Should owners clean up after cats?

[Sillysausage2]

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?

I really don't get the "other animals poo in your garden so you should just suck up cat shit too" argument.

Barring a notable feral / stray cat population, the only reason non-cat owners end up with cat shit in their garden is because another person has chosen to get a cat for their own gratification and a direct impact of this decision is that a previously faeces-free garden is now a cat toilet.

Not everyone lives in areas with a fox population, a hedgehog population, a badger population, so not everyone is already dealing with mountains of wild animal poo. But the majority of neighbourhoods will have at least one cat who considers anyone's garden fair game.

I have lived in five different houses in different parts of the country. I have never had a problem with fox poo or any other obvious kind of wild animal shit beyond a bit of bird poo. I have had to repeatedly clear up cat shit from four out of those six gardens, even when my own cats were house cats or I didn't have a cat at the time. It is annoying and it isn't pleasant to come upon it unexpectedly while gardening, and I have every sympathy with people who would prefer not to have to deal with it when they have chosen not to have a cat but someone in their vicinity has (although obviously I would never condone any cruelty to the cat itself - it's not its fault it's doing what instinct tells it to do).

And I say all that as a cat lover and owner!

So have you approached your MP to get the law changed about roaming cats? Seems the obvious solution, really.

Good luck with it.

Keeping cats inside is pretty cruel in my opinion. I have had both an indoor and an outdoor cat and the indoor cat was overweight, had poo and wee issues and was petrified of the outside because it had never grown accustomed to it and shat itself every time it saw a stranger. When I see the joy my outdoor cats get, sunbathing in the long grass, climbing trees, chasing moths, climbing fences, sniffing all the interesting animal smells, socializing with other cats, etc etc. I feel they have a much richer more natural and healthier life. They might adaptto being indoors alone but it doesn't mean it's best.
If someone confined a dog to the house they would be deemed cruel. Cats naturally roam. They are not pack animals. Not many cats will take to walking on a lead so that's not a solution either.

Funny why some cats shit on your doorsteps? Karma for the cat hating? I wonder?
They've never shit on mine, ever, and there are at least 8 cats which visit our garden daily at the moment, and in 40 years of houses in various places I've never had to pick cat poo off the drive or path. Most cats usually go in the same spot daily anyway in my experience. So when I'm gardening I know where the cat tolet is likely to be.

I reckon patios and decking are your main problems. The ones with proo are the same people that keep their gardens like an inside space, all hard surfaces, and silly pots, which are no good for a cat poo. Poor cat needs to poo, looks around, can't see anywhere soft to dig so has no choice but to poo on the patio.

Poor cat needs to poo, looks around, can't see anywhere soft to dig so has no choice but to poo on the patio.

Train it to shit in its own garden. Poor cat, my arse.

Maybe you should start a cat training service for all us lazy cat owners Sunna. You could earn a fortune and show us how it's done.

Fox sticks get your garden cat proofed so your neighbours don't have to put up with your cats shit! Simple really! Or keep your vermin in.... Or don't bother getting a cat until you are in a position to take responsibility for it!

Hi all,

This thread has generated lots of reports here at MNHQ.
We have been through this thread and removed several posts that we feel are beyond the pale.

Please do try and post within the guidelines or we will have to remove this thread for having far too many holes in it.

Many thanks

Delete my comment all you want. only a dick head picks a cat up off the street to inconvenience the owner.

GabbyandCo - 'Vermin' is defined in the OED as a mammal or bird injurious to game or crops, eg, foxes, rodents or noxious insects. We are talking about cats here. Are you quite sure you're following the same thread

As I suggested before, have you tried writing to your MP, if you feel so strongly? I would be most interested to see how your recommendation progresses.

Gabby, I've already said on here that I wouldn't want my cat to be confined to my garden because I feel that would affect his quality of life. He's very happy being able to roam. There is a tray here if he wants to use it but I'd be being disingenuous if I claimed that was the only place he went to toilet. I haven't had any complaints though so can only assume he isn't troubling anyone. As stated previously if I did have a complaint I would do my best to find a solution as good relations with my neighbours are important to me.

I do find these claims that all cats can be trained if only their owners would make the effort dubious. Just pointing out that someone could earn a fortune if they came up with a successful method of training.

I'm not sure what the process of deleting comments achieves. It only serves to disrupt the flow of the conversation, IMV.

Completely agree LST.

Also agree, LST

Thank you fox.. It got me rather pissed off in all honesty!

I'm not surprised, I was amazed I wasn't deleted, reading back I look like a complete choppsy arse randomly calling people idiots and other names but it was justified!

vermin [v?r?m?n]
Use vermin in a sentence

noun
Vermin are animals, especially small ones, that are destructive pests.

Cat poo is only dangerous to pregnant women! Dog poo on the other hand causes blindness in children!! YANBU but just wanted to point that out

Oh, Gabby, you're not reading Webster's are you?

Vermin (pronunciation - v??m?n)
"Definition: Wild animals which are believed to be harmful to crops, farm animals, or game, or which carry disease, e.g. rodents"

OED definition as I stated further up ^
Also, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "verminous" can also relate to a vile person.

Verminous is a great word! Must try and remember it.

Anyway, stop calling my precious mog vermin Gabby or I'll have to report you for name calling

You have obviously never owned a cat Sunna

Would one who causes harm to domestic pets be described as verminous? I think it might just describe them very well.

And yes, it was probably wrong to feel pity for the cat having to poo on a patio, it probably doesn't mind that much, more of an inconvenience for it. Softly dug soil is probably just a desired but unnecessary luxury.

Please play nicely everyone as this thread is too entertaining to be deleted.

I don't let my cats out because it's wrong to let them crap everywhere.

That and I don't want them to be roadkill.

I don't agree with owning an animal I am not fully responsible for. My cats, my poo to clean.

If I remember correctly Sunna hasn't had a cat but she had a neighbour who told her their cat only crapped it in its own tray gullible can also be found in Websters and OED and therefore all cats can be trained to return home for a crap.