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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

746 replies

PMDD · 02/12/2013 18:17

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.

OP posts:
onlysettleforbutterflies · 02/12/2013 21:24

I always ask my cats not to poo in someone else's garden when they go out, whether they're listening or not I don't know.

I do think the majority of their pooing happens in our garden though and have never had any complaints. Neither will use a litter tray.

Binkyridesagain · 02/12/2013 21:25

The biggest risk to raptors is humans not cats killing vermin or birds.

LST · 02/12/2013 21:26

itcould.. you don't have to stop. That's why it is different to dogs. With the right to roam they loose the right for someone to stop like you'd have to with a dog.

It would take a vile individual to run over a cat and carry on though. I hope my cats shit through people like thats letter boxes.

Idespair · 02/12/2013 21:26

Well, whilst Yanbu to think that cats owners are reasonable not to pick up shite, consider whether it is reasonable to your neighbours to buy and keep an animal that you know full well is going to shit on other people's gardens.

re foxes and other wildlife crapping in gardens, I don't have them in my small enclosed garden (unless tiny like a frog or flying like a bird). I just have other people's cats spoiling the garden my dcs ought to be able to freely play in.

Sparklingbrook · 02/12/2013 21:27

Sadly people that run over cats in cars tend not to stop as 'it's only a cat' whereas the law says you must report it if you hit a dog.

I have reunited three dead cats to their owners due to people not stopping to do the decent thing after hitting them.

ElleBellyBeeblebrox · 02/12/2013 21:28

Just to be clear,I'm sick of the shit and don't like cats, but hate cruelty to animals and think that people putting poison down are cruel and heartless bastards. I can't see anything wrong with me splotching one with my water pistol though.

ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO · 02/12/2013 21:28

Grin@ Whippet.

We have a dog too but cats are far more cunning than dogs, dog would run out barking straight past cat.

The funny thing is, once our fence came down and our dog for maybe three days had access to next doors garden, I was mortified at the thought of her shitting on their lawn, I checked every day, asked DH too as well and told them if they saw anything please tell us.

Morloth · 02/12/2013 21:28

My cat, my problem.

We have had our back yard cat netted so Jess can't roam.

If she did roam and was found inbthe national park we back on to she would be shot and we would be fined.

Why should someone else have to deal with my pet's shit?

D0oinMeCleanin · 02/12/2013 21:28

Yeah coz foxes cannot climb a fence as easily as a cat could can they? Hmm

If the cats can get, the foxes certainly can.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/12/2013 21:28

heart dinosaurs!!! DD would be really happy if she thought those were in her garden. She wouldn't mind their poo, I'm sure. Grin

MidniteScribbler · 02/12/2013 21:29

thebody I'm in Australia. It's a local council rule where I've just moved to.

It's kinder than my previous council. It was legal to shoot roaming animals there.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 02/12/2013 21:31

MrsTP - your DD could have an absolute field day. Remember the bit in Jurassic Park where Laura Dern went and shoved her arms into dinosaur shit, right up to the elbows, looking for what was making them ill?

That could be your DD - you lucky, lucky woman Grin

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 02/12/2013 21:32

People also have freedom to roam the streets. Can I come shit in your garden?

froubylou · 02/12/2013 21:32

She has yet to catch one heartbroken. And even if she did the size and build of her compared to the size of the local cats she would come off a lot worse I think.

And to be honest in our area we did have a problem with the local yoof hunting cats, squirrels and other pets such as guinea pigs and caged rabbits with site hounds and air rifles. This meant those owners who really cared kept their pets in when it was at its height.

So if she had been in her own garden and did catch and hurt a cat I would actually have a limited amount of sympathy for the owners.

Whilst cats seem to be immune to doing what comes naturally to them wherever they want I think it's only fair my dog be allowed to do what she wants (short of biting folk) in her garden?

If the neighbours don't want their moggy mauled by dogs they should have house cats.

My dog is very unlikely to catch one to be fair and as I said would probably come off worse. But it wouldn't be her fault if she did or mine. It would be the owners fault for letting them stray

D0oinMeCleanin · 02/12/2013 21:38

A whippet? I'm thinking you must mean an italian greyhound? Whippets are much bigger than cats. Either breed could catch and kill a cat with ease.

KongKickeroo · 02/12/2013 21:39

Buy your neighbour an ultrasonic cat repellent. Mine was £15 from Amazon and solved our garden cat shit problems overnight. It doesn't hurt them, just makes it unpleasant enough they don't want to hang around to do their business. It doesn't bother my indoor cat.

Sparklingbrook · 02/12/2013 21:39

Unless their owners had trained them not to D0oin*. Wink

LST · 02/12/2013 21:41

A whippet could kill a cat if it had the chance.

Trinpy · 02/12/2013 21:42

D0oin that's not really true. Foxes cannot get into my garden, for example, because I live in a row of terraced houses. All our gardens back onto another row of houses and we are sealed at both ends by very high walls. Nothing can get in from outside except birds and other flying animals. The walls in between houses are much lower so the cats from the houses along the entire row can access our garden easily. So I know full well that the daily mounds of poo are from my neighbours' cats rather than wild animals.

If you are unlucky enough to have the only garden with flowerbeds in a long row of houses where almost all your neighbours have a cat, it does start to grate a bit.

Rosduk · 02/12/2013 21:42

I am absolutely at the end of my tether from clearing up cat poo. It is everywhere.

I have spent hundreds of pounds on pellets, beepers, sprays etc but My neighbour with four cats like you doesn't give a sh@t that I have to clear it up.

I know someone who caught toxoplasmosis from clearing cat poo which affected her unborn child who is now heavily disabled and having lost a child myself at 27 weeks - a week after scrubbing cat poo off my car floor, I am now at 15 weeks petrified of losing this one if my little girl treads in poo and drags it through the house, car or I randomly touch it somehow.

This may seem unlikely and I may seem paranoid, but after 'possible infection' as the cause on my sons post-Mortum I wish my neighbours would take responsibility and just clear it up.

TeddyBare · 02/12/2013 21:43

thebody, I'm not sure why you find this scary. "Culled" is a word with a specific meaning which applies in this context, it's just accurate use of language. Which word would you prefer?
Cats aren't really a problem for me atm. I currently live in Germany and as far as I've seen people are much more responsible for their pets than in the UK. I've never seen dog poo in a pavement. Cats are mostly kept in houses because people are worried that they might be stolen or run over if they're let out. There is also much more focus on social duty so I suspect allowing your pet to harm wildlife and bother your neighbours would be considered entitled and irresponsible. If I ever live in the UK again though I would have no qualms about culling a (seemingly) feral cat if it was damaging my property or limiting my ability to enjoy my garden.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 02/12/2013 21:43

Whilst cats seem to be immune to doing what comes naturally to them wherever they want I think it's only fair my dog be allowed to do what she wants (short of biting folk) in her garden?

Because a cat shitting in a garden is totally the same as a dog attacking/hurting/killing a cat, isn't it?

D0oinMeCleanin · 02/12/2013 21:44

Or they were bessies with the cat Grin

Whippety foster chases our cat and is then unsure what to do when the cat refuses to be chased Grin

Whiggy snuggles with him. She is scared of all other cats and house rabbits.

usualsuspect · 02/12/2013 21:46

Culling cats?

This thread is bonkers.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 02/12/2013 21:46

Why is it that (on MN at least) dogs shit on the street and people take umbrage with the owners, but cats shit in the garden and people take umbrage with the cats?

I've yet to see a thread about dogshit where someone says that they'd happily kill a dog!

Why are cats fair game?

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