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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Should owners clean up after cats?

321 replies

Sillysausage2 · 14/09/2014 00:33

I'm a responsible dog owner and clean up after my dog. Unfortunately I think the scent of my dog attracts cats to my front garden, I watched 2 come and shit in my garden this afternoon! LO plays in the front garden and apparently cat shit is very dangerous, AIBU to be a bit pissed off with this?

OP posts:

bouncingbelle · 14/09/2014 00:35

Yes! cats are free roaming creatures and impossible to monitor where they have pooed!!

Fanjango · 14/09/2014 00:36

YANBU to be a bit pissed off but the owner can't do anything about it. Cats roam,and poo, where they want, it's natural. Put some repellant down to deter the cats.

MrsWinnibago · 14/09/2014 00:37

It would be hard to police...

LovleyRitaMeterMaid · 14/09/2014 00:38

AlpacaLypse · 14/09/2014 00:39

yanbu to be pissed off but not a huge amount you can do. Cats range around pretty freely and I think the legal status of their doings is the same as eg. bird poo.

Nothing to stop you making your property as unattractive to visiting cats as possible though! There are various deterrents available, some apparently more effective than others... see past threads in The Litter Tray for ideas.

I doubt the scent of your dog is attracting cats btw, it's more likely that you have lovely dug over borders that are perfect for digging a small hole and poo-ing in as far as the average feline mind is concerned

Latara · 14/09/2014 00:42

I clean up after my cat every day! She comes in specially from the garden to use her nice clean litter tray. Why should she dirty her bottom outside where there may be male cats lurking?? :)

Original poster

Sillysausage2 · 14/09/2014 00:43

There's no freshly dug borders, front garden isn't walled so anyone can walk through, cats included unfortunately!
I don't want to spray anything to deter them that might hurt the dog, is there anything else that might work?

OP posts:

HeartShapedBox · 14/09/2014 00:45

as a fellow dog owner, I think yabu.

they're cats, its equivalent to seeking redress for seagulls shitting on your Windows.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 14/09/2014 00:48

Yanbu.

If the cats happen to be on a lead at the time

Fanjango · 14/09/2014 00:48

@ heart!!
Buy a bigger dog?

Original poster

Sillysausage2 · 14/09/2014 00:49

It's one of my neighbours that owns 2 of them though, my dog has escaped once or twice and I've always gone out to clean up after her, even out of their gardens so why shouldn't they lift the cat shit out of mine?

OP posts:

Original poster

Sillysausage2 · 14/09/2014 00:51

The dog is big enough! I'm tempted to let her out after them in the hope it might deter them but she'd chase them like a lunatic and I wouldn't get her back!

OP posts:

Fanjango · 14/09/2014 00:52

Your neighbour may own 2 but there will be loads of other cats within roaming distance. You can't be sure who's poop is who's, unless you CCTV it and then approach each offenders owner to remove their cats poop. Or you could jus take it cat unfriendly. Sharp stones over any soil patches that are regularly fouled may help.

HeartShapedBox · 14/09/2014 00:53

because cats aren't technically owned?

that's why (I think, I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong) you must report it if you run over a dog, but you dont even need to pull over for a cat

Fanjango · 14/09/2014 00:54

Get a super soaker. They don't lilt them at all . And it's great fun!

evelynj · 14/09/2014 00:55

YABU. Cats are free spirits & they bury their poo. You can but lion dung pellets if you don't want them to poo in your garden

MidniteScribbler · 14/09/2014 01:04

YANBU, but you'll be hard pressed to find many cat owners willing to take responsibility for their pets.

Chairthing · 14/09/2014 01:07

YANBU about being pissed off, but as for the cleaning up thing... not really practical.

Lion dung, or a motion activated squirter.

PS cat shit isn't as dangerous as people make out. You're more likely to catch toxoplasmosis from undercooked meat. The oocysts are only produced by a cat for a short time after the initial infection. So whilst there is a risk of infection from cat faeces, it's not very dangerous if you teach your son basic hygiene and/or supervise him when in the garden.

wigglylines · 14/09/2014 01:18

Cats do not all bury their poo. You do not see it because they shit in neighbours' gardens, not yours!

I've had cats for years. I never saw their poo and was sure they buried it. The cat I grew up did some of the time at least).

I now don't have a cat and it's a revelation. My garden is covered with cat poo. The neighbours both have cats, and they poo in my garden, not theirs as far as I can tell. They don't bury it. It's just there on the lawn. When we came back from a week's holiday there were four poos on the lawn, together with a partially-cat-chewed bird being eaten by a giant slug

I'd never really thought about where my cats pooed. Now I suspect it was in my neighbours' gardens.

My garden is tiny and it's really spoiling my enjoyment of it, I have to check for poo every time my toddler wants to go out (probably one there every two days. One there right now - I can smell it but haven't found it yet).

If you're sure which cat it is, I think it's absolutely fine to ask the owner to clean up after it. Why not? If my cat was pooing on my neighbours' garden (and it was definitely my cat) then I would be embarrassed and want to help pick it up.

however · 14/09/2014 01:21

Yes. If they don't, deposit it on their doorstep. There should be a special place in hell for cat owners who do the shrug and "eh? What can I dooooo?" thing.

chesterberry · 14/09/2014 01:21

I have a cat. She is free roaming and there is no way I could possibly know every place she poos and clean it up but if a neighbour told me my cat had pooed in her garden then I would be happy to take responsibility and clean it up following a polite request.

I would be happy to do this as often ass necessary but unless the cat is always pooing in the same place in the same neighbour's garden it would be near impossible for me to monitor my cat's movements and clean it up immediately. I would only expect to clean up after my cat if I were asked to do so by the owner of the garden and if the owner had seen my cat pooing and so knew it was my cat.

If you know that it is definitely your neighbour's cats pooing in your garden then YWNBU to mention it to him/her and ask if it might be possible for them to clean it up. If they're reasonable people hopefully they might be willing to take responsibility.

If you haven't seen the cats or don't know who they belong to YANBU to feel pissed off, but really there is nothing you can do - you just can't expect cat owners to be following their cats over back-fences into other people's gardens armed with a poop-a-scooper just waiting to clean up after them.

however · 14/09/2014 01:23

Evelynj, why should she fork out for lion poi? The cat owner should.

Not that I'm convinced it works.

however · 14/09/2014 01:23

Oops, poo.

peachgirl · 14/09/2014 01:46

One of these could be the answer!

There are different brands, that's just the first one that came up in my search.

MidniteScribbler · 14/09/2014 01:48

Mythbusters have already busted the lion poo deterrent.

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