Last night, while I was on the train trip from Hell, my cat found a young rabbit. My wife was home and managed to prevent the half-feral asshole from killing it in the house and put it in a quiet spot in the yard; hoping for the best.
This morning it was still breathbg.
She had to leave early but asked me to handle it. I tried giving it some water with a straw, and I didn’t see any obvious injury, but he laid there breathing hard.
So I put on my welding gloves and got a plastic grocery bag. I gently picked it up and cradled it in the bag until it stopped moving.
I am a monster. Hate me.
I hope you consider keeping your cat in the house after this. House cats are an invasive species that absolutely devastate (and, on an individual level, torture) local wildlife for literally no reason. I know you didn’t mean to do this, but the rabbit nonetheless suffered horribly and died because you or someone in your household let “the half-feral asshole” be outside the house; I hope you recognize going forward that you have the agency to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
You’re not a monster; I don’t hate you. Your reaction shows you care, and I hope your future decisions reflect that.
(I could be misreading this, but the way I interpreted it is that the cat dragged the rabbit in from outside. If the rabbit wandered in the house, obviously disregard this.)
So basically I think you are right about keeping cats inside only, but if a cat has been an outside cat their entire life it is kind of cruel on them too. They will also just be the extra amount of asshole to complain about it. So I’d say, next cat needs to be an inside cat but if you have one that is very used to going out, I’d understand not doing that.
Saying this as an owner of an inside only cat.
No, it is not. They’ll get used to it, and they’ll statistically have considerably better health outcomes. Moreover, being blunt, it isn’t your prerogative to send out your little monster to terrorize and slaughter local wildlife as their plaything because you think they’ll be bored or cranky.
Even granting based on nothing that this won’t ever change, that’s your responsibility to deal with as a pet owner. You created the problem; you can deal with the consequences without making it everybody else’s problem. If my aggressive dog is upset he can’t go chase my neighbor’s dog around their yard, the answer isn’t “fuck it, just let him out; I can’t deal with his complaining, and frankly it’s pretty cruel to keep him cooped up when he’s like this.”