Dear editor:

Your April 18 story about a man who trapped a neighbour’s cat (“Cat kidnapped, dumped in NOTL“), then took it to an unfamiliar place and set it free, knowing it could not find its way back, makes me very angry.

If he cannot be charged with theft, then at the very least he should be charged with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

Over the years I have known people like him, neighbours, who have this OCD complex about keeping their lawns and gardens perfect. Some of them have gone to ridiculous lengths, much to my amusement.

But this is different.

So a cat has been peeing on your tires, or doing its business in your garden? Well big deal, buddy.

The world isn’t going to come to an end. What is wrong with you? You think it’s fine to trap a neighbour’s pet and do what you did, just because of that? You need your head examined.

I will say one thing in this man’s defence and that it is not right or safe for people to let their cats wander. I know it is their nature, and I am a cat owner, but things are not the same as they were back in the 1960s and ’70s.

You have fanatical people like this man, but you also have coyotes and birds of prey increasingly coming into suburban areas and you are putting your pet’s life at risk.

Unless you have an enclosed backyard, where the cat cannot get out, I think doing this is an unwise decision.

I still think this guy is in the wrong and I would tell him that to his face — and he should be charged for what he did. But that’s a moot point now, isn’t it?

I’m happy to learn Zeus was found alive. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that what this man did was wrong, plain and simple.

Martin Murray
Niagara Falls