Hello, I’m Christopher! Learn my introduction to be taught extra about me and my foolish Russian Blue cat, Olga.
Antifreeze and different chemical compounds containing ethylene glycol, reminiscent of hydraulic fluid, de-icing merchandise, motor oil, paints, solvents, and wooden stains, are poisonous to cats and different animals. A small spoonful of antifreeze can kill a cat, and most felines don’t survive until they’re handled inside 6 hours.
Antifreeze Poisoning
The preliminary indicators of antifreeze poisoning embody vomiting, lethargy, incoordination, extreme urination, hypothermia, extreme thirst, and seizures. Sadly, the cat’s situation appears to enhance after 12 hours, which may trigger an proprietor to assume they’ve recovered.
They will develop into dehydrated and breathe sooner, however kidney injury, comas, and loss of life are extra doubtless after 12 hours.
Conserving Olga Secure
I don’t let Olga exterior or enable her to discover my storage, the place most of my poisonous chemical compounds are saved, so she is much less prone to be uncovered to ethylene glycol than an outside cat. Nevertheless, I’m at all times cautious about the place I retailer family cleaners and different hazardous merchandise.
Olga can open doorways and cupboards, and I don’t hold something poisonous within the loos since she likes to open the cupboards often. Though cats dislike candy meals, they’re interested in antifreeze’s aroma.
They will get sick from licking their paws after strolling by an antifreeze spill within the storage or sipping from a container with ethylene glycol. It’s obscure why somebody would deliberately poison a cat, but it surely occurs extra typically than you assume.
Punishing a Cat Assassin
A number of years in the past, I used to be visiting a pal after I heard folks screaming exterior. Once we went exterior to research, we discovered that one of many neighbors had left a tray of antifreeze exterior to kill a stray cat.
A number of the condominium’s residents had develop into hooked up to the cat and steadily fed him, they usually needed to homicide, or at the least mortally wound, the person who had killed him. They pounded on the assassin’s door and yelled, however he was both at school or hiding inside.
He was by no means injured or killed by the offended mob, however one of many cat lovers contacted the native college’s editor-in-chief. The cat killer was a journalist till he murdered the cat, and I’m glad the editor determined that unethical staff don’t make one of the best writers. I perceive that stray cats annoy folks and kill wildlife, however a number of humane deterrents can hold them away.
Animal Cruelty Legal guidelines
In the US, killing a cat is a felony and may end up in fines of as much as $5,000 or 2 years in jail. Every state imposes totally different penalties, however some legislatures are attempting to determine an animal cruelty registry that’s modeled after intercourse offender lists.
Growing the fines and jail phrases for offenders could lower the variety of antifreeze deaths, however they received’t persuade me to permit Olga to discover the outside. I’m paranoid sufficient about dropping a piece of onion or garlic on the ground after I’m making dinner, and I don’t need to fear about one other particular person injuring or killing my cat.
Conserving your cat indoors could seem egocentric since they can’t discover the surroundings and hunt small animals, but it surely protects them from poisons, parasites, vehicles, and merciless people.
