I agree the cat needs to go. My response is tempered by the fact that my friend just got out of the hospital following a cat bite. She was bitten by a neighbor’s (vaccinated) cat. Although she knew better, when the cat came up to her and seemed to want to be held, she picked it up and the cat promptly bit her on the hand. She got medical attention and IV antibiotics but two days later needed to be admitted to the hospital for more intense antibiotic treatment. She narrowly averted hand surgery to clear out the infection.
Aggressive cats are no joke!
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Actually, a well placed bullet to the brain is more humane than the stress of trapping, transporting and handling necessary to chemically euthanize. I’ve had to put a number of injured cats down this way. Plus it’s much cheaper!
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I’ve had two cat bites - one from my first cat when he was letting me know it was his time to go and the second I don’t remember. Both were deeply painful immediately and I knew I had to go to urgent care/emergency room. Please be careful.
Wow! I’ve been doing cat rescue for 25 years. I have easily a dozen barn cats; possibly more as some released ferals I’ve never seen again, but suspect they come into the barn at night to eat. Others don’t seem to mind my presence but they prefer not to be touched and I respect that. The only barn kitty I’ve rehomed thus far was a young, rambunctious male who was making everyone miserable and fortunately, I was able to rehome him with my farrier at his barn.
Here were have several rescue groups that network within the horse community to find homes for the ferals from various animal shelters into area farms. Before I resorted to euthansia and, god forbid a misplaced bullet, (seriously!?), I would reach out to the shelters and other farms in your area and see if you can find this feral girl a better fit. Maybe someone needs a mouser and doesn’t have any other barn cats? Facebook has been a great resource for finding rescuers and barn space.
I’ve found that some cats have a really hard time adjusting to change but given enough time (6 mos to a year) do eventually come around and find peace, if placed in the right situation. But if you must, I agree that euthansia by your vet would be the kindest if you don’t feel like you have any other option. And I agree, if she’s making those that were there first, miserable, it is she who must go. The rule at my farm is: Everyone must get along or they don’t get to stay.
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From time to time, my parents will get a mean tom cat that shows up on the farm and beats up the other cats. Either we chase them away (for good) or it gets a bullet to the head. Simple. We don’t need our good, nice farm kitties getting beaten up by a nasty outsider.
There’s an obvious reason why the shelter had already planned to euth this cat.
And show up in someone else’s yard and beat up their cats instead, and scratch them? No thanks. You would not be doing the cat any favors by releasing it “into the wild”.
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Don’t worry, I know how to do it right. I don’t have any tolerance for raccoons, skunks, or rabbits around here either since they carry diseases that I don’t want my horses or my dogs exposed to. So I’m pretty good at making clean head shots on small animals. I tend to do a fair amount of it. And then their is the occasional mole where you pull the trap and the mole is still alive. I dispatch them with a head shot too rather than wait for the trap to finish the job.
If I suspect rabies, I usually aim for the lungs or the heart, depending on the angle I can get the shot at. If the animal is facing broadside, a shot that goes through both lungs tends to be fatal pretty quickly. Often faster than a heart shot.
