I'm Just So Mad !

[madmom]

One of my kitties has been missing for a couple of days . Yesterday he came home limping. I brought him inside and looked him over. Some fool had shot him in the shoulder with a beebee pellet. Luckily it wasn't in too deep and I was able to remove it and get him cleaned up. He's laying under my table and growling at the others when they come near him. There are only a few of these guns around here that I know of. All of them are owned by kids 12 and under. Why can't parents supervise these children when they have the guns out and teach them not to shoot at anything that moves. No one will admit to shooting my poor kitty and one parent actually told me kids will be kids! Thanks for letting me rant. I am just so da** mad!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

awwww the poor thing, last xmas the kids over the road from us all got bb guns and the whole road was littered with the pellets for months, they're fire them at cars, pets, anyone walking past.

my cats were terrified cos they kept firing them into my windows and it scared the hell out of them.

wish Ian had been living with me then, know they're only kids but in all honesty i wouldn't wanna confront a group of teenage chav lads by myself.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I definately think at the least there should be a minimum age law for owning a BB gun (like no guns sold to under 16's or 18's or something), some of them are bloody powerful- i know as a guy i know owns one (he's an aweful lot more responsable with it though, only uses it for firing at cans and things with in his garden), plus i've been hit by a bb pelet before as well and it bloody hurt .

But yeah, there's nothing good or acceptable about kids hurting animals for enjoyment/entertainment...Perhaps you should use some "emotional blackmail" to the suspect parents of these kids and tell them the kitten died because of the bb gun attack? Might make them speak about the subject of bb guns a lot more seriously to their kids? I dunno.

 

[starrynightxxi]

Hnh... I'd be hard pressed to accept 16-18 year olds having them because their relative harmlessness leads idiots like the ones living across the street from me last yearto think that it's okay to shoot people walking by, and to shoot into our apartment, and these are college kids! I don't know why I never called the cops on those idiots. They used to throw snowballs at us too, and HARD.

 

[juwelfan]

You think you have problems with poor parenting and bad kids, come to any british city, UK plc. is heading into a big deep dark hole.

Juwelfan.

 

[morgan]

Maybe they'll tighten up the laws since a teenage boy got killed by an air rifle. His friend accidentally shot him in the eye. There are only two places where a shot will kill from an air rifle (my son learnt this at Air Training Corps) unfortunately the eye is one of them.

 

[PlecMama]

It's illegal for any one under 14 to be loaned or to own an air rifle, it can not be bought as a gift for them. It's also an offense for them to use an air rifle and not be supervised by an adult over 21. This pretty much limits it to parents buying an air rifle and allowing their child to fire it under supervision, the law states they must not be in complete control though. I think that's a bit vague. How do you let someone fire a gun and not allow them to be in complete control? hold it with them?

14-17 can be given or lent an airgun but can not buy one, or it's ammunition.

Carrying a loaded air gun or a loaded clip in a public place is an offense.


I wish the law would step in there though because I have seen them used by kids in the under 14 group with no one about and nothing is done.

I'm sorry someone shot your kitty that's sucks and it is an offense here. but you have to catch them doing it and be able to prove it.

 

[finchfarm]

I'm sorry about your cat.


People really need to be watching they're kids. Firing a gun, even a "harmless" one at any living thing wether it be animal or human is just stupid. The parents need to take the guns away from those kids until they learn not to shoot other people's property. I would most certainly stand for having any type of gun outlawed for persons 16 or 18 or whatever, unfortunately I think if this were to happen they'd just go for something else.


We are thinking about getting another dog some point (we currently have two Siberian Huskies) and I always keep an eye on our local Siberian Husky Rescue to see if a dog that would be good for our family and current dogs pops up. Late last year they had a six year old male come in that had been stabbed repeatedly with a knife and after he was stabbed he was set on fire. The culprits were a group of three or four teenagers that decided to take everything out on a dog. The dog ended up having to have surgery for all the knife wounds and major rehabilitations for his severe burns. Fortunately he lived and after a while someone came along and adopted him.

Unfortunately, if bb's were outlawed for kids I think incidences like the above would be more common, kids would just turn to some other weapon or means of abuse.

 

[PlecMama]

I honestly believe a problem with guns is they are detached, you do not have to physically touch something to harm or kill it.

I don't think taking BB's away would spawn more knife killers. There will always by sickos that harm animals, but there's a huge psychological difference between shooting from a distance and making a one on one killing with your hands and a knife or bat.

 

[mlawson]

Sorry about your cat.

I know a boy who shot his own rabbit with an air rifle, he said it was an accident.
Birds also mistake BB pellets for berries and can die from them.

Maybe you should find that boy and shoot him with an air rifle, see how he likes that.

 

[mlawson]

Sorry about your cat.

I know a boy who shot his own rabbit with an air rifle, he said it was an accident.
Birds also mistake BB pellets for berries and can die from them.

Maybe you should find that boy and shoot him with an air rifle, see how he likes that.

 

[madmom]

I'm not sure of the laws here regarding air guns but I think they are similar. Problem is I'm out in the country and guns are everywhere.Parents think nothing of getting their children air guns to practice with.
My kitty is doing much better now. His wound is healing cleanly and he's stopped limping. He came out of hiding and is eating like there's no tomorrow. He's even stopped growling at my kids and is climbing in my lap to be petted. I have let him go back outside for awhile as he hates being inside and tries to dig his way through the door to get out. I'm definately going to keep a close watch on the kids that own the beebee guns.

 

[dthoffsett]

I know how you feel madmom, while none of my pets have ever been shot, my mom was. While I was still living at home, I called the police one day on the teenagers across the street who were running in the street and pointing their bb gun, and shooting into cars when they stopped in the intersection. The police came, the parents were fined, and told to keep the gun away from the kids. A couple of days later, while I was at work, my mom was out working in the yard, and the same teens came out and shot her three times. She called the police, and the parents were again fined, and the bb gun was confiscated. The police couldn't do more, because mom wouldn't press charges, since she was afraid of what else they would do. They finally moved after 6 months or so, but there were several times things in the yard were stolen or damaged. It's unfortunate how many parents don't teach their children basic gun safety, any gun, even a bb gun should never be used without adult supervision.

I'm glad your kitty is feeling better.

 

[madmom]

Thanks guys. He's almost back to normal now and is leaving me mice on the porch again.

 

[LisaLQ]

Some people nowadays just dont have any sense of responsibility. Kids/teens now feel like they can get away with murder (and judging by recent news stories, some do!). When I was a kid (Lisa sounds 103 years old now) we wouldn't dream of doing anything like that - as we'd be grabbed the lug and dragged home to our parents for a good hiding!

Where we used to live (me and hubby prior to this house), there were several kids who got kicks out of killing local cats. There was one guy who kept lurchers (as do I so I'm not slating lurchers here - but this guy was using them for fighting and working) - and he used to trap local cats and throw them in with his lurchers to give them something to kill. Same went for pet rabbits, a load of people's pets went missing out of their gardens even.

He was caught, he was prosecuted, he was fined, he started all over again - this time keeping them on another property. He was the local villain to be fair though (car thief, drug dealer, burglar, a very nasty piece of work - violent too - and yet still allowed a council house, kind of them eh?) - not your average lurcher owner.

Then you've got the kids who gave Kathy all the prank calls when Dodge (her cat) went missing (see her thread), and it just makes you think - dont kids/young folks have any consciences now? Even as an unruly teen, I'd have never have dreamt about hurting animals or winding up people who were missing their pets. I'm 29 now, and shaking my head at the "youth of today". If my kids ever did anything like that, they would be in so much trouble - but with 99% of the kid population being little layabouts nowadays, who can stop them being led astray like that?

I hate being a mum sometimes - so much to worry about...

Ps. Give him a gentle squidge from me, hope he's better soon xxx