so how much trouble am I in?

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Larry Ashcraft said:
Where it will either starve to death or be eaten by coyotes.

Bad advice. I don't want your problem animals in my neighborhood.

And folks, coyotes don't usually bother humanely killing their prey before eating it.
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If it was only 2 days, it may have been someone's lost pet. Seems a little drastic for a couple of days.....not to mention not being able to follow thru and kill it....Sounds like working on all emotion to me...pissed off at the cat, then subject to the crying kid.

Sorry to be harsh, I just think we need to think things thru before resorting to deadly force, even for an animal.

Edit: sorry, I was agreeing with Larry.....cats do not belong out in the wild. They're unnatural predators that take a toll on wildlife.
 
I don't know about anyone else, but the BS meter is pegging off the scale at my house. The guy shoots a cat, his wife calls animal control, they tell him not to leave. What does he do? He gets on a gun forum not once, but twice while waiting for the authorities to show up!

By all means, DO NOT CALL A LAWYER IN THE TOWN WHERE YOU LIVE!!! Get on the Internet and ask a bunch of strangers what to do!

Where did I put that can of air freshener??? This is definitely not passing the smell test!

Scott
 
I know a guy that shot a nuisance dog with a bow and arrow and unfortunately didn't kill it. The dog made it into a neighbors yard where they took it to a vet. The Archer spent a short time in county lockup. This was in MO.

If you'd killed the cat and left it at that you'd be fine. Deciding to save it after you shot it was a big mistake. Now you are in for Animal Cruelty charges which in some areas can be pretty bad. Letting your son see all this was a really bad idea.

If I was you I would quickly call my lawyer. As a pharmacist you certainly don't need to be drug into criminal charges. Pray to whoever you pray to that you get an animal control officer who is sympathetic to your cause and doesn't want to make a big deal of it.

Most of all at this point trying to cover anything up is not only hopeless but just adds to the possible criminal charges. Get a lawyer and shut up until that lawyer tells you to talk.
 
OK, the Animal Control officers just left and both were A+ guys -- very cordial. In fact, I think I found two new motorcycle riding and shooting buddies in this little fiasco. Anyway, according to NC law, if the cat had been here for 3 days it would have been considered my personal property and there would have been no penalty (wish I had known that BEFORE he asked me what happened). As it turns out, I was cited for animal cruelty and got a $100 fine. The citation is confidential as long as I pay the fine within 10 days, so that's about as good as I could have hoped for.

Regarding the trapping of the cat and taking it out to the country somewhere, that could very well be what happened to me. I live out in the country and I'm figuring someone dropped it off out here instead of taking care of the problem to begin with.

.38 Special said I've got bigger problems than animal control. Yeah, I think you're right! Even after 15 years I guess there are things to learn about our spouses and kids. I'm giving the kid a break this time -- we're not hunters so this was the first time he had seen anything like this.

Today's lesson: Try to capture first. If unsuccessful, send everyone to town and then shoot. Keep shooting until dead if necessary. Dig hole. Bury. Consider using AK or AR instead of 10/22 next time.

No BS here, scottaschultz. I'm happy to scan a copy of the citation and post it if you want to see it.
 
Mountainpharm Glad it worked out OK for you.

You got off really well with a $100 fine.

If I were you I would also ask the Mods to delete this thread.
 
OK, well then maybe its just me, but it wouldn't even occur to me to go to a gun forum on the Internet and wait for a response from a bunch of strangers with unknown legal qualifications while waiting for the authorities to show up. What an idiot I am!

Scott
 
You're not being an idiot, but you are being borderline rude. When you get stressed, you seek advise as reassurance. After consulting proper legal counsel, this is as good a place as any to talk to people. Like your mother said, if you have nothing nice to say, stop talking.
 
Should have just killed it, even if it does sound harsh for you son to see it. You might get in trouble with the law, and you may not. But your still gonna have to explain everything to your son. But if you just killed it you wouldn't have to deal with the law.
 
Pharm:

Nice to hear that the situation has resolved itself.

Hindsight is 20/20 so I have nothing to add.

Hope you get some sleep.

Here's to tomorrow.
 
trap the stray animal, and haul it to the country.
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City people do this all the time. They will dump stray dogs and cats off in the country because they don't have the spine to deal with the problem. Anybody want to guess what farmers do when stray dogs show up eating their chickens?
 
I guess I came here because I was a bit incredulous that they told me not to leave. I didn't think I would get into any real trouble over this, but the initial response from Animal Control took me so off guard. I was doing some work on my laptop when they told me not to leave, so I just headed on over here to see if anyone else had experience with this sort of thing. If I did this somewhere like CA or Mass, I could definitely see big legal problems coming down the pike and would have sought more formal advice.

If nothing else, maybe this will be informative to others (in NC, at least). Thanks to all who responded.
 
I had more trouble with feral cats in town than where I live now. 3 or 4 times a month it seems the females were howling "I want it NN[size=+1]NN[/size][size=+2]NN[/size][size=+3]OOO[/size][size=+4]OOO[/size][size=+3]OOOO[/size][size=+2]WW[/size][size=+1]WWWW[/size]WWW[size=-1]WWW[/size][size=-2]WWWW[/size]".

That, and using the flower beds for a toilet....

Calling animal control was useless. The only thing that worked was trapping them and taking them to the local city-run animal shelter.

As for advice: Call a lawyer, don't say anything, and don't consent to any searches nor voluntarily surrender any firearms.

Woody
 
PLEASE do NOT advise anyone to "haul it off to the country". I deal with morons doing this at least once a week. Apparently they think I live in the country, I live 3 miles outside the city limits.

I have personally taken 5 dogs to the pound, called animal control twice,and deal with feral cats on a DAILY basis. Animal Control in my area flat out refuses to pick up a cat.
 
City people do this all the time. They will dump stray dogs and cats off in the country because they don't have the spine to deal with the problem.
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anyone in the city with enough spine to go chasing a cat around the block with a rifle should have that spine topped off with a brain as soon as possible.
 
A coworkers wife was working in the bushes next to their house when she inadvertently startled or stepped on a cat. It bit her just above the back of the ankle. She suffered a nasty wound, ended up in the hospital, and couldn't walk for a while, more than a month later she was still recovering.

Cat's can be dangerous, even if they seem cute and all that crap.
 
Regarding the trapping of the cat and taking it out to the country somewhere, that could very well be what happened to me. I live out in the country and I'm figuring someone dropped it off out here instead of taking care of the problem to begin with.
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i will admit that there may be better ways to deal with a stray, but to be honest, trapping it and hauling it off is 100 dollars better than shoot, wound, and call a medic.
 
So, you are the guy who shot my cat! He came up missing here in North Mississippi a few days ago and a neighbor spotted him headed north! You are gonna hear from my lawyer, Mr. Mountainpharm!
 
longbeard48 said "So, you are the guy who shot my cat! He came up missing here in North Mississippi a few days ago and a neighbor spotted him headed north! You are gonna hear from my lawyer, Mr. Mountainpharm!"

That's too funny!
 
we have a guy here that is shooting cats with his bow. fortunately, nobody has actually seen him do it and if he lays back, he will probably not have any problems. The tables have definately turned. Cat owners are not responsible for keepng their animals from being nuisances and the general public are not allowed to eliminate free roaming cats/dogs that become problems. It would be difficult to defend shooting an attacking dog since most of them will run away when you stamp your feet and according to their owners, none of them bite.
 
first thing should have been a humane trap and taking it to the shelter second would be shoot it while alone

please what ever you dont ever let a cat loose in the woods they are a huge problem and really only have 1 maybe 2 predators 1 great horned owls and 2 coyotes they are a huge problem and will find food not starve at our barn they have gotten trap smart so we shoot at toss a .22lr does the job nicely
 
As it turns out, I was cited for animal cruelty and got a $100 fine. The citation is confidential as long as I pay the fine within 10 days, so that's about as good as I could have hoped for.
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You're very lucky. In Michigan you'd probably be facing felony charges. Seriously.

I would concur with the other suggestion that you ask the mods to delete this thread. You would be best off to put this behind you. I don't think you or anyone are going to see this as an example of how to do things.

BTW I live in the country and am quite familiar with the problems of feral dogs and cats, but I also think it's essential to handle those problems humanely and legally.
 
you can bring it here to my place! The cats die off as fast as we buy em, for mouse control. The longest being 4 weeks, before he ate some bug that kills all the cats here.
 
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