I cannot believe it is legal to pts someones pet, (stray or not) if anyone of us pts a stray cat we found we would probably be prosecuted by RSPCA
Our Cats Protection branch would never authorize a stray be it friendly or feral to be PTS if they vet thought it could have a quality life. we spends hundreds on a single cat.
I do know that others not mentioning any names would not try to save a feral and only will pay the first £50 for a domestic. what happens then, well we all know. Fortunately if such if people had their cats chipped this sort of thing would happen less frequently.
Earlier this year I sorted out a situation where an elderly gentleman 80 something was emigrating to Canada to join his son, the cats could not fly until a couple of weeks after him. I had not heard a thing since I had been advised they had arrived safely on Canada so I mailed the other day and about 30 mins ago I received a reply part of which is below. Again a microchip saved the day.
We had kept both cats indoors entirely for the first month, but then Spud could contain himself no longer, so Spud went off as normal. Hilda, however, did not want to go beyond the doormat, in the dry, and out of the wind. One night, sometime later, I went to the door to see if Spud was waiting, but he wasn't. Hilda who had followed sat down on the mat so I suggested, if she wanted, she could wait for Spud. A few minutes later I returned to find Spud - but no Hilda - that was the last we were to see of her for exactly four months!! I was devastated. We did all the right things, but as the weeks went past so did our hopes, especially as we had changed our address and telephone number. My only hope, from then on was as we had her 'chipped' before we left England, if she had been taken, dead or alive, to a vet she could be traced. But with all the movements it seemed a pretty remote trail. Then one morning we received a phone call describing her and if it was our cat. The details were quite sketchy. She had been found a couple of streets away from where we had been living holed up in some blackberry bushes being fed
scraps by neighbours. There the story ends - for about four months. This part, I'm afraid is lost forever. The story now is that she was found injured in some blackberry bushes and it took neighbours an hour to get her out and taken to a vet!! They had to ring England to get her details and our phone number. She had a cut from under one armpit across her body to the other side, which required thirty-odd stitches. This was attributed to her struggles to get out of her collar. They operated and we brought her home the same night. She was quite bright but very thin - she has not stopped eating since and is about double the weight. I really must apologise most sincerely for not replying to your Email sooner. I started this Email several months ago and there have been many false starts. Sixty years ago, I was a passable four-fingered typist, and now much to my dismay, I am an incompetent one-fingered one! Hilda is no help at all; she is in her permanent position, lying alongside the laptop,
The e- mail took ages to read and is huge he describes how beautiful Vancouver is and the 4000' mountain only 30m away from the house.
Bless him
