If ANY of the cats you kill are someone's pet, you should die a painful death. That would be like killing their child. Many pets are child -substitutes.
Poster Comment:
Three stunningly retarded comments in a row! Yup, still a retard.
I do,but accidents happen. A cat can be spooked to jump outside a open door,for example.
Well dang pete, I'm not talking about wearing a six-gun slung low and "puttin' one between the eyes" of the first animal I see (completed by blowing the smoke from the end of the barrel followed by a right fancy twirl of the six-gun prior to jamming it into the holster and having a whiskey in a dirty glass to celebrate.)
I came close to shooting my closest neighbors dogs twice. Once when I came out of my work shop and there was a 70 lb dog right outside the door growling at me and showing his teeth. I showed him my 44,and he hauled ass out of the yard. I will NOT shoot anybody's dog if I have any choice at all,but I will NOT allow either the dog or the owner to attack me in my own yard.
The second time two of his smaller dogs chased my cats into the yard and were trying to get at them. This neighbor is about a mile away. The cats were safe so I got on the phone and called him and told him he had better come get his dogs before I had to shoot the dogs and then shoot him for making me shoot the dogs. I made it REAL plain to him that having his dogs in my yard trying to kill my cats was NOT the right way to get on my good side,and haven't had any trouble with either him or his dogs since.
I do know people that shoot cats just for wandering into their yards,though. I had a local woman tell me she would kill any cat that came into her yard because she didn't want to see paw prints on the paint of her car. I tried to explain to her that paw prints in dust doesn't damage paint,but she didn't care. I then told her that she is damn lucky she isn't my neighbor because I would kill her for killing my cats.
IMHO the key point here is both you and your neighbor are both supposed to shoulder the burden of being a good neighbor. That means if you see a neighbors dog or cat doing something like digging a hole in your yard you are obligated to contact that neighbor and demand he or she do something to prevent this from happening in the future. If they don't,then you are morally free to take action.
That does NOT mean killing the animal is or even should be your first option. What's wrong with capturing the animal and taking to to a animal shelter as a stray so some responsible owner can adopt it? Chances are the negligent owner that was allowing it to run free won't even wonder where it went,so everybody wins that way.
