Selfsufficientish.com

We have 3 cats and 2 are hunters (the third is and old baggage who stays in the house ). One of the cats frequently brings home small furry creatures - including a gerbil on one occasion . He's recently begun bringing home small rabbits but he doesn't kill them at first - in fact there is usually not a mark on them when we take them off him. The thing is what is the kindest thing to do? Should we take them off him or just let him kill and eat them? If we take them off him what do we do next? Is it kinder to destroy them humanely - despite the fact that they appear unhurt or should we just take them back to where they came from and take their chances in a familiar environment? He's a lovely cat - a real softy who loves his belly tickled, but as soon as he oes outside he turns into a killing monster!

Saw a programme the other day and with adult rabbits you hold their rear legs in one hand and their head in the other and stretch and it breaks their neck.
Maybe you could do that?

Gently of course so as not to pull their heads completely off ... though that would do the trick too.

Oh Milims - you poor thing. What Sky has said is true - a quick neck-break is the kindest way unless you want to put yourself through the agony of trying to recover the situation (but they always die). And unless you want to put the rest of the world through sheer torture - as I do, because I despise killing things and get into a complete anti-human blue funk if I have to do so - then get some other brave soul to do it for you.

if you killed them and gave back to the cat.. will they eat them?

I used to carefully put unhurt animals back outside.. but the shear number of mice and rodents my cat brings in.. I only intervene if they are squealing now... otherwise i hope he eats it as otherwise it is a wasted life.

My cats bring the odd rabbit now and again and have usually eaten them by the time I find them. They do seem to relish them and eat everything apart from the ears. If I have to dispatch things, its usually injured birds and a quick pull on the neck surfices.

I have had your dilemma too, having been presented with a very much alive mole and several mice, voles and frogs which have to be released - but where? I'm glad that the occasional rat is always dead and Lily has even brought me a dead squirrel, despite her only weighing 3Kgs!

This reminds me of an experience that we had shortly after I moved in with John. It was spring and Tiger, my bengal decided that frog fishing in a neighbours pond was the thing. We were woken up several nights on the trot by the sound of a frog screaming it's head off in the lounge. I was relieved one morning to have had an unbroken night's sleep and was glad that his hunting had seemed to come to an end. So you can imagine my horror when I found a goldfish head as big as my hand on the lounge floor. To be that size, the poor thing must've been really old but Tiger had made a fast and I'm sure, a very tasty meal from it.

Rach.

Oh dear - your Tiger obviously deserved his or her name! My first cat was Tiger, too - but she only hunted for rabbits and other small stuff.

Rachel, you sure that wasn't their prized Koi Carp?

No, it was definately a goldfish but still just as embarrassing as I'm sure that it had been nurtured and cared for just as much.

Tiger is actually a bit of a sod, the feline equivalent of a hoodie. I've had complaints that he goes into other peoples catflaps and eats their cats food and he gets through the magnetic ones by head butting them till they give in. He even faces down the neighbourhood dogs and chases them up the street. he also beats up everyone elses cats but Lily just treats him with distain, she's a very classy little lady, apart from when she's hunting.

Fortunately for me, they're both great with people and don't ever bite or scratch, even though John torments them mercilessly. They also put up with Moss, our sheep dog trying to herd them along with fairly good grace!

rach.

I'm laughing at your bruiser headbutting other people's catflaps!

lol cute is that him in your avatar?
If so he looks like one of ours.

Oh My God Sky did you skin the other one?

It would have been one huge cat if I had lol

That's a reindeer skin he's sat on ... does really match him though doesn't it

Yes - and spoilt rotten. Bet you have to sit on something ordinary. I have a tartan blanket that I have to fight the cat for!