to think that people shouldn't really have cats?

[gerontius]

Now, just to make this clear, I am not a cat-hater. I'm rather fond of them.

However, given that they crap in other people's gardens, is it not a massively anti-social to have one?

Although if you have the kind which uses its litter tray exclusively fair enough.

same here rithosaurus, except my cat is the big one so he still craps in my garden and wherever teh hell else he likes

Dream on, Gerontius.

MaryMotherOfCheeses and Lauriefairycake

honestly, what OTT, oversensitive and just daft responses.

and DoYouWantToKnowASecret

forgot to add:

What a stupid thread (not you OP, just the pathetic responses).

I'm a little aggrieved by your post darkandstormy.....where did that come from?

My cat's a wimp. She lets the other cats come in and eat her food! I bet she's too scared to crap in my garden - wonder where she does it?

Better make a note to check under the kitchen cupboards ...

Gerontious - you have too much time on your hands.

Whatever next - no goldfish because they use too much water?

I have four dogs and nine hens, so cats are too scared to even come into my garden, let alone crap in it. I also own two cats myself, but keep them indoors, so they only crap in their litter tray.

I do find it odd in a way that people think it is fine to let cats roam free and crap on people's gardens, yet if I did the same with my dogs, most pople would find that outrageous. Why?!

I hate cats. They kill 55 million birds a year in the UK, threatening many native species. And they roam freely in to any garden they choose (i.e. mine). Dogs wouldn't do that.

People shouldn't keep animals they can't control. And they should have bells on their cats, to protect all the poor bird species their bloodthirsty cats are wiping out.

If you like cats that much, go visit the Serengeti.

also the only reason people have cats is that they are too busy to look after dogs. It's not really an excuse. There's a reason cats are lower maintenance, and that's because they are out murdering (birds) and vandalising (other people's gardens). Unlike dogs, which are pliant and follow their owners' bidding.

YABU. Cats are fantastic.

Cats are amazing creatures.

Cats (and dogs) are only ok if locked behind walls or fences and not allowed free reign. Both are responsible for wide scale killing of native animals in this part of the world. Way bigger problem than shit in your garden (although that pisses me off too).

That's a bit rich coming from a human being, Smugaboo. Cats and dogs haven't exterminated countless species. They aren't responsible for oil spills, or habit loss, or BSE. Or the internal combustion engine and global warming.

It would be extremely cruel to keep all cats indoors - a very few cats may appear to be happy kept in this way but they are animals and they need to display their natural behaviour which includes roaming and hunting. They are true carnivores who have no choice but to eat meat. We get to choose, yet only a minority are vegetarian.

Join Greenpeace, do something to save threatened species like tigers and gorillas (and the less cute ones like frogs), go vegetarian - and you still won't have the moral high ground because these are choices that are not available to animals. Would have thought this was all obvious, tbh.

My cats have a litter tray, crap in the neighbours' gardens, go into the neighbours' houses on Sundays and steal their bacon and sausages, and have been known to settle down for a nap in one neighbour's spare room.

Love my cats.

How do your neighbours feel about them?

When I was a kid, our neighbour, an elderly lady, used to feel sorry for our cats when they did their 'no-one ever feeds us, we are sooooo deprived' act and was buying fresh salmon for them. Even though she knew they were our cats and they were well-fed - she just couldn't resist, bless her!

they're animals.

birds, foxes, rats, badgers.... all shit all over the place. I won't go down the lions and tigers and bears oh my route because while big wild beasties shit all over the place, we are hardly likely to open the curtains one morning and find an elephant squatting in the rose bushes.

There's a shit war going on between my cat and the cat next door. I see their cat come and crap under my hedge and then I see my cat go outside, over to their place and crap behind their shed.

Fair's fair, imo.

I just can't bring myself to get worked up about it. It's poo. It disintegrates very quickly. Animals poop all over the place all the time and that's all there is to it.

I have no cat but I like the fact the neighbourhood cats keep the rat and mice population of the area under control. I think it's worth dealing with a bit of poo to get that.

I think maybe there is a market out there for cat food makers to make food that results in lower odour waste - if they could make it something that the cat would like too of course.

"Unlike dogs, which are pliant and follow their owners' bidding."

Riiiight. All dogs are under control at all times. So when I was bitten by a dog in the street the owner had some sort of grudge against me?

Actually when it comes to wildlife there isn;t oyther people's gardens, only the general habitat. Home / garden owning is a peculiarly human trait (I am of course aware of terroitory but afail cats etc don't ban other species from their area) and we never asked the wider animal population to sign up.

Having said that if myc at were causing a nuisance and I was told I would of course work with the complainer to resolve the situation, including installing a tray if I absolutely ahd to (toddlers and SN kids and trays do not IME make a good combo)

Having homed cats seriosuly intentionally injured by humans (5 week old kittens my with missing limbs invcluded)personal take is that cats have a long way to go before theyget to the level of us humans in the PITA stakes

As for teh acts kill birds- well so do we, and fish / mammals etc too; and apaprenlty the aplce to start wrt to bird safety is the marpie population, I am very reliable informed (by my sister who works for a well known animal recue charity)

edam the neighbours are about them. Actually, they are pretty tolerant, thankfully. We keep the cats in overnight always so they do not hunt (and they have bells on) but once one of our slippery devils got out at night. Our neighbours woke with some fear in the middle of the night to find a content snoring cat settled happily between them.

Unless cats are kept in all the time, you simply cannot prevent them from crapping where they wish. We do not use the cat away sprays or whatever they are... has anyone had any success with those?

Oh, and I agree with an earlier poster. Humans are the most deadly destructive animals on the planet, with a hell of alot to answer for. More than cats/dogs/other animals.

Our cat starts here, then goes to teh old lady down the road; after that the toddler around the back thinks he is their friend and feeds him, and he finishes up behind the kitches of the NAS resi home across the way

They love him; they even bring out their cameras to take picturs of him knocking on our door when he comes back in (AFAIK there are no pictures about of his habit of using a storm drain for toileting but who knows?)

The cat down teh weay ahs been adopted by the bakers, is now humungously fat and sits outside all day begging from passers by: he is a Village Institution!

There are of course people who hate cats here- I sat through a lecture by my next door meighbour at Uni where he stated his beleif thatc ats should all be euthanased and kept the hateful thoughts to myself- but even then some cats are never seen by anyone else; the severely disabled one I mentioned below was lovely with us but permanently too scared to venture beyond the garden walls (he died a year old as a result of heart ddamage he ahd sustained)

I do wish they wouldnt shit everywhere. I was washing up the other day whilst DS1 2.6 was playing in our garden after a few minutes cames in saying "this! this!" and giving me a fragrant handful of cat poo!