Driven to distraction: 15 cats in car is too risky

[Liberal_in_LA]

Driven to distraction: 15 cats in car is too risky

Thursday, June 24, 2010

(06-24) 10:17 PDT Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP) --

The South Dakota Supreme Court has ruled that a police officer acted correctly when he seized 15 cats from a woman who was driving with the animals running free inside her car.

In a 3-2 decision Thursday, the justices ruled that the felines were a distraction and interfered with driver Patricia Edwards' ability to see where she was going.

Chief Justice David Gilbertson said Edwards nearly backed into patrol car at a convenience store parking lot in Pierre, S.D., because of the moggies in her back window.

The court said Edwards and her cats presented a significant risk to the public


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/24/national/a101300D13.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0rnWtjf00

[treestar]

1. She takes her 15 cats to the convenience store

Does she go anywhere without them?

[marmar]

37. Crazy Cat Lady Alert

[PBS Poll-435]

2. K&R

In a 3-2 decision...


:rofl:

[izquierdista]

3. How about...

Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

That might be less distracting than 15 cats....if the birds are all roosting.

[Warpy]

4. One cat is a driving hazard

because the perverse little bugger always wants to cower under the pedals.

Not to mention it's dangerous to the cat to be unrestrained in a moving vehicle. They can be severely injured with just a normal quick stop.

That woman needs her screws tightened.

[onehandle]

9. Yes. I did that once with one cat.

Once.

Went right for the pedals. I was just going down the street to go to a fast food drive thru. This was luckily in a very lightly traveled, residential area. I pulled over and convinced him to go the floor on the passenger side. By the time I slowly got there, he had climbed into the passenger seat. Freaked out the lady at the drive thru because he had the greenest eyes ever. And he was in my car.

This was nearly twenty years ago when I was younger and stupider.

[joeybee12]

10. Yup, the cats and dogs need to be in approved carriers for their own

safety.

ALl my cats hate the car...how did she get 15 in in the first place?

[Matariki]

16. My cat *loves* riding in the car.

He gets up on the back of the passenger seat and looks out the window. Acts like a dog, in the car. He always tries to jump in my car when I open the door.

[femmedem]

17. Our cat loves riding in the car too!

He wears a harness and sits in the passenger seat, or in my lap if my husband is driving. He gets so excited when we pull out his harness that he makes those chattering, I-see-a-bird noises.

Our other cat, though...He would be yowling under the gas pedal if he weren't in a carrier.

Here he is with Mr. Femmedem.

[Seedersandleechers]

21. Had a cat that loved the car

He would sit on the arm rest between my boyfriend and myself and whenever we got off the highway and slowed down he would go into the back seat to look out. We took him camping with us but had to watch him closely for dogs or wild animals. He was one in a million - and I'll never see a cat like that again.

[Matariki]

23. That's so cute.

I had a cat that I took camping. I even took her hiking off leash once. Stayed right beside us the whole time. She was one in a million too! - a completely different set of million cats than your cat of course ;-)

She lived to respectable age, but died from tongue cancer. That was so sad. I miss her.

[nonconformist]

25. Oh man, my cats HATE IT.

I have 3, and they know when the carrier comes out they're going in the car (to the vet, most likely) and it is a serious struggle to even get them in the carrier. They howl the entire time. When we moved across a couple of states years ago, we just had one (our oldest), and we had to have her tranquilized for the trip it was so bad.

My cats won't go outside though, either. In fact, the shyest one will try to rip your face off if you go anywhere near the door while holding her.

[Liberal_in_LA]

32. Mine too. I have to wrap them in a towel and slide them on their backs into the carrier

Otherwise they splay their legs to prevent going into the carrier. Once at the Vet, I have to tilt the carrier to get them out of it. poor things.

[Warpy]

34. I can usually manage to wrestle my beastie into her carrier

without the use of a towel or gaining too many stripes, but I too decant her onto the examining table when it's time.

I have to take the carrier out of the closet two days before the trip because she hides when she sees it.

[Arugula Latte]

38. Awww -- gorgeous boy.

What a sweetie. I can tell he's also smart as a whip.

[Warpy]

22. I've had one cat with good car manners out of dozens

that I've either kept or rehabbed. The rest of them either headed under the pedals or dived under the passenger seat to yowl.

I got a carrier early on and have been using it for cat after cat for about 3 decades.

[Matariki]

24. Yes, my other cat would definitely head for the brake pedal.

She's a troublemaker, apparently just for the sheer joy of mischief. I actually think she may be a zombie of some sort. But the other cat is a perfect gentleman. A prince among cats.

[Hansel]

29. I had one cat who did that and one who stayed in the back window

and chased the cars back and forth. Cat 1 never rode with me again. Cat 2 would go on short trips (a few blocks) periodically and loved riding in the car. She never got in the front seat.

Most cats hate riding in cars though and since Lizzy died (of cancer at 16), I never put a cat in the car that is not restrained in a carrier. All the other cats I've dealt with, and I've dealt with hundreds of them as a kitty foster parent, hated the car. Mostly, I suspect, because the destination was the vet.

[Warren DeMontague]

40. Yep. I had mine escape from his carrier into my back seat, on the 101 between Novato and Petaluma.

EXTREMELY dangerous.

[snooper2]

41. My cat Samy I moved from Missouri to Texas did that the whole trip..

I was like Jesus Christ cat, the whole damn way he wanted to be right under my feet... :rofl:

[RandomThoughts]

5. Should have had some birds also. LOL n/t

[WeDidIt]

6. One cat in a cat carrier is rough enough!

The yowling can be an incredible distraction.

None of my cats like riding in cars.

[spin]

14. You can say that again! (n/t)

[rocktivity]

7. My sister's cat always sat in the back window of the car like an ornament

without blocking her rear view, and never caused a problem!

:rofl:
rocktivity

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. I've seen cars with a cat perched on the back window. Sitting calmly. My cat would

go crazy.

[Stevenmarc]

8. Well if someone is looking for a cat herder.

[joeybee12]

11. I guess the ruling ISN'T about whether it was safe, but whether the officer should have taken them..

...they went to the Humane Society...I don't know how dotty this woman was, but it's questionable whether she was actually abusing them.

[Warpy]

13. No it's not

If some idiot had cut her off and she'd needed to land on the brakes, the potential was for more than a few of them to be severely injured.

It's animal abuse.

[joeybee12]

44. No, I think all sides agree it was unsafe, the question before the court

was the remedy...removing the cats and putting them up for adoption.

[Hansel]

31. Most cities have ordinances limiting the number of pets you can own

without a kennel license. It is usually 3. In such cases it is up the to discretion of the police or humane officers as to whether they should be seized based on if they are well cared for and safe. The officers must have felt she was putting the cats in danger and made the decision to take them. This would be a separate appeal from the driving violation and the judge will make the decision if she can keep any or all of them if she proves to be a fit pet owner.

I suspect there is more to this story than just the traffic safety concern. She does not have to be purposefully abusing them to have them removed from her home. The Humane Society probably did a home visit and made the decision to seize them based on that and the fact that the police felt she was creating a dangerous situation.

15 cats is a lot of cats and the fact that she was taking them to the store makes me suspect that this is more likely hoarding behavior than just a healthy love of cats. Humane societies will seize cats for this reason and let the courts sort it out. If she did not voluntarily sign the cats over to them, she will have her day in court, but I doubt she will get all 15 back unless she has a kennel license and adequate facilities to house them.

[joeybee12]

36. I agree she was putting them in danger...but if she could have been

convinced she was putting them in danger and if otherwise they are treated fine, it would be less traumatic to the cats...I would need to know how they were treated at home...that said, thinking 15 cats in a car is ok smacks of a woman you can't reason with.

[kaiden]

15. My husband responded to the article with this:

"I typically drive with 14 cats in the car. To me, 15 is just over the top and crazy."

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. lol n/t

[virginia mountainman]

18. One day..

I left my windows down,for a while, and my "tom" decided to crawl into the back for a nap..

I came out, started the car, rolled the windows up, turned the AC on and headed down the road. Without a care in the world, about one mile from the house, "TOM" got over his initial shock, and freaked out..Started running laps and clawing anything he could get his claws into...than he ran under the pedals...My vehicle is a 5 speed, this caused all manor of problems..

I finally got him in my lap, where he clinged on for dear life, and got him back home, where he was much relived to get out of the car..

Than I needed to go inside, to tend to my wounds, and change my drawers, where he scared the crap out of me, on his first lap around the dashbord...

[slackmaster]

20. They usually go for the scalp

You got lucky.

[slackmaster]

19. I can see how having more than 10 of them running loose in your car could be a problem

But who is really qualified to draw the line on how many is "too many"?

[SunnySong]

26. I love the fact it was a 3-2 decision... I really hope this gets appealed to

the supreme court..

Just for personal input one cat in a cat carrier built to hold a velociraptor is distraction enough.

[flvegan]

27. How did she get 15 cats into her car?

[Fumesucker]

28. Open the door and throw a treat the cats like in the floorboard..

Do that consistently and cats could be trained to get in the car.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

43. I know that's almost like....... herding cats.

:+

[AnArmyVeteran]

30. Cat Story on the way to a fast food restaurant.

One day I left to go to a fast food restaurant and just as I was ordering a stray cat came from the back of my van. I left the window open and he obviously jumped in. When I got to the window to pick up my order I told the cashier about my intruder. She told me to hold on and left. She came back with an extra piece of chicken just for the cat.

I'm glad I wasn't on a long trip or I would have had to drive back home.

[MilesColtrane]

35. She should have let Toonces drive.

[eridani]

39. "Dogs, they love to travel, their faces to the breeze--

--but cats sit trembling on your lab and vomit on your knees."

--Garrison Keillor in Songs of the Cat

[tammywammy]

42. I have one cat carrier, so when I moved from my apt to my house

I put the cat that's most frightened of the car, thus most likely to piss everywhere and run around everywhere, in the carrier. My other cat, when we usually take the 15 min drive to the vet, she falls asleep in the carrier. So I just put her on a box lid in front of the passenger seat. She fell asleep during the 10 min or so it took to drive from the apt to the house and never moved out of where I sat her. Both of them were the last to be moved that day, and Monty (my avatar, and the nutty one) was already freaked out after being locked in the bathroom all day (Mia was none too pleased with being stuck in the bathroom either). I didn't want to make two trips for them and it surprisingly worked out well for me.

I'd never ride with a loose cat under normal circumstances, it's dangerous and if you're in an accident they'd be thrown around the vehicle. I took the chance, since it was a short drive and I knew Mia would be calm.

[hyphenate]

45. 15 is too many

Perhaps she was forced to live in her car, for which I feel very sorry for her. But 15? That's impossible to have any kind of order oe control.

When I returned to Massachusetts from California, I had 6, and they were loose, but in the very back of the van. My alpha male wasn't having any of it, though, and when I stopped to grab something to eat, he got out and I never saw him again.

And what could be the reason she had that many in the car all at the same time? I hope she gets all her furkids back and home.

[Sebastian Doyle]

46. I wouldn't drive with even one cat in a car

Unless the kitteh was properly secured and there was a reason for it, such as a trip to the vet.