To suspect my neighbour killed my cat

It sounds like he did. He sounds unhinged. Lots of people don't like cats but to intentionally hurt one is bloody sick.
Can you look at cat proofing your garden? You can get things that go ontop of fences. I wouldn't let the other cat out

Cats should be treated like dogs in my opinion. They should be on leads and not left to roam the streets leaving their crap all over my garden or leaving dead or worse half dead birds in my garden or killing my plants by spraying the pee. Your poor neighbour has probably had enough of trying to protect the birds in his garden. I would never kill a cat though.

When I was pregnant my husband was having to clear the crap out of the garden everyday. It can be dangerous to unborn babies.

Cats are a pest. They were never intended to be pets. All they do is decimate our native garden birds.

Yes I imagine he has. I believe my old neighbour killed one of mine. The police were involved but there was no proof. I would be asking neighbours for ring footage. Sorry for your loss it’s very upsetting.

Firstly,I’m really sorry for you and your poor cat. That’s absolutely heartbreaking. If you really think that he killed your cat then you may wish to keep your other one as an indoor cat. You could set up a Catio and also walk the cat on a harness. This is what a number of my friends do, and it is very successful.

We spent 14 years creating a large wildlife garden. A new neighbour arrived with 5 cats. They caused devastation. It broke our hearts finding dead ,chewed up birds,voles,field mice,grass snakes, slow worms etc. Not much left now. It would help if neighbours saw you making an attempt to prevent the carnage.

Once again,I’m very sorry for such a dreadful outcome.

It is reasonable to suppose that your neighbour, who had expressed hatred of cats, might have harmed the cat, but you have no evidence to prove that.

I wonder why he asked you if you had cats when you moved in, and said he hated them. When you bought the cats, perhaps he thought it was a challenge to him. He had warned you he didn't like them, and hoped you would not get one. Then you did. That is unusual. People who don't have cats rarely get one out of the blue like that.

Best not dwell on such thoughts, and certainly not gossip about it. He could sue for slander.

You should have had a post mortem on the cat's body to see how the cat died. A vet would know the difference between a road accident and a deliberate killing, even as far as the head is concerned. If there was a head injury, there would most certainly have been injuries to the body as well.

I think often gut instinct is right about these things. I feel sorry for the cat and your kids. Do any of your neighbours have ring doorbells?

I would get cameras put up back and front. Too coincidental not to think otherwise! This is awful. If someone can do this (allegedly) to an animal then what else are they capable of?

Our neighbour killed two of my cats and my neighbours cat on the same day. Poison suspected.

His next door neighbour moved into their house, and their cat was poisoned the same night, they were distraught, as it was very much their baby.

Ours were killed after this, then we realised that their other neighbour had lost two cats and a neighbour one door from us, had also lost their cat, since the “cat killer” had moved into our quiet cul de sac

We sent our remaining cat to my parent’s house until we moved house.
His young daughter told us her Dad had killed the cats, but there was no proof.

Once people realised there had been a lot of cat deaths, they ( cat killer family ) bought themselves a pedigree cat, that they kept indoors.

I hope he hated that cat, not for the cats sake, of course.

I dare say he’s still at it, he and his wife divorced a few years later. She was just as horrible though 🤣🤣

I’d plot something and make him
pay dearly I couldn’t let it drop without revenge , he would be very sorry

But why, when they are pets and can be kept indoors. One of our neighbours once said she would never have a litter tray in her house bcos it was disgusting, I think it was far more disgusting that her cat was shitting in our garden that our children were playing in.

Tractive do an excellent pet tracker attached to a collar. We've used one for nearly a year now and the history generated seems to remain on the app indefinitely. There's an annual fee to pay for the service, but in my opinion it's worth it for peace of mind. BTW I'm not on commission.

Keep trying to get evidence as I'm sure your neighbor is responsible. You can report him for animal cruelty. He deserves to be punished. Killing animals is not acceptable behavior.

What on earth do you mean by 'higher' and how on earth could you know that a cat feels more than a bird or think that birds don't have personalities? Corvids are very intelligent and can solve puzzles.

You're talking absolute shite.

Cruelty to animals is a major red flag and to openly brag about it is abhorrent. Please keep your other cat in and have nothing more to do with the psycho.

I agree. There was nothing untoward about those posts.

@ScrubbedCauliflower Well said. Excusing criminal violence is abhorrent.

I certainly don't think YABU in thinking the neighbour might be responsible, OP, but I would focus on protecting the cat you still have.

Someone who lives near me has valuable pedigree cats and they have had this stuff fixed to the top of their fence so that they can't get out of her garden: Cat fence . She says it works a treat.

I wish my neighbours would get some. I'm fed up with finding cat shit in my garden, and utterly sick of their cat leaving dead or mortally injured birds on my lawn (I'm bird phobic, and even dead birds freak me out.)

I'd never dream of harming the cat though, or any other animal, for that matter.

I agree @yumyum33

Guess there's no free speech on MN now

I read the last two posts and while quite aggressive in their anti-cat stance why were they deleted? I'm not as au fait with mumsnet rules as perhaps I should be. Is blind agreement the MO on here?

Well it depends on the law in your particular country doesn’t it.

In the U.K., letting your cat roam free is a legal right. So they are allowed to roam and whether you agree with it or not is irrelevant.

in the UK, it’s illegal to kill someone else’s pet and in the future, the laws on animal cruelty and harming pets are only going to get stricter with even tougher penalties.

In the U.K., driving your car around a neighbours garden without permission and causing damage is illegal.

In the U.K., taking the law into your own hands and smashing up your neighbours car even if they/it’s trespassing on your property and damaging it, is also illegal.

the latter 2 scenarios will likely both result in a criminal record and will affect the rest of your life very negatively.

Laws are there for a reason, if we don’t agree with them is it acceptable to just do what we want anyway. People that do that are breaking the law and are generally called criminals.

Your analogy isn’t equitable or relevant. Perhaps where you live, but not in the UK or many other countries. A better one would be;

If you drove a polluting car still within legal emission limits, would it be acceptable for someone who doesn’t drive and who gets asthma and other respiratory health issues who lives nearby smash up your car? If you really don't care about others health you shouldn’t be allowed to drive.

Same happened to my old cat, guy nearby rehomed racing greyhounds (worked with them so they could be pets, a very wholesome thing to do) & would thoroughly check his garden before letting the dog out. One morning he missed my cat & so my cat (who was incredibly special to me & had saved me from a guy looking to get into my house whilst I was alone) was dead within seconds. One single bite to the head. He was DEVASTATED, as was I!

But I wasn't angry! Not his fault, certainly not the dogs fault.

Conversely, my cats sister was nearly killed by some teens - very deliberately & horribly. On that occasion, 3 members of my family went out to find the teens, luckily for them they didn't find them.

This situation is the second example, not the first. Cruelty to animals, by humans, is lowest of the low

If you drove your car around your neighbour's back garden, leaking engine oil all over the flower beds, damaging their property and killing random wild animals, would that be acceptable?

Would the neighbour be entitled in getting pissed off? If the neighbour smashed your car to pieces, would that be unreasonable?

What a load of claptrap.

If you want to own cats, you need to take responsibility for them - i.e. they should never be allowed to roam. If you can't manage that simple task, don't get a cat.

If you don't really care about your cats, and consider them to be nothing more than disposable pets (which is the only logical conclusion), then let them roam near roads, crazy neighbours, aggressive dogs, etc.

It's an old article but interesting all the same.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/14/cats-kill-birds-wildlife-keep-indoors