putting cat down w/ .22

[DQ]

I do the deed with a .22 hollow point with the goats but I am afraid that I will "miss" with such small target as a cat! can somebody reassure me and tell me the best place to put the shot?? The last thing I want is to have to finish it off after screwing it up!

[FarmboyBill]

Usually, a 22 wont kill a cat OUTRIGHT. I have shot a few, and theyve always been able to run 50/100ft into a place under the house where I couldnt find them and die. AND STINK. 232hollow points might work, I dont know. Id suggest a 12ga shotgun for keeping them there, BUT its messy. I 30 06 or bigger ought to do the trick also and keep them there.

[chickenista]

I do understand where you are coming from on this.
We had this same conversation here when the ancient kitty had a stroke on a Friday night. She recovered, but did pass last week at the ripe age of 21.

I would suggest taking the cat and giving it a bowl of tuna or some other treat that will completely hold it's full attention and then placing the .22 against the head between the ears, above the eyes.

I am so sorry that you have to go through this.

[DQ]

er I would like to avoid messy.

I was planning the tuna thing and putting it in box but I am not sure where the best anatomical shot is. aim down? from front? between eyes? back of the head? erg. why is it so much harder with a cat mental-wise?

[plowjockey]

In the head, towards the body cavity. Hollow points if possible. Be careful of .22 ricochet.

It will go quick.

[kasilofhome]

Hey what about starter fluid (eather) in a box to slow the reaction of the cat and then shooting? Just trying to think about this from a woosey (me) point.

[SFM in KY]

I have used a revolver with hollowpoint .22 shells to put down small animals successfully. I have always placed the muzzle between the ears at the base of the skull, slanting slightly forward so the trajectory of the bullet is down and forward, through the brain case. I have always had something to confine/control and keep their attention focused downward and I have never had to use a second bullet.

[FarmboyBill]

The cats ive shot were stray tom cats who wouldnt let me get anywhere near them

[coolrunnin]

Brain or chest shot with a .22 any type should dispatch cat with minimal suffering.

shotgun or 30/06 is just plain mean.

[ArmyDoc]

When I was young, we put down rabbits with a .22 hp from a revolver. We put the muzzel just off the skin between the ears, aiming for the nose. I can tell you they did not suffer at all. However, their head looked like it had been hit with a cleaver - split entirely in half lengthwise.

A cat's head is about the same size... While this will make the cat's demise nearly instantaneous, it may be very traumatic to you. Have you considered the humane society? They will often put the animals down for free.

[thaiblue12]

Go to your grocery store buy a block of dry ice, take a storage tote with lid put the ice on one side of the tote, cat with tuna on other side, pour a small bit of water on the dry ice, shut the lid and walk away for an hour. It does not take that long for the fumes to put them to sleep but I like to wait it out. Never have done it to a cat but I have put my ferret to sleep this way instead of the vet giving him a heart shot, missing the mark and the screaming. Dry ice here for a 5 pound block barely costs $5.

[Danaus29]

Dh has dispatched a few that were in a live trap. (nasty ferals, mean and nasty!) Yes a .22 hollowpoint is messy. It will drop them right away if you hit the right spot but it is messy. Dh shoots into the ear cavity if he can get that shot. Otherwise base of the skull from the back. Quick but messy.

I'm sorry you have to do this. It's never easy unless it's a cat that was caught eating/killing your livestock.

[tinknal]

This is what I love about HT, people can have a rational discussion on the various methods of dispatching a cat.

[Tessynae]

You might want to put some (a lot) Benadryl in a treat and wait for it to fall asleep. It has that effect on cats. That might help you to not have to worry so much about the cat moving at all. Just a thought.

I'm so sorry. I hope this helps.

[VERN in IL]

I say a carbine with ONE 7.62 round.


If you miss the first time, you don't need a firearm, what you need is training. Cats are easy, kill a bear.


...or just feed the dang thing some anti-freeze, and bury it.

[wogglebug]

You can certainly do the job with a .22, but as people have said it isn't necessarily mess-free, and that can be a bit traumatic to you if we're talking a beloved pet. To be blunt, you might pop an eyeball or two out, and have them dangling from the optic nerve. There is some chance of enough energy still tied up in nerves and muscles to have them travel some distance, even a hundred or more yards on sheer post-mortem energy, even though they died first.

Have a shovel ready to skim up any bloodstains, maybe a burlap sack for a shroud and a hole ready-dug. Cat bodies are longer than you might think, too.

If this is a situation where you can swap a favour with a friend who isn't so emotionally invested, it might be easier. As someone else mentioned, more calibre is more certain - a full-metal-jacket .222 or .223 or .22-250 or .243, even 7.62x39mm through the chest may be as quick, guaranteed certain, and actually less visible mess.

[Farmerwilly2]

I put down pets and strays with the 12ga. as it is fast and effective. Trapped varmits and larger livestock like goats or hogs get the .22. Steers for slaughter get the .45. Rabbits are clubbed with an aluminum bar. If you're squemish get someone else to do it so you don't botch the job. No call in making an animal suffer more than need be.

[salmonslayer]

Originally Posted by tinknal

This is what I love about HT, people can have a rational discussion on the various methods of dispatching a cat.

From what I hear...just feed it some vegetables grown in a garden where Roundup was used and it will be a goner for sure!!

[arabian knight]

I just have used a regular 22 long rifle. Dispatched many different kinds of critters with that. Anything form horses to cows to a couple of dogs that wet wild. Even helped a guy while in AZ, at a horse boarding stable put down his horse with that same 22 rifle.
And many years ago back in 1968 I worked for a mink farm, and was the dead animal pick up person, sometimes those cows and or horses were just down, I had to shoot them to get them winched on the truck.
All I had at that time was a 22 rifle. Seemed to d the trick just fine, and I carried that over to dispatching animals with a 22 ever since. No need to have any special stuff like special ammo.

[Oregon Julie]

Originally Posted by VERN in IL

...or just feed the dang thing some anti-freeze, and bury it.

Vern how can you even suggest such a horrible thing? It would be much more kind to hit the poor cat over the head with a shovel.


What Are the Symptoms Of Antifreeze / Ethylene Glycol Poisoning In Pets ?

The first signs that a pet has consumed a substantial amount of ethylene glycol are the same as they would be if the pet had drunk an equivalent amount of grain alcohol in liquor. However, since something like bourbon whiskey is only 40-80% ethanol alcohol and antifreeze is 80-95% ethylene glycol, it will not take as much of the later. So the pet might act ‘tipsy” (inebriated) or it might just become inactive.

It takes about 3 hours for EG to be fully absorbed from the pets digestive system.
That initial phase continues for about six hours. Eventually this tipsy behavior will subside and it will appear that the problem is over. It is not however, because the ethylene glycol has entered the pet’s liver and kidneys where it is being oxidized into toxic products that acidify the blood and begin to destroy renal tubular cells in the pet's kidneys.

In the second phase of this problem, the breakdown products of EG (glycolic acid, formic acid, oxalic acid, lactic acid) begin to acidify the pet’s blood too much. This causes problems in respiration, heart rate and nerve function - any bodily process that is affected by acid-base (pH balance).

These first two phases are often missed by pet owners or attributed to other things by veterinarians because they are so non-specific and variable. Perhaps you would think that your pet was “just having a bad day”. Veterinarians see hundreds of pets with similar non-specific signs every week and over 99% of them have not consumed ethylene glycol.

Very few pets will consume enough ethylene glycol to die during the first two stages. It is the third stage that is the most dangerous and unexpected to owners because it occurs without visible symptoms of distress. The glycolic acid liberated from ethylene glycol is, in itself, probably damaging to its body (directly toxic). But as your pet metabolizes ethylene glycol, this glycolic acid is further broken down into excessive amounts of oxalic acid. That oxalic acid has an affinity for (binds to) the calcium in your pet’s blood. The two combine to form excessive amounts of calcium oxalate crystals. Calcium oxalate is insoluble at body acidity – so it forms plugs that block and shut down the tiny tubes that form your pet’s kidney apparatus. Without the ability to cleanse its body of waste products, blood levels these wastes that include urea (BUN) and creatinine rise to toxic levels. That is the point that you would notice something was very wrong. The pet becomes depressed. It ceases eating. It begins to vomit. It may walk with its belly tucked up and show pain in the area of its kidneys. Its urine volume, frequency and color may change (dark or pink = hematuria).

The pet will show all the symptoms of renal (kidney) failure; which, indeed, it now has. It has become uremic.



I would not do this to an animal I didn't like, certainly wouldn't do it to one that I had any fondness for at all. It is just plain cruel and not the way that we should be treating God's creatures.