeding season.
I can list you ubiquitous studies of feral cats here.

They don’t make numbers up either. We have a huge problem with feral cats decimating the wildlife. One species lived on an island with a lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper had a cat,

That one cat caused the extinction of that one remnant species.

Euthanasia is the responsible option to illness and starvation. Not to mention in your country rabies is an issue. Not vaccinating for rabies is just irresponsible.
 
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You said you did not think it was wrong taking them to a park and relocating them there
 
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Abandoning a cat in a park is a sort of euthanasia. A domesticated cat doesn’t last long in the wild, and its death won’t be nearly as painless as it would be if it were euthanized in a shelter.

And for what it’s worth, three out of our last seven pets were older animals – two cats and a dog. Some people enjoy an older, more mellow pet, and the shorter time commitment that can be expected with an older pet.

I don’t envy your decision. We have three cats now because our friend was desperately seeking a new home for a huge male cat. We were hoping to foster him until he was adopted, but he’s still with us. 💕
 
Goodness! Do NOT abandon these cats! If they happen to survive the elements - cold weather, wild animals, etc. - they’ll make more homeless cats. Even if you’re not convinced it’s a sin, it’s irresponsible.
Please, please look up resources in your area! Besides no-kill shelters, we have cat and kitten rescue organizations that are tickled pink to handle cases like this.
 
A couple of months after one of our cats died, another started hanging out in our yard.

I gave the usual instructions not to feed it (which, as usual, was ignored :roll_eyes:).

And then I mowed the back lawn (with a power mower), and he walked back and forth with me. 😱:roll_eyes:😂

So two years later, this siamese mix is still here, spending huge amounts of time on my lap, and fetching bottle caps . . .

hawk
 
I’ve hesitated to reply here because I feel so strongly about this issue, but here goes:

Domesticated animals are not suited for the wild. They will starve or be eaten. Do you want this to happen to the cat?

When they put an animal to sleep it is much more painless and merciful than a slow, agonizing death by starvation, fear of being eaten, exposure to the cold and other elements.

Animals are not humans, and putting them to sleep, when there is no other choice, is the lesser of 2 evils, and is not a sin, as they are not humans.

Which is why people should be responsible in the first place and spay and neuter their animals, unless they are professional breeders, and I mean professional, not backyard breeders who breed animals to make money. God expects us to be good stewards of His creation.

Allowing an animal to suffer needlessly by abandoning it is cruel and irresponsible. They are domesticated and expect us to take proper care of them.

Also, cruelty to animals can become sinful at a certain point.
 
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