Liability for feral/stray cat on property?

bigbearbear · Mar 24, 2021

Wife and I have been feeding this feral/stray cat that we found living next to our front yard and it has become very friendly with us. These days, it will usually sleep at my front door on a pet cushion we provide for it and wait for us to feed it. Its feeding location is on my driveway because it was there that we originally found him and he likes to hang out there when the weather is good.

This morning when I was feeding him, as always he will meow and play with me a little while I'm cleaning his bowls. My neighbor's young baby girl happened to be outside with her grandmother and they saw me, and I suspect they thought this cat is a domestic animal because after I'm done and returned to my home, I saw them trying to approach the cat from the window of my home office. This cat while friendly with wife and I, is still wild and isn't friendly with other people. Most of the time when other people try to approach , he will bolt and run away. Luckily for everyone, it wasn't any different this time and the cat basically ran away.

I want to ask, if the cat turned aggressive because it didn't want to be driven away from its food by a small sized human (baby girl) and scratch/bit the girl, will I be liable for the attack? Technically speaking, I think my neighbors were trespassing on my property as they were on my front yard without permission.

clearconscience · Mar 24, 2021

B if your feeding and and giving it a bed....it's your cat.
Regardless of what the cat thinks.

My Mother and Father in law did the same thing and this came up.
I told them they have a cat. They said, but it's wild. I said then you have a wild pet cat.

I'm not lawyer and I can't be sure of the law, but if it's a domesticated animal and your caring for it then your responsible for it.

Flopsweat · Mar 25, 2021

Here's an interesting article:

Detailed Discussion of Feral Cat Legal Issues | Animal Legal & Historical Center

www.animallaw.info

gmerkt · Apr 15, 2021

I think it would be wise to have a conversation with your neighbors about this, try to head off any such issues if possible.

L84Cabo · Apr 15, 2021

I've enjoyed following your adventures with this feral catto and am just waiting for the post where he finally gets a name and has moved INTO your house.

I'm pulling for the cat here and hope it happens soon. But you should at least give "Mittens" a name until then...unless you already did and I missed that post.

In this day and age, regardless of the domesticated status of the cat, if something happened on your property they would likely say it's somehow your fault. Who knows what the courts would do with this. May be best to go knock on the neighbors door and explain the situation with the cat to hopefully avoid any future issues.

Flopsweat · Apr 16, 2021

They think it's your pet. It will never be your pet.

revjen45 · Apr 16, 2021

We tamed 2 feral kittens in TX. They would not allow anybody else to get close, ever. Chances of a stranger touching them = 0.
"This cat while friendly with wife and I, is still wild and isn't friendly with other people. Most of the time when other people try to approach , he will bolt and run away." Pretty typical of a cat that wasn't socialized to people as soon as their eyes opened. Our 2 cats came from the PAWS shelter, so definitely not wild. They won't allow anybody but my wife, me, and our son to approach or touch them.
I see the cat GFOD rather than attacking the kid.

Hemlock · Apr 16, 2021

I have the same thing going on at my place.
I grew up on a dairy farm. We had 10 to 15 cats all the time. We never owned them. No names. They were barn cats. They come and they go.

Flopsweat · Apr 16, 2021

Hemlock said:
I have the same thing going on at my place.
I grew up on a dairy farm. We had 10 to 15 cats all the time. We never owned them. No names. They were barn cats. They come and they go.

"Don't try to pet the barn cats!!" Most of them won't let you within 20 feet of them anyway...

Certaindeaf · Apr 16, 2021

Check to see if they tied a porkchop around her neck.

nwwoodsman · Apr 16, 2021

The cat poses too much of a risk to your financial security, especially with small children wandering around. I recommend putting out a live trap until the neighbors kid crawls into it, then releasing her in a neighborhood far far away.

bigbearbear · Apr 17, 2021

L84Cabo said:
I've enjoyed following your adventures with this feral catto and am just waiting for the post where he finally gets a name and has moved INTO your house.

I'm pulling for the cat here and hope it happens soon. But you should at least give "Mittens" a name until then...unless you already did and I missed that post.

In this day and age, regardless of the domesticated status of the cat, if something happened on your property they would likely say it's somehow your fault. Who knows what the courts would do with this. May be best to go knock on the neighbors door and explain the situation with the cat to hopefully avoid any future issues.

We have named the cat, or rather, my wife did when it started to become a regular visitor. The cat has a Cantonese name (wife is from Hong Kong), Fei Zai, meaning "fat guy" and she got the name from a TV series she was watching on Sling. A cat that looked similar to this orange tabby was named Fei Zai too. Both cats are not fat but I think its a play on words in reference to the cartoon cat Garfield.

Our effort to encourage the cat to come live inside our home suffered a set back recently. With Spring now in full swing, he suffered a rather large injury on his right ear and right side of his face from a fight, most likely over female cats. The injury is serious and he started losing appetite, and I made the decision to try and treat it with wound care products despite the danger of damaging the trust that cat has for us. I managed to apply wound care products and his wounds are now healing but I think the cat thought I was hurting it and now refuses to sleep outside our door anymore. He'll still show up for meals but rather than hanging out afterwards, he runs away and hide after eating.

Such a pity and both wife and I are sadden by this development. If the cat would come live with us it'll have a large house to roam in and a large backyard to play in, and all the while protected by pet medical insurance that my employer provides to employees such as myself.

I guess we'll just have to be patient and hope he comes around and reconsider.

Certaindeaf · Apr 17, 2021

Yea, it'd be good to get it off the street, outdoor cats kill tons of songbirds etc.

SonicBlue03 · Apr 17, 2021

If something were to happen, your response is simply the truth: some local cat comes around and eats there from time to time. There's no law against putting food out for neighborhood animals. Maybe an HOA would have something to say, but generally that's not your problem. What would likely happen is that animal control would come out looking to trap and destroy the animal.

If the animals aren't chipped to you, good luck proving they're yours.

And I'll feed feral/stray animals 10/10 over giving a homeless person a dime. Better return for investment.

RVTECH · Apr 17, 2021

SonicBlue03 said:
There's no law against putting food out for neighborhood animals.

Exactly.

I have several barn/woodshed ferals I feed leftovers to and they keep the mice down. The ones I have are crazy wild, rarely come out during the day and when they do, and if I encounter them they stop for a minute, frozen stiff, WILD eyed and run off in long leaps and bounds!

L84Cabo · Apr 18, 2021

bigbearbear said:
We have named the cat, or rather, my wife did when it started to become a regular visitor. The cat has a Cantonese name (wife is from Hong Kong), Fei Zai, meaning "fat guy" and she got the name from a TV series she was watching on Sling. A cat that looked similar to this orange tabby was named Fei Zai too. Both cats are not fat but I think its a play on words in reference to the cartoon cat Garfield.

Our effort to encourage the cat to come live inside our home suffered a set back recently. With Spring now in full swing, he suffered a rather large injury on his right ear and right side of his face from a fight, most likely over female cats. The injury is serious and he started losing appetite, and I made the decision to try and treat it with wound care products despite the danger of damaging the trust that cat has for us. I managed to apply wound care products and his wounds are now healing but I think the cat thought I was hurting it and now refuses to sleep outside our door anymore. He'll still show up for meals but rather than hanging out afterwards, he runs away and hide after eating.

Such a pity and both wife and I are sadden by this development. If the cat would come live with us it'll have a large house to roam in and a large backyard to play in, and all the while protected by pet medical insurance that my employer provides to employees such as myself.

I guess we'll just have to be patient and hope he comes around and reconsider.

You are good man Mr. Bear. Just keep doing what you're doing.