To ask why cats roaming is acceptable?

[PengAly]

Just want to hear opinions on this. Firstly i should be honest, i am a dog person, 100% love dogs and i really dont understand how people like cats (seems like they are a tad selfish of a pet) but i am an animal lover so obviously wish no harm to any cat and will play with one given the opportunity. This is JUST my opinion. But back to my original question...

Why does it seem universally accepted that cats can roam on other peoples properties and poop in the garden- even digging up flowers?! Now Im certain mainy people would get up in arms if a dog on a lead stepped one paw on their front garden or god forbid came within 3 feet of them or their child(I've seen many dog hating threads on MN) yet cat owners get a free pass for their cats doing as they please?

Im honestly not trying to start an argument i just dont understand it

Cats is just well clever innit😉

Rustybear
He worked very closely with the RSPB. He was studying a number of species of bird, not every indigenous bird in the UK! His work was mainly concerned with semi rural and built up/ surburban areas. I don’t want to say too much as it’s identifying. If cats didn’t cause problems to wildlife then Australia wouldn’t have introduced laws in certain states to ban cats from roaming because of the damage they cause indigenous wildlife would they?

RagingWhoreBag As the OP says , this thread is not meant to be comparing cats to dogs. That’s a completely different subject. I didn’t say it was the ‘ same as a dog savaging a baby.....’ - I simply said that cats can kill babies. Please don’t put infer things which I didn’t say.

Maybe it would be easier if people who don't like cats didn't have gardens. My neighbours mostly have dogs. I like dogs but I work so it isn't fair to have one. Doesn't stop my neighbours having them and allowing them to bark all the time. I don't get to dictate whether they are allowed to have one or not, I just have to suck it up.

How common is toxoplasmosis? I had never heard of it till I was pregnant.

I live in Florida, where there are fleas, and ticks and coyotes. (Coyotes eat cats) It is considered cruel to let cats roam here, and my three stay in, and always have. The litter boxes are easily scooped a couple times a day, and the kitties stay clean and safe. They have a room with a window perch lots of toys and a tower to climb. It's very rare here for people to keep an outdoor cat as a "pet".

Totally missing the point there. It's not that something unpleasant has happened, it's the fact that a person ultimately had a choice in it and has unilaterally deemed your inconvenience acceptable.

Well, on the semi regular occasions dogs maim or kill people, the owners had a choice there too. Last week alone there was an escaped dog mauling multiple people in Liverpool and a young baby killed by his parents dogs.

I do battle through dogshit around my house which is in the vicinity of several nurseries and primaries.

Do I call for dogs to be banned? Do I demand draconian measures are brought in on dog owners and say I hate all dogs?

No I bloody don’t. I recognise that dogs as much loved pets who bring people an awful lot of pleasure. I know that dog ownership is very much a part of our culture and a valued part.

I think putting up with a few irresponsible owners and out of control dogs is a reasonable price to pay for the happinesss they bring. So why don’t dog owners give the same respect to cat owners?

YABU it's part of cats' nature to roam, and it's part of the everyday world that we live in, that some miserable bastards like the ones on this thread think they have the right to control out of existence, they probably hate all wildlife in favour of their precious flower beds most of which are probably fertilised with harmful chemicals. Also those slagging off their neighbours act as if their own shit doesn't stink - never played loud music, had irritating kids bouncing on trampolines invading neighbours' privacy, never honked horns late at night or early morning, polluted the air with chimineas or barbecues, failed to recycle, operated gas guzzlers...I never realised till I started using this site how many mean-spirited, anti-nature, anti-animal arseholes there were around. No wonder the planet's failing, when so many of you are so selfish, you can't even tolerate another species, it's all about the people isn't it? Good luck with that, hasn't lead anywhere good has it? Get over yourselves the world doesn't revolve around one species, if you want to worry about destructiveness and spread of disease it's not cats you should worry about it's people.

Yes, that'll solve it Waxon.

I'll need to move my kids out into a top floor flat because of my allergies to other people's roaming pets

Someone's "right" to own a pet doesn't translate to their right to allow it to trespass on my property.

Look after it or get rid of it. Or atleast don't complain when I forcibly eject the thing.

My cats are confined to the garden by cat fencing brackets so they definitely don't crap in other people's gardens. They don't catch wildlife either.

How common is toxoplasmosis?

There's some number in here.
www.independent.co.uk/news/science/toxoplasma-gondii-parasite-that-breeds-in-cats-could-affect-human-behaviour-when-it-infects-people-a6861221.html

And as for allergies I'm allergic to a lot of common pollens so maybe people like me should have the right to rip up all those poor, suffering flower beds, then the people worrying about cat shit would be saved the grief because there'd be no flowers to worry about...

I should also add that I don't actually hate cats themselves, I was quite fond of then until my allergies flared up.

I don't mind dogs either but I choose not to have pets.

OP, have you spoken to your neighbours? Because although I’m guessing their cat doesn’t file a daily ‘where I’ve shat’ report with them, they could probably answer your question better than we could.

I have two cats and two dogs, my cats do not roam because I had an wire enclosure built so that my living room patio door opens out onto it. In the warm weather when the door is likely to be open they move freely between indoor and out. When the weather is colder they ask to go out and then ask to come back in when they are ready. They have a covered litter tray outside and a top entry litter tray inside.

The enclosure was built for my previous cats and prior to it being built most of my previous cats were house cats (one of them liked to walk on a harness and lead, the rest were not bothered, all except my first one were adopted as older cats). One was clipped by a car and although he was not badly hurt, he decided he wasn't going out at all in future so that was that. I adopted my current two as 5 month old kittens and all they had known was the enclosure at the shelter with their littermates so they don't seem interested in life beyond the enclosure, they can see what is going on outside but seem quite uninterested in wanting to find out more.

They have a house out there with beds in it and a tall wooden climbing/scratch frame which they like to lounge on as well as other levels of furniture to climb and lay about on.

I think if you have the room enclosures are a good idea. There are readymade enclosures you can buy or you can have someone build one for you, Pinterest is full of ideas. I think keeping them from roaming keeps them safe, where I live there is not a lot of traffic but the traffic that does appear is often very fast and I feared I would end up with an injured or dead cat if I did not keep them in, especially after the one that was injured by a car. The enclosure is the best of both worlds though, they are secure but have access to fresh air whenever they want and importantly are not annoying the neighbours.

I think cats can be trained if there is something in it for them like food or treats, they don't do anything for free like dogs do!

All those selfish people growing flowers that cause allergic reactions in other people, all that pollen in the air, it's so fucking selfish, they should keep their gardens indoors. Get over your selves.

I also don't have flowers because of allergies. If someone wandered past and threw a bunch of seeds in my garden I'd be pissed too.

My life is a blast :o

I noticed that people seem to think that you can't train cats... I've trained ours, just not the same way you would train a dog. I've always had both cats and dogs and I loved training all of them. Our two year old cat is clicker trained, it was actually quite easy and now if I use the clicker she comes running. I think cats are often misunderstood, but it's a shame here reading these comments on cat haters against dog haters. Well I love both, just in a different way.

I just have to suck it up

But I think that's the OP's point. You don't have to just suck up the barking as there are laws and controls over noise that give you a route to complain to the council (whether or not they are effective is another discussion).

So, dogs displaying a natural behaviour that is irritating to humans (barking) is viewed as the owners responsibility to control.

The OP is asking why cats, displaying a natural behaviour to roam and defecate in someone else's garden is not subject to the same legal controls.

The risk that of danger to humans is one argument. Dogs do indeed seem to have a higher risk. However, we also expect controls of other animals that pose no risk - chickens, for eg. Most of us would be irritated by chickens constantly coming through our gardens and expect the owner to take control.

However it is odd to me that roaming is recognised as a natural behaviour in cats but not in any other kept animal - when roaming is something most animals do naturally.

It is also odd to me that if someone's dog kept pooing in my garden I would be expected to do something about it but someone's cat is allowed to poo daily in my front border. If the fact that foxes shit where they like is not an excuse for dog shit then why is it an excuse for cat shit? I suspect it just comes down to how we feel about cats right now - another twenty years or so and I could see pet cats being subjected to increasing amounts of laws and controls (much as dogs have been).

I never used to like cats, they poo in your garden and look at you like you are their space. Then a couple of neighbourhood cats started greeting me when I got out my car after work and I gave them a pat or two out of courtesy as felt I should. Now they come up whenever I park and purr away and then walk me to my door...I still hate them pooing in my garden but have grown to love the manipulative little beasts :)

Reading through the comments makes it obvious who is a responsible pet owner and who isn't.

My favourite stupid comment goes to @waxonfeckoff - no gardens for people who don't want their neighbours cats to shit on them. if I want to grow my own vegies and not have your filthy cat poop on them I am perfectly entitled to do so within my boundary fence. What a bizarre way to think of things.

Your animal ownership and refusal to contain said animal to your property doesn't negate my right to do what I want on my own property. What an entitled view you have.

I think putting up with a few irresponsible owners and out of control dogs is a reasonable price to pay for the happinesss they bring. So why don’t dog owners give the same respect to cat owners?

A wander onto one of the weekly dog hating threads on my might give some insight into why dog owners have started to get their backs up. Your respect, while gratefully received, would not appear to be offered by many other people.

It's not unusual to be told that all dogs should be pts, banned, never let out (in one especially nasty case 'poisoned') because of how dangerous and dirty they are.

Have you ever tried to control a cat? They roam because it's impossible to stop they short of imprisoning them in the house all day which is cruel.

It’s very interesting to see the difference in opinion between threads on here, where the majority of posters are from the uk, and the chat on the catcams I watch, where the posters are mainly from Canada and the US. Over there, the general opinion is that it’s cruel to allow cats to roam because of danger from cars and in many areas predators such as coyotes, and that cats can be perfectly happy indoors.

Unlike the uk, where shelters usually require adopted cats have access to the outside, the cats adopted from the catcams I watch are required to be indoor-only pets. Many of them have Facebook pages, and I have to say they all seem perfectly content inside, even those born feral and socialised as adults.

An example is Salia, born feral and brought in for medical treatment by TinyKittens, who is now enjoying her indoor life. Incidentally, she is looking for a permanent home, so if anyone within reasonable travelling distance of Langley BC is looking for a lap cat....

Just forvthe record, I ( like most people posting on this thread I suspect) have nothing against cats. I quite like them.
But I don’t think it’s unfair to ask that cats be made - by their owners- to conform to the same rules as other pets/ domestically kept animals.
My friend keeps goats - they would LOVE to go wandering round the village eating everything they could but they don’t. They don’t because my friend is a responsible owner and makes sure they can’t get out to go and eat everybody’s plants and washing!
Like a PP says - nobody leaves their hens to wander all over do they? Or their rabbits. Or horses. Or donkeys, or sheep or anything else that we keep as pets. MOST pet owners are responsible. ( there are exceptions to the rule with every pet, we know who is the phantom dog shitter in our village and are trying to decide what to do with this information) so why is it, out of every animal which we keep as a pet in this country we don’t let them just wander where they want - apart from cats?? Hopefully legislation will change on this in the near future. And then we will not have to see a cat dead or dying at the side of the road ever again.

Because car owners are deluded into think their animals aren’t annoying and disgusting. I am impartial to cats but would never let an animal of mine wander on other people’s property. It’s highly inconsiderate.