to think it is totally reasonable for cat owners not to pick up poo

[PMDD]

I mean how can they?

I have 2 cats and now 1 puppy. I watch my puppy when she is out and know where she is, I can see if she is pooing. If she disappears under a bush I check (with my sense of smell) and pick up if necessary. I carry poo bags everywhere.

However, my cats come and go as they please. When they were kittens I had a litter tray that they used, but as they started to go outside with a cat flap, they stopped using the litter tray.

My (ex) neighbour asked me to come and pick up after my cats, but as there are lots and lots of cats in the area, there was no knowing that it was my cats.

I am not a bad pet owner. But I think it is unreasonable to expect cat owners to have the same poo pick up responsibility as dog owners.

I guess it comes down to whether you see an animal as an animal, or some kind of being with suspect intentions. I don't mind animals coming into my garden. Whether those animals are wild or not doesn't matter. Dogs are a little different, because in neighbourhoods, they're generally walked on leads, and there is the slight possibility of them causing fear or harm.

On the other hand, I have never in my life found cat shit the overwhelming problem that some posters are claiming it is, nor have I spoken to anyone in my life who claims that. Never.

Wow. I guess scientific research can go fuck itself then...after all, a few anecdotes of cat owners not being blinded on a forum must mean its all nasty lies by Mr. Science.

Don't try that one, when your posts were just about the most unscientific claptrap I have seen, along with "animals which kill for fun are evil."

There may well have been occasions where a child has been blinded by rubbing cat shit into its eyes. However this does not mean the risks of this happening because of cats being in a garden are significant. The statistics on dogs harming children and adults though, are significant. I do not say this to demonise dogs - I like dogs.

I thought it was dog poo that caused blindness, not cat poo?

Afaik, cat poo maybe unpleasent but is not generally harmful to healthy children and adults.

I'm not the one using anecdotes as an argument against a scientific fact. You can't pretend cat shit can't blind, when it does. Anything else you say is just trying to minimize the fact you think your cat deserves freedom more than children need sight.

OP it is virtually impossible to prevent your cat messing up other people's gardens.

The thing is you should have thought of that before getting a cat.

See, even the Daily Fail doesn't think cat shit is deadly and they thing everything is deadly

While we can argue this utter bullshit all day long, unfortunately for those who are frothing about evil cats and entitled owners, there is, realistically, very little going to be done about cats shitting in gardens.

You can ask your neighbours to pick it up. I imagine most would be obliging. If they're not, that's unlucky.

If you kill or harm a cat, you're breaking the law. Simple as that, really. Life is full of things we wish other people wouldn't do. I'd rather have a cat in my garden than listen to toddlers screaming and shouting in a garden next door. But I don't think my neighbours are selfish and entitled to have one, or tell them they shod keep their DC in the house.

Should.

Anything else you say is just trying to minimize the fact you think your cat deserves freedom more than children need sight.

Yes, that's exactly what I think. You've got me there.

Hester makes all the children blind. Pass it on.

Yes, let's laugh at blinding kids. Fuckwits.

A child-blinding fuckwit. Not been called that before.

And there I was thinking you were, you know, all rational and scientific and everything.

I think this thread has got very much out of hand!

Sorry, I went away and kind of lost touch with the wavers :(

Come back, Hester!

But I can't keep up! I'm not regular enough!

OK

Fieta I have a dog that could trump yours though rescue, a 28kg Pitbull, so I trump your threat except I am a normal human

Oh dear, did I say animals which kill for fun are evil? Not quite, but something like it, but it was in the context of a question as to why it was so wrong for a dog who was chasing a cat while protecting it's property to do so, and if it dared injure the cat should be put down (?), yet cat owners see it as perfectly normal behaviour for an animal (yes, a cat) to kill and maim small mammals and birds for entertainment. I have NEVER heard of a cat who actually ate anything it had caught. They play with them, sometimes taking them back to owners as trophies but rarely, if ever, do they eat them because they are NOT hungry - they have been fed by the owner. As I pointed out, even wild animals, such as lions don't kill for fun, trophies or any other reason than hunger and to survive. No cat owner, or indeed anyone else for that matter, has as yet seen fit to reply to my question. If you can train a dog not to chase cats, if you can even train a tiger to allow a human to put his head in its mouth (not sure why you would want to, but it has been done) why can you not train your cat not to kill birds - and more to the point of the thread - not to shit in other people's gardens? Interesting how no-one is prepared to even acknowledge the question, just picked up on the "evil cat" throwaway remark.

I have no pets and hate cat poo in my garden but dont think the cats owners could feasibly know everywhere their cats had pooed! They aren't being malicious they are animals. As for harming one you found crapping in your garden well thats simply not normal, seek help. They are defenceless if your dc had a little playmate over and the messed the toilet and left it would you beat them up?!

Foxes kill for fun. Seals kill for fun. Dolphins kill for fun. Those are just three examples. Sorry but you are wrong.