My neighbour has asked me to pick up my cat's poo from their garden. Literally she wants to be able to call on me to come and pick it up on an as and when basis.

[pingu2209]

I have 2 cats. They have only just started going outside, about 1 month so far. I still have a litter tray at home and they do use it but they are also beginning to 'go' outside too.

My view is that cats should not be locked in doors. I had to keep them indoors for the first 6th months because I was told by the shelter that they needed their injections, be neutered and micro chipped before they could venture outside and all that wasn't done till they were 6 months old.

I keep my cats up to date with their injections and worm/flee ointment - well they are only 7 months old at the moment, but I fully intend to keep them up to date.

There are other cats in the area. The house behind mine has 2 big cats and we are in a rural area with foxes. Also, my neighbours have a dog. Nice dog, sometimes it barks but it isn't really a problem if I'm honest. I like dogs as much as cats, I'm not anti dogs or anything.

Am I legally obliged to pick up my cats poo?

I've spoken to my mother and she has told me that I should pick up my cat's poo if the neighbour asks. The thing is, I may have to go round there each day or two to do it.

No, as I said ^ up thread, I've SEEN the cat do it.

When I stopped the cat(s), no more shit. None.

We feed the birds, no, no shit. I appreciate this may be more luck than judgement

"I watch him every morning at about half sixish having his daily dump and TBH me, DP and kids manage to go outside without getting covered in shit"

So as you watch him, you know where he goes and you can clean up or avoid the area. You're expecting to find shit in your garden. The OP's neighbour, and the other people who have unwittingly stepped or sat in it, are not.

If your garden is a shit storm it's mostly because you have chosen to keep animals who make it that way. So it's your choice. But it's not the OP's neighbours choice.

There shouldn't be much difference for the OP in cleaning up the shit in the litter box inside her own house and cleaning up the shit in the neighbours garden when it all comes from her cat.

greeeneyes, the birds will be shitting when you are not looking. They do that...and then they blame it on the cats. The pigeons where I live do really big meaty shits. Worse than dogs.

I'm equal opportunities though. Shit is shit. it's everywhere, we are all covered in it.

Embrace the shit. It's the only way.

We don't have pigeons

I don't live in a Market square FFS.

I'm not cat-ist, if it was a dog i'd be saying the same. If it was a fox or an elephant I'd shoot it.

But I don't 'embrace the shit'. Neither should you, you know you don't have to live this way?

lissielou - courtesy and respect for humans doesn't extend to having to fret about what a cat is up to - at least not on my planet. If my neighbour's cat craps in my garden i don't get all paranoid about it. I had horses for years so dealt with more poo than most. I think you sound rather precious tbh

Laws are there for a reason. There is a reason it is illegal to leave your dog's poo on the ground. There is another reason that it is legal to leave your cat's poo on the ground.

I seriously think it is bloody strange to ask anyone to come round and clear up their cat's shit. It is not normal for cat 'caretakers' (as the law calls them, not owners) to go round the neighbours each day with a pooper scooper. It is not normal.

My neighbours request is not normal. It is indicative of how she is.

Of the respondents on this thread who think I should go round the neighbours, do you really think this is common place? I still think it is very strange.

Cat shit and horse shit are VERY different items. Cats eat meat and their shit smells disgusting and is a difficult consistency iyswim, horses eat grass and oats and their shit looks like chewed grass and smells like fermented hay. I would rather wade through horse dung every day than accidentally find cat dung in my flower beds while weeding. And that's not because I love horses and dislike cats (I don't love horses- I don't mind them, just don't love em) even though I'm not that fond of cats (more of a dog person). It's just that there is a distinct dung difference.

Op you obviously don't give a flying crap what anyone thinks.

I would say the majority of the respondents on this thread think you are being unreasonable (which is pretty unusual for a cat poo thread).

You aren't going to do it, so move on.

I wish it was the normal thing tbh and I wish I had the nerve to ask my cat owning neighbour to clear it up.

Probably not that practical for her to cone through my house every day though on a poo finding mission.

duchesse - gosh I'm so glad you've told me the difference between cat shit and horse shit - I never knew that

It didn't sound like you knew that

DollyTwat - that is the point I am making. Okay a lot of responses have been that I should go over there each day. However, it isn't normal. None of the respondents have asked their neighbours' with cats. Therefore it isn't a normal request.

Look, bugger the legal stuff, if your pet does a crap on someone else's lawn, even if there is a chance that it might not have been your particular pet THIS TIME, you should clear it up. Dog, cat, whatever. I see that as your basic moral obligation, as a functioning member of a community.

You know what? In my world the cat owner would offer to clear up after her pet and I would laugh and tell her not to be so daft

IME cat owners are accomplished at sticking their fingers in their ears and going tra la la la la la so they don't have to face up to the ishoo of the fact that their little furry darlings fill other people's gardens and public spaces with crap.

But cats seem to get away with it on the whole, whereas if other domestic pets or small children did the same, they probably wouldn't.

duchess, that's a very lovely attempt to make horse shit somehow appealing, but it ain't working... A great steaming pile of horse poo is smelly, horrible and huge. And riders never jump off, armed with a shovel and a bin bag and clean it up. Nor would I expect them too, that would be mad. Just as mad as the 'cat owners should clean my garden' brigade.

I'd rather have a steaming pile of horse poo in my shady borders than a steaming pile of cat shit. DH would actually be beside himself with joy at self-manuring beds.

Since you're fond of quoting the law, if this 'barking' dog your neighbour owns gets hold of a cat defecating or just wandering in their garden, he may kill/seriously injure it. The law is pretty clear that your neighbour will be in no way liable for this. And this cat that you 'caretake' rather than 'own' will be dead.

Your cat. Your responsibility. Either pick up the shit. Or keep your cat in. Or don't own a pet. Not a difficult dilemma really, is it.

I'd love my neighbour to offer
Most of us have resigned ourselves to the fact we have to put up with other people's cat shit. I hate it and wish it eas normal for people to be responsible for their cat

OP then why ask in this section?

"Laws are there for a reason. There is a reason it is illegal to leave your dog's poo on the ground. There is another reason that it is legal to leave your cat's poo on the ground."

And what are those reasons?

Cat shit is as vile, smelly and germ filled as dog shit. And there are constant threads on here about people objecting to finding it in their gardens. So it's as much of a nuisance as uncleaned up dog shit too.

You have a pet you don't want to take full responsibility for and as far as I am concerned the law is only different for cat shit and dog shit because it is that bit more difficult to stop a cat leaving it's own garden and fouling someone elses than it is to stop a dog.

It's not because cats like to roam more than dogs or because they are free spirits or because they shit rainbow drops so they need to be allowed free run of the neighbourhood. It's because they can climb and jump higher than a dog over a normal sized garden fence and nobody has come up with a way to stop them that doesn't involve being kept indoors or in pens.

It should be commonplace for the owner of an animal to be responsible for cleaning up after it in public and in other people's gardens and there shouldn't have to be a law to make that happen, people should just have the moral decency to do it.

It's not like anyone has told you to scour the neighbourhood looking for your own cats shit, but this particular neighbour has approached you saying she has a problem with your pets shitting in her garden and has asked you to solve that problem. And since she has, it shouldn't take a law for you to act upon her request.

My wife's cousins in ~Ireland keep dogs. They live in the country, but don't want the dogs escaping their large garden.

The dogs have a collar that gives them a mild electric shock if the pass a wire buried in the boundary. Nowadays they know not to cross the boundary even if they haven't got their collar on.

OP - if you wanted to you could get this for your cat. It would stop it, inevitably, shitting in other people's gardens.

I'm biased - one shat in my children's sandpit.

If I were your neighbour I'd be flinging them back over your wall (the shit not the cat, though there's a thought!!!) if you don't pick them up. Where I live now we have trouble with fox crap. It's disgusting, but at least they have the excuse of being wild animals.

Well, it is up to you of course. I think if my neighbor asked me (if I had an outdoor cat) to do it, I would feel morally responsible. Even if I disliked the neighbors.

If I were the person having animals use my garden for a litter box, I would install a motion sensor sprinkler, not sure about wintertime though. What do outdoor cats do in the winter when the ground is frozen, or snow covered?

Perhaps suggest to your neighbor the motion sensor sprinkler? She can turn it off when she wants to go outside.

'Of the respondents on this thread who think I should go round the neighbours, do you really think this is common place? I still think it is very strange.' It is probably strange because most garden owners don't have the neck your neighbour has, but most would love to do what she has done.

Alistron, you can usually tell it's catpoo because they cover it, making it more likely that an unwitting gardener will end up getting it on his or her hands. If it was dog poo you could see it and avoid it or shovel it up. With cat poo it's usually too late.