Is it illegal for someone to kill their pet cat?

If some sicko wakes up one day and says "hey I dont like my cat I think im going to kill it" goes out and shoots their cat is this illegal??

If so can anyone point out to me any proof that this is illegaL?


Its just I am on a poultry forum and people are talking about killing their pets and I was just looking for some proof that what they are doing is not legal

In my area it is illegal to be cruel to animals. Shooting them WOULD be considered cruelty, for whatever purpose, as putting them down in a humane fashion is required.

As the previous poster said, it is illegal. However, the degrees of Animal Cruelty vary by state and area. Look into the states that they arem posting from.

in my area, pets are property. Although it is illegal to be cruel and yes shooting them for no good reason.

Before you all go and start up in arms... in our area it would not be uncommon for shooting an animal in the head to put it out of it's misery if the animal is beyond help and suffering, not that I would ever do it, I'm just stating what is not uncommon in my area.

I had a neighbor use a pellet gun on my cat and since the only thing I witnessed was, THE SHOT, the neighbor running after my cat with the pellet gun in his hand, the police said that since I did not see him pull the trigger then there was nothing I could do to prove he had done it. I could have taken my cat in for xrays but unfortunately at the time I had my electricity already shut off in my house and was almost unable to feed me, my 2 kids and the pets that I had. So, I could not afford to take my cat in for xrays. I know darn good and well he shot my cat up the wazoo out of pure and simple cruelty. I know this because I've seen another person do that to a cat when I was a child. This does not show any outward harm but of course rips them apart inside so they essentually bleed to death from the inside. That is extremely cruel. My cat ran off and even though I was on the phone trying to see if I could get help, I got NONE, absolutely none, none from the police, none from vets unless I could pay, nothing. She disapeared and I never saw her again. That is one of the kitties that I truely am over knowing how she must have passed.

ANYWAY, unless you personally can prove it, there really isn't anything that could be done. If the people have any kind of property and have any kind of heavy equipment, there is nothing to say that they can't kill what ever they want and bury it deep. If you live in an area like I do with lots and lots of hills and forest land, they can kill what ever they want and take it up and dump it off in the woods, it would be taken off by scavangers almost instantly.

So, as unfortunate as it may seem and as heartbreaking and not very positive suggestions or help, it is the way the law works. Animals are property, not family members by law. You can call your local animal control agency, Animal shelters, and law enforcement agencies to find out what is the law in your area. I have done that to find out information in the past.

You can see if printing the forums they are writing it on and taking it to authorities to see if anything can be done also. But, if they are not in your area (different parts of the world have way different laws), I honestly don't know what your recourse would be.

I hope they see that what they are contemplating is cruel and have a change of heart.

Entirely depends on your local laws (city and state). Some areas they don't care about (unfortunately) but other areas with a high level of animal cruelty prevention will have law enforcement.

I think the best bet is if your in an urban area it's probably illegal. If its Rural double check.

Also suggest on this forum to find a new home for the pets rather than shooting them. IMO that's like shooting your child.

I think this is so sad

How someone can kill a animal and sleep at night.
Thank god it's a law in my state, however I don't think the sentence is harsh enough but what can we expect the justice system lets murders of humans out of jail early for good behavior.

Depends upon your location and national or state laws (it helps us to answer more specifically if you put a general location in your profile ) Here in the UK if someone carried out that threat on an animal kept for reasons other than to provide food, it is most definitely illegal, and could result in prosecution and a large fine, lifetime ban on keeping animals, and possibly a custodial sentence.

ETA: I should point out that in the UK there are different laws covering pets and livestock - if you're killing a chicken to eat it there is a set of regulations to be followed to ensure it does not suffer unnecessarily and is treated humanely, whereas with pets (non-livestock animals) that are not kept with the intention of providing food (ie. cats, dogs etc.) if you killed them it could well result in prosecution.

I don't know, but it should be.

I don't think its illegal - morally its wrong but I'm sure living in the country, many farmers don't bother calling the vet to put down a sick dog/cat.

It breaks my heart to hear anyone been cruel to animals. I heard of people would drive over a cat if its on the road and kill them when they could have stopped. Not sure what the law is here in Ireland. What some people do here when they get tried of an animals, they just drop them off some where and leave them. We have home stray dogs and have a stray cat at work which we are going to keep. He so cute.

Depends on local laws. I once had to shoot a cat, that was badly mauled by a coyote. It was late at night, there was no vet nearby and I lived WAYYY out in the country. I don't EVER want to have to do that again.

we catch anyone doing that around here and you better believe they will be in SERIOUS trouble. (i work for AC and my boyfriend is a cop) All of the cops/judges in our area are huge animal lovers and will hasten stiff punishment on anyone subjecting an animal to cruelty of that nature. If the animal needs to be pts- it needs to be done in a humane way at a lisenced vets office or shelter. Cruelty to animals is punished around here depending on what you do/etc. Some people pay large fines/have other animals removed from their residence/ are "blacklisted" by local shelters/rescues- and some serve jail time/etc depending on the situation.

Wow these people are talking about shooting thier unwanted animals on a message board? What is wrong with them? Do they have nothing better to do? Why have the animal in the first place if you don't plan on caring for it properly. Just doesn't make sense.

In my area NO not illegal... Hunters shoot their dogs routinely... I can say I wouldnt but do understand killing an ill animal( PTS by a vet is best)