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AIBU?

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Original poster

Is DM or neighbour bu re dead cats?

142 replies

Oysterbabe · 27/12/2016 22:42

DM's neighbour has a swimming pool, which is actually a huge hole in the ground containing 2ft of stinking stagnant water. Over the last few years 5 cats have drowned in the pool, 3 of which were owned by DM and 2 by other neighbours. Also a fox, countless rodents and hedgehogs have met their end in the death pool.

After the first of DM's cats drowned the neighbour seemed genuinely upset and agreed to cover the pool. It didn't happen and a while later DM lost another cat. There was another discussion about covering it or at least putting something in it that trapped animals could climb on to, again it didn't happen and recently cat number 3 drowned too.

DM was devastated by the loss of each cat. I suspect emotions were running high and she was not particularly polite when discussing the latest one with neighbour. Neighbour is angry that DM went onto her property to look for the cat when she was out and has now said she is not going to do anything about covering the pool and DM should keep her pets off her land.

DM is very upset and anxious about her cats. She keeps them in all night and worries herself sick whenever they put a paw outside in the day. They can't really be indoor cats, DM has a small holding and they are outdoorsy country cats.

Given that you can't control where a cat goes, shouldn't the neighbour agree to at least chuck a bit of wood into their pool?

OP posts:
steff13 · 28/12/2016 01:31

If the most recent cat is recent can dm have a post mortem done dm to find out the cause of death?

A post mortem on an animal is called a necropsy.

haveacupoftea · 28/12/2016 01:34

I'd get a secret camera trained on that pool, although its probably illegal or something.

Baylisiana · 28/12/2016 01:49

A stagnant pool of water frequently with animal corpses in and a person who will not cover a dangerous area....this is definitely one to report to environmental health OP. Just try to come up with a plan for doing it safely...this neighbour sounds very sinister to me.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 28/12/2016 02:05

What kind of person has had repeated animal deaths in their garden and yet wants to carry on with this situation?! Basically saying they are happy to have animals dying directly because of their own actions/inactions.

Would environmental health or the rspca have any advice they could give you? There must be a way of making the neighbours take responsibility, though that way is probably a round about one...

MsMims · 28/12/2016 02:25

Yes call environmental health and see if they can intervene. If your mum found a way in so could a child. At the least they should have a ladder/ float to help anyone/ anything that fell in escape. Although if they haven't used the pool for 20 years why don't they don't just have it filled in.

But FGS why did your mum keep letting her cats out after the first, but worst, the second had drowned? It's pure negligence. So irresponsible, like owners who have a cat killed on the road and continue to get more cats. Feel most sorry for the poor animals, what a horrible way to go.

userformallyknownasuser1475360 · 28/12/2016 02:32

Yes a PM can be done on a cat, but I have two opinions on this

  1. The cats are not dying of natural causes, one cat with an injury etc I could understand.
  1. Why are the cats not controlled like dogs need to be controlled, cats going through my garden are a real problem, especially when they crap all over it and I have to clear up after someone else's pet - people would complain if a dog was roaming, why not a cat?

In the case of my garden I know it's a cat as the garden is enclosed and I have CCTV around my house.

kerryob · 28/12/2016 02:45

Report it to environmental health, swimming pool of dead animals can't be safe

Muddlewitch · 28/12/2016 02:45

Agree with everyone that has said to contact environmental health. Stagnant water, dead animals..it's definitely one for them. In the meantime I think your dm needs to keep the cats in - not ideal I know but the whole thing sounds weird to me and I wouldn't trust the neighbour's version of events so she needs to take steps to keep the cats safe in the short term whilst working on a longer term solution.

I have a really creepy image of the abandoned swimming pool in my head now Confused

TheOtherGalen · 28/12/2016 03:58

Wouldn't an old swimming pool with several years' worth of festering animal corpses in it be giving off a bit of an odor by now? I'm surprised every neighbor in a half-mile radius hasn't called the police to report a possible dead body!

NightWanderer · 28/12/2016 05:42

I assume the neighbours are fishing the bodies out, which is why the OP`s mum has heard about it.

I agree though, phone Environmental Health . Hopefully they can help get it sorted.

manhowdy · 28/12/2016 06:10

Time for DM to discover her love of Jungle music and blast it all day and night. She can go off it again when the death pool is drained and safe. What a horrible neighbour.

Original poster
Oysterbabe · 28/12/2016 06:17

Thanks all. I'll suggest she gets on the phone to environmental health. She did speak to them once before and they told her it was a civil matter and they weren't interested. She probably didn't stress the festering water and rotting bodies element enough though.

DF has fished the bodies out each time and the cats have been buried. It's been a couple of weeks so I suspect too late for an autopsy?

DM pretty much always has 3 cats. The dead ones are replaced. If the neighbour is murdering them I'm not sure what her motive would be. Her garden is not pristine flowerbeds that the cats crap in, it's piles of junk and long grass where lots of tasty rodents like to hide.

OP posts:
FrostyWind · 28/12/2016 06:21

Your DM needs some cat-proof fences. Neighbour can do what she likes with her own garden, no one can make her do anything.

CrowyMcCrowFace · 28/12/2016 06:33

Hmmm. I live in a gated compound somewhere hot.

6 pools for residents' general use, goodness knows how many smaller ones attached to individual villas, lots of them half empty at any given time due to maintenance work, hundreds of stray cats...

No cat drownings. I'd know, we're a close community with a busy FB page FULL of curtain twitchers & the state of the pools/what should be done about the cats are both perennial topics.

I'm deeply suspicious that the cats are coming to grief through other means & then being chucked in.

Does neighbour have a dog? Or an air rifle?

Booboostwo · 28/12/2016 06:45

Our house when we bought it had a pool like this. A perfect rectangle with no ledges, very deep (4m) uniformly with water up to the first third of its height and a ladder only a human could climb. The previous owner told us her GSD had died in the pool when he fell in and couldn't climb out (at the viewing!!!). The pool was made of concrete and had no purchase. We filled it in as fast as we could.

I'd try Environmental Health, the RSPCA and maybe talk to the council in general for ideas.

CheerfulYank · 28/12/2016 06:46

Hmm. Yes if they fell in I can see they'd drown as they couldn't get out (thought I'd think they could tread water for quite awhile and would be meowing fiercely the whole time, strange that no one's ever pulled a live animal out unless I've missed that) but 5 falling in seems odd.

MistressMaisie · 28/12/2016 06:46

Chuck a big, higher than 2 foot rock in. Any animal can sit on rock and yowl until rescued.

That's the easiest rather than falling out because you got RSPCA involved.

It sounds like she never goes near it anyway so she won't know it's there.

Fartleks · 28/12/2016 06:48

Could it be that the neighbour is a hoarder and too disorganised to sort some netting out.

Could she (or someone else) offer to cover the area with netting. Your MUm pay.

Fartleks · 28/12/2016 06:51

Yes great idea. Chucking something huge in. Have you got a metal framed chair. You could sit it with the back to the pool wall.

userformallyknownasuser1475360 · 28/12/2016 06:55

A two foot rock, what just chuck it? You would need something to lift that in!

I'm still for keeps no control of your own animals.

lovelearning · 28/12/2016 06:56

deeply suspicious that the cats are coming to grief through other means

I'm not suspicious.

Swimming pools, even empty ones, represent a significant hazard to children and animals.

They should be fenced and covered.

FurryLittleTwerp · 28/12/2016 06:57

Very difficult to control cats & what about the foxes & hedgehogs? Sad

Fartleks · 28/12/2016 06:57

Or a small metal step ladder next to the wall.

FurryLittleTwerp · 28/12/2016 07:00

Or fill the pond with water so creatures can swim to the edge.

Not really the issue though - the neighbour's inaction and probable cat-murder is the real problem

MagicChicken · 28/12/2016 07:00

Another one here VERY suspicious that five cats have managed to fall into this pool. Cats have superb balance and spatial awareness, judgment of heights/distance etc., and will instinctively avoid water. It doesn't make sense.