To ask what can be done about murderous 'antisocial' neighbourhood cats!?

[Flingmoo]

My grandmother has recently had new neighbours moving in who have two cats and are now acquiring a third.

The cats are a nuisance. Like most cats, they obviously leave their mess in everyone's garden but that is nothing compared to the killings! My nan woke up this morning to crows on her driveway pulling the guts out of a dead little bunny rabbit that was killed by the cats.

They have killed or frightened off all the little birds in the neighbourhood. My nan lives in a semi rural area, she is a widow and one of the small pleasures in her life is to wake up in the morning and look out at the lovely little birds that visit her garden. Now the birds are all gone and they're killing the rabbits too. It's upsetting my nan and I wish there was something that could be done about it.

I don't know what to suggest. Obviously the neighbours have the right to keep pets but it seems unfair that everyone else has to suffer for it and local wildlife has to die for it! Maybe they should be kept indoors?

I'd be interested to hear any suggestions including any comments from cat owners - I assume cat lovers will think this whole post sounds unreasonable?

Sadly its a huge problem. My gran loved watching the little birds come to her bird table but in the last few years of her life they didnt due to the increase in cats. She just gave up putting food out for them as she said it broke her heart to see the cats take the birds.

Not sure there is a solution tbh. Our next door neighbour who had a cat handed out water guns to all the neighbours when they got a cat. (She was a lovely owner) Never used it as their cat was very friendly and the cat and i used to sun bathe together and to my knowledge never killed in our garden but certainly did its business.

I'm a cat lover... but I don't think your post sounds unreasonable, I can understand why your grandma's upset. The difficulty is what she can do about it, as cats are natural predators and many people feel they should be allowed to hunt freely.

My friend swears by lion manure to keep neighbours cats out of her garden! She orders it online and uses it on flowerbeds like compost, apparently cats won't enter territory that smells of big cats!

I've heard that orange-peel sprinkled on flower-beds deters cats from digging as they don't like the smell, and some people put those metal cat silhouette things in garden, i think they have glowing eyes that frighten domestic cats!

Hope you find a solution.

I have a rescue cat, and when we collected her from the shelter, we were advised to exercise/play with her at home as much as we could, as this would decrease the natural desire to hunt outside; we live in a woodland area, and our elderly neighbours enjoy feeding the birds.

We make sure that we play with the cat every morning and every evening. She has a tunnel to run down, and we throw or drag toys for her, or get her to chase our hands under a blanket. It seems to be working, as she's never yet killed anything, and the birds still happily visit the neighbours' garden.

Maybe your neighbours need to invest more time in playing with their pets?

Some hats are excellent hunters and some are rubbish.i don't think you can or should stop a good hunter from hunting.Maybe explain to your nan the benefits of keeping on top of teh rodent population

Has anyone seen the cats kill all these animals? Is everyone just assuming it's the cats when it could be other animals? I.e foxes

Perhaps you could suggest that the neighbours put collars on the cats with little bells on them (available in all pet shops) the collars should have a safety release catch on them to prevent cat strangulation, but the bells should forewarn a lot of would be prey.

I'm not sure that keeping the cats inside would be fair on them, but I agree it's a shame if wildlife is dying.

Suggest your neighbours cat proof their garden. It is the simplest way. They are being so selfish right now at making everyone else put up with their cats.

Did they definitely kill the rabbit though? Our cat used to chase our pet rabbit (usually instigated by the rabbit) but if she had tried to hurt her our little bunny would have turned evil and kicked her into the back of next week- rabbits have very strong back legs. Most domestic cats cba to risk a good kicking, a fox would though. I would put money on it being a fox not a cat.

YABU. The world is full of responsible cat owners, who never need to control their fur babies because they do nothing but sleep all day and night and never bother wildlife, so it's not necessary to keep them confined and it's cruel anyway.

And they never shit anywhere but in the litter tray. Really.

There have actually been studies carried out that indicate cats are not having as much of an effect on wild bird populations as people and the media suspected. I study this stuff for a living. They tend to pick off the sick or injured birds that would die regardless.

However - there are still steps cat owners can take to minimise the impact their pets have on wildlife. One important one is to keep cats in at night, as this is when cats naturally hunt. My two have always come in and night and I can count on one hand the number of birds they've killed in 5 years.

Citrus does work to discourage cats - plus cat off crystals. Don't waste money on sonar deterrents.

Best thing to do would be to talk to the neighbours with the cats. Suggest they keep them in at night and sell it to them as better for cat anyway as it will help to protect from fights with other cats and road traffic accidents, both of which happen more at night to cats.

They can also put in flower beds, raised beds and nice shrubby areas, all of which will encourage the cat to stay in their own garden.

our neighborhood cats are a nightmare. They shit all over our vegetable patch. I am sick of having to go out and check for cat poo, then remove it, before i let the kids in the garden. Its a pita. I don't want a cat, I certainly don't want to pick other peoples cat shit up. Fur babies or not.

Any cat I catch on my property goes to the pound. I've been flamed on here for it before, but I really don't care. We have laws here about keeping cats confined from dusk to dawn, and if someone chooses to break the law, then that is not my problem and they can cop the fine. Cat owners who allow their pets to kill wildlife and annoy neighbours are irresponsible pet owners.