My cats and cat poo in neighbours' gardens

[Blahdeblah1]

I moved into my house a year ago and have three cats. My neighbours are all quite elderly and have lived there for decades, they are all keen gardeners and very proud of their gardens.

Several months ago my next door neighbour started complaining to me about my cats pooing on his drive, so every time I go round and clear it up. Although to be honest I'm not convinced that the poo is from my cats.

Anyway, I'm now having complaints about cat poo from people who live way down the street, that my cats are pooing in their garden, although they admitted they hadn't actually seen the cat that did it. I live on a large suburban housing estate where there are loads of cats.

AIBU for thinking that cats are cats and I shouldn't be expected to be picking up any cat poo really, and to tell my neighbours to deal with it themselves and stop complaining to me? I can't control where my cats poo, they are not dogs.

It's just a turd. It's a turd that can blind a child. Don't you care about that?

MythicalKings

A child can get an infection from a dirty sharp object such as glass and die. A child could trip over the patio and crack their head. They could fall out of a tree and break their neck. They could slip on wet grass and knock their teeth out on a stone if they landed on it.

There are many "dangers" to kids outside, it's your job to supervise them.

Cat lovers/owners, I don't think comparing cat shit to "wildlife poo" is a great idea. If I have rats, squirrels, rabbits, etc. causing a nuisance in my garden, I am allowed to dispatch them. The cats as analogous to wildlife analogy equates cats with vermin.

I think it's better to keep cats on the level of pets and to treat them accordingly. Owners must be responsible for their pets.

AmI

I have a cat , who is so old she rarely goes out, and has litter tray). And there are lots of cats around (densely-populated area). I am out at work all day but a rigid regime of water-pistoling, plus lion dung has stopped all crapping in flower beds.

I do get how awful cat poo is - my own cat, in younger days, would poo in our garden

WhattodowithMum and you don't have any moral problems with that at all? Wow.

I love cats. I serve two cats.

If a near neighbour complained I would pop round and poo pick.

I wouldn't do the entire street though.

Even as someone who's cats don't shit in people's gardens and as someone who regularly tells neighbours I will clean up if my cats start doing it, if somebody rudely told me I had to, or demanded I kept them in, then I definitely wouldn't

Again I will mention the woman on tv who wanted a fox shot and killed because it kept shitting on her lawn and was 'ruining her life'. Until it turned out to be her own cat then she went off the idea of killing an animal for shitting on her lawn.

She didn't want to pick up Poo even when she realised it was her cat.

There are many "dangers" to kids outside, it's your job to supervise them.

You really don't get it, do you? Dangers in my garden created by me I am responsible for. Why should I have to inspect my garden on a daily basis because you're too selfish to train your shitty cat or confine it to your own garden. As it happens we have cat proof fences now, maybe you should invest in some and be a good neighbour.

Of course I do lashes. I just wonder why you don't.

The problem with cats, on the basis of this thread - is some of the people who own them and then refuse to take responsibility.

Exactly, Ali.

MythicalKings because a garden is an outdoor space. You can't exert the same level of control over it.

And no thanks, I don't like keeping my pets caged :)

It's a pet or a ferrel animal. It is not both simultaneously.

One category brings risk, the other responsibility.

Until today I'd have pointed out that the best way to avoid cat poo in your garden is to get a cat - my cats never poo on their own territory. Today however, one of them weed in my daughter's buggy, as you may have seen on my thread. So in conclusion, who knows who's right?

Misses point of thread.

PS Cats are different from dogs and you cannot possibly keep tabs on them in the way you do with dogs. They're completely independent.

Sorry OP but I think you are a lazy cat owner and I wonder if you didn't like them so much and didn't have them for pets how you would feel about coming home everyday to a pile of cat poo in your garden.

No doubt you will say that you would just remove it and not be bothered, but in reality I bet you would.

Whattodo my point was that to casually talk of wild animals as vermin and talk about killing them was morally disgusting.

And no thanks, I don't like keeping my pets caged

It's only a cat - is it more important than a child's sight?

I don't think so.

milly

Did you miss the bit where she says she picks up her cat's poo?

Should she pick up all cat's poo?

MythicalKings as I said if you're not supervising your kids that's down to you.

My point is your cat is your pet; yourresponsibly.

It may be lawful to let your cat roam free and shit in your neighbour's garden, but it's not moral. How would you like it if your neighbugh ours also ignored what is moral and were only constrained by what is lawful?

It would be a very nasty and selfish world.

Whattodo my cats are animals, sentient beings, I am not going to keep them caged up because some nincompoops are offended by a shit on the grass

Or because some nincompoops don't want to see children blinded. Nice.

Mythical it's not my job to police your kids, Jesus Christ.

If you are not going to be responsible for your pet. And you are going to behave in a selfish/antisocial manner, you can expect to bring out the worst in people around you.