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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:
chesterberry · 15/09/2014 11:53

About five people on the last page or so have said something along the lines of 'I feel bad about it but what can I do?'

The answer is really simple. Keep your fucking cats indoors ... If you think it's cruel to keep a cat indoors then don't get a cat.

I do see your point on this one, however I have had a cat for six years and she has been an outdoor cat for six years. When I got her where she would poo genuinely didn't cross my mind. It would be cruel to suddenly keep an outdoor cat indoors all of the time. In the future I would think again before getting another cat if I lived in a built up area as I think the problem is worse in terraced houses with small gardens and no local woodland/fields etc. I have lived around cats (mine and neighbour's) all my lives but only came across cat poo in my garden when I lived in a terraced house in a built up area with rows of small gardens. Most houses had cats and cats did poo on my lawn. In the future knowing this is such a problem for some people perhaps I would consider keeping an indoor cat or not getting a cat, but with the cat I have now in the garden I have now (where a cat fence is not an option) I really do wonder what I can do (not that I have any reason to believe my cat is causing a nuisance I might add, nobody has ever expressed that and most of my neighbours have cats themselves anyway)?

"I find it quite surprising how much it seems to bother people."

Really? Because you thought, er, that cat poo was appealing in some way?

Of course I didn't think it was appealing. I just didn't realise people saw it as such a problem. As I mentioned up-thread I once lived in a house where the neighbour's cat would shit on my path every day. I wasn't particularly happy about it but I would clean it up (and with a shovel it really wasn't such an unpleasant job to just scoop and toss) and it didn't ever occur to me to feel any anger towards either my neighbour or her cat. I just saw it as another inevitable problem that comes with owning a garden, like litter or bird/fox poo etc. Having read this thread I can see that it obviously really bothers some people but I am surprised that anybody feels so strongly about it. As I have said I do feel guilty to think my cat could be making any of my neighbours feel like this (although I have no reason to think they do) and in the future maybe it will make me think differently about getting a cat if I live somewhere built up but it is a problem I hadn't ever considered before getting my cat.

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 11:57

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EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 15/09/2014 12:01

Keep your fucking cats indoors
they do fuckloads of damage to plants and seedlings as well. People spend money and time on their gardens only for other people's animals to wreck them

Speaking for myself, I don't have "fucking" cats - they've been neutered.
Most of our neighbours have cats, who all visit our garden, along with our own. We manage to grow a substantial amount of fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers with no problem whatsoever. Smile

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 15/09/2014 12:03

Then I do hope someone knows who you are and reports you to the RSPCA.
Totally unbelievable!

TattyDevine · 15/09/2014 12:04

Animal cruelty disgusts me, ican

Appalling behaviour.

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 12:08

Nobody has the foggiest Wink

splendide · 15/09/2014 12:08

I can't believe you've poisoned a cat ican, that's disgusting. This is why I do keep my cat in - I'm terrified some psycho hurts her.

mrsjavierbardem · 15/09/2014 12:10

I used to live in a neighbourhood FULL of cats and my garden was covered in cat poo. I HATED IT! and I hated the selfishness of the owners who just shrug about it. I think cats can be trained to poo in trays, my sister's cat does. But for those of you that have cats and couldn't care less about where they poo, I think you are so so so selfish. I don't think it's acceptable to have a pet which craps on other people's property it's repulsive. You wouldn't let your child crap in your neighbour's garden would you?

Now we live in a less catted area, phew! And the dog owners pick up 97% of their schiese, so hooray. But the cats here are massive bird killers... such a shame.
I like cats myself but I could not defend owning a pet which fouls other people's property and leaves me saying what can I do? Well don't have a cat!
Simple!

FoxSticks · 15/09/2014 12:20

How fucking predictable. A thread like this always attracts the irrational and cruel. As always someone will hint at quite liking the idea of killing a cat, but they would never do so of course, oh no. Then someone else comes along and threatens to catch cats and dump them somewhere. Then you get the really disgusting people who boast about hurting and killing cats. Every single time on threads like this. You are an idiot ican I hope you get prosecuted.

jengnr, what about the rest of Britain's creatures and critters crapping in your garden? Should they all be rounded up and locked away too? Once the cats are all confined to their homes and gardens how are you going to make your garden a shit free zone?

I have also owned house cats and outdoor cats and think in general cats have a better quality of life when they are allowed outside. I don't know where my cat goes to the toilet, sometimes at home and sometimes away from home. I'm not going to lock him up anytime soon though.

DogCalledRudis · 15/09/2014 12:25

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icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 12:36

splendide if there were more cat verminowners like you, the world would be a better place.

FoxSticks you've given me an idea there about rounding them together and then dumping.

FoxSticks · 15/09/2014 12:40

Rtft you idiot, it's already been posted by another cretin.

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 12:42

No thanks. Sometimes I RTFT, sometimes I don't. Depends if I am especially instead in the subject or not.

calculatorsatdawn · 15/09/2014 12:43

A while ago I posted about cats coming into my home and tormenting my house rabbit, apparently this was my fault for a) having a rabbit and b)having the windows open on a sunny day. They also come in a claw my living room furniture, again, silly me for having doors and windows that open.

The second a cat leaves your eyeline you have no idea what it is doing and the owners couldn't give a monkeys.

(When I find them I pop them back outside, hurting them really isn't on)

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 12:46

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calculatorsatdawn · 15/09/2014 12:52

Thing is though, ican, the incidents I mentioned in my post above actually happened.

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 12:53

I'm sorry you went through that. I hope it doesn't happen anymore. I was absolutely horrified when that incident happened to us. Thankfully it's been rectified now!

ACheesePuff · 15/09/2014 12:57

YABU

Gardens are not sterile places.

Your flower borders will be full of shit:

hedgehog shit
squirrel shit
worm shit
bird shit
rabbit shit
fox shit
snail shit
weasel shit
mouse shit
rat shit
vole shit

What difference will a bit of cat shit make?

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 13:02

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ACheesePuff · 15/09/2014 13:23

Well, I have a couple of foxes which frequent our garden, I notice their poo a lot more than the multiple number of cats which visit the garden. I have 2 cats, so does our next door neighbour and the next door bu one neighbour. In fact the street is full of cats. I have never seen a single cat poo on a lawn or path, they always use the borders. The foxes however use thier poo to mark their territory, doing it on the grass or at he entrance to the drive. How is cat poo worse than fox poo? There are also a pair of doves nesting in one of our trees, they constantly shit so that the ground below their nest is white with it? I must be thick then because i can't see how cat poo buried in my border is worse than that? Grin Some people have weird ideas about poo though!

Sunna · 15/09/2014 13:30

I must be thick then because i can't see how cat poo buried in my border is worse than that?

Yes you are - google toxoplasmosis to find out why.

FoxSticks · 15/09/2014 13:38

I'm pretty sure cheesepuff isn't the thick one on here.

icanmakeyouicecream · 15/09/2014 13:41

Who's the thick one? Ooh let me guess .. Is it me? Grin

cinnamongreyhound · 15/09/2014 13:42

Toxoplasmosis is found in most soil not just cat poo and the majority of people are immune having been exposed to it as small children digging in the dirt.

FoxSticks · 15/09/2014 13:45

It's really not that hard to guess considering I've already called you an idiot and a cretin is it?

Anyway your post about a cat randomly pooing in your house and your child eating it has shown you to be full of cat shit so at least I don't have to worry about the cat you claim to have shot with bleach.