To really not understand why people are OK with cats

[Duvetstay]

Full disclosure, I'm allergic to cats and also very much a dog person but I really don't understand how it's acceptable for cats to go round decimating local wildlife and crapping in gardens.

I've lost count of how many times I've had to pick cat poo off the lawn and my daughter came in yesterday with cat sick all over her feet as a local moggie had vommed on our patio. I'm sick of it. It's a health hazard and you shouldn't have to wear a hazmat suit to go in your own garden.

We have tadpoles outside which are about to froglet and I've just seen a fat cat with its head in the water. I'm fuming, a few of the tadpoles are injured and this is the same cat I had to get off a terrified bird last week.

I'm not remotely sentimental about nature, if a hungry creature kills another then that's how life works. However I cannot understand how people can let these cats out knowing that they're injuring animals for no reason and causing health hazards to other people in their own home.

I couldn't take my dog for a shit in your garden so why can your cat do that in mine? They're not even natural predators as they just trot home to get their whiskers.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

[Gorse]

MuminBrussels: Justifiable complaints about cats trespassing in other people's gardens always brings the cat owners out fighting, and the main weapon is dog whataboutery as an attempt to deflect criticism. Perhaps they realise (but would never admit it) that their position is quite antisocial, and probably sometime in the not too distant future cat "keeping" as it's practiced today will be curtailed. Or at least I hope so.

[Gorse]

Shoenes: think I'd be smearing the edge of the rain barrels with tuna and cheese, maybe suspend some meat over the barrel on a piece of string 😉

[Ginandbearit1]

Cats bring a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, apparently when they purr it lowers blood pressure. Wait til you're a crazy old cat lady

Maybe try plants they dont like scent of or deterrent spray if they bother you?

[Schoenes]

My neighbours told me to put proper lids on my rain barrels (in our own garden) in case their cats fall in and drown.

[MumInBrussels]

@Borgonzola

And yet people are ok with the smelly, slobbery, jumping, barking/yipping, biting, aggressive poo machines that are dogs.

It's possible to not be thrilled with either, you know.

But other people's dogs don't shit all over my garden, carrying a toxoplasmosis risk when I have to clear it up, and if they did, no one would expect me to be totally ok with it.

[Borgonzola]

And yet people are ok with the smelly, slobbery, jumping, barking/yipping, biting, aggressive poo machines that are dogs.

[motherheroic]

I don't mind them, but the way people let them walk their litter box feet all over the kitchen table and counters is just gross to me.

When I was a kid the cats were only allowed in the kitchen to eat or to be let in/out the back garden. Any other time the door was kept firmly shut so they weren't walking over every single surface available.

[Diamondsandjems]

Haven’t read the whole thread sorry as late to the party So not sure if this has been mentioned already but orange peel is a natural cat repellent. You should put it around the pond and also the garden fence/wall where the cat comes in. I have a cat and use this for the Xmas tree

[TheSandman]

I like the fact that she is affectionate but restrained- she never jumps all over me with muddy paws, as badly trained dogs are inclined to. And she has never clawed furniture or carpets - she uses her scratching post.

Cats don't try to hump your leg either.

[FourPlasticRings]

Pooh everywhere



What's wrong with a chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff?

[Zaphodsotherhead]

Pooh everywhere, general mess, noise, upsetting the neighbours, biting, scratching, stealing food, destroying the furniture - it's a wonder anyone has children...

[tamsintamsout]

God I know right. They disturb your sleep, kill and torture other animals, scratch the furniture...

But then they purr while gazing into your eyes and none of it matters.

[Babdoc]

250,000 people attend A and E with dog bites each year. The number of cat bites is less than 10% of that.
Up to 6 people a year are killed by dog attacks - the average is 2. Cats - zero.
I have been attacked (unprovoked) by dogs three times in my life. By a cat - never. And I’ve owned cats for over forty years.
My own cat is an excellent mouser, which is useful as my garden backs onto barley fields and there are tribes of field mice. She always buries her faeces outdoors, as did all my previous cats.
I like the fact that she is affectionate but restrained- she never jumps all over me with muddy paws, as badly trained dogs are inclined to. And she has never clawed furniture or carpets - she uses her scratching post.

[ProudMarys]

*everyone wants one

[ProudMarys]

Not all cats bury their poo as some poster thinks, my neighbours cat use to constantly poo on my soil and never bury it. I bought a cat repellent (the one that make a high frequency sound) anyway no cats have come in since.
I do like watching videos of cats they are funny. I probably lean more to liking cats but I don't like that they kill local wildlife like birds and frogs but they are only acting on their natural instinct. We need people that don't like cats and people who do. If everyone liked cats long we may be overrun by them, so we need people who dislike cats and would never own one then there is balance. Cats deserve a place with us but I'm glad not everyone ones one.

[MamaKarmaLlama]

@Loopyloopy and dogs. And lots of things. Let’s keep humans inside.

[Rowantree2020]

I agree. We keep cats but they stay in our own house and garden. I wouldn’t be comfortable with them going into other gardens - you wouldn’t allow that with any other pet!

[Loopyloopy]

@VerityB1 keeping cats is one way humans damage the environmenr.

[BabyDereksToes]

I literally have nowhere in my house to safely put a litter tray. It's not a tiny house but the kitchen is narrow and the only other place would be the dining room - no thanks! My cat is a rescue and loves being outside, she would be miserable if she wasn't allowed out, in fact it would be impossible to keep her in, we managed about 9 days when we first got her, as the rescue place said to keep her in for three weeks.

People who think you can 'control' cats are deluding themselves. My cat disappears for half the day doing her own thing - lucky her! Not sure how you think I could make her do anything she didn't want to?

I like other people's dogs but could never have one of my own, too much hassle.

[MamaKarmaLlama]

There’s a list of fatal dog attacks in the U.K. by year. Funnily enough not one for cats...

[MamaKarmaLlama]

Dogs killed the ducklings in our beck and several lambs this spring. Plus scared away our local otter.

[Nixee2231]

I really love cats but they are constantly pooping in my garden and they kill almost all the ducklings in canals next to our house every year, and the frogs as well. When I see a cute friendly local cat carrying a lump baby duckling I had been feeding and watching grow, it's very emotionally conflicting.

[VerityB1]

But you are a human and we all go round decimating wild life, including woodland and trees, deffacating and polluting the sea with our waste and plastic and flying and driving and ruining the climate. We dont care about the extreme torture involved in the production of our food (look up factory, cows, pigs, chickens) or the inhumane treatment of tea pickers. Do people who have HRT check the source is not from mares urine, kept in horrendous conditions and most of use medicines, soap, cosmetics that have been tested in painful experiments on animals. Some of us use nets in our gardens and hedges trapping birds and other animals, chopping trees for pleasure or convenience. We humans are probably on a big or small scale much worse than cats.

[ZaraW]

Lots of cat food my parents had to buy and lots of fur to clean up!

Cats don't eat that much. If you don't want cat hair get a short haired cat.

The more I read this thread the more I like cats, dogs come next and people are at the end of the list.

[TheSandman]

Lots of cat food my parents had to buy and lots of fur to clean up!

I've got three kids. The amount of cat fur and occasional dead mouse I have to deal with pails to insignificance compared with the amount of crap they leave lying around.

Cats in my experience are extremely low maintenance beasts. The one from next door spends a lot of time in our house too. Nice little thing. Just wanders in most days; sleeps, eats, and buggers off again.