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!

I love cats but quite like dogs too. Unfortunately my cats do kill wildlife, usually mice but they can't help that, it's in their nature.
Cats are cute and mine are very loving, love being cuddled and being on my (well anyone's) lap.
I have never stepped in cat crap, although they do go in our garden but have stepped in dog poo. Sadly you can't train a cat.

Im a dog person. I love them. I dislike cats a great deal. Shit everywhere in the flowerbeds, kill the wildlife bees and voles ive seen killed by cats a lot no wonder both are now endangered. I also see the bloody things hit by cars a lot. I dont get why people get cats and have them outside. I have 3 cats all housecats they will never go out theres no need for them to. Plus my 3 are all thick as shit and would get hit by a car straight away if we let them out.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

These are her 2 siblings and their mum. Mum is a Persian Chinchilla and dad is the local tabby moggy 😂

They do, their breath stinks.

How rude! 🤣

I also don't understand why people think cats are clean - they're not, they're covered in cat spit.

🤪🤣 Cat spit...🤣

And I really don't understand why people let them walk on their countertops (or in their dishwashers).

None of my cats have done this and I wouldn’t have let them if they tried.

I'm not fussed about dogs either though TBH.

Now you’re just being ridiculous. 🤣🤣🤣

I have 6 cats and love them all to pieces. Cats bury their poo. Cats are very affectionate and purr to you.

@BBCK your kitties are adorable. I just want to boop their adorable little noses ever so gently

YANBU. They are pretty gross. In Australia it is fairly socially unacceptable to have outdoor cats and it is so much nicer. Cats used to shit in my garden all the time in the UK and I hated it.

Cats around here don't seem very good at burying their poo; they make a half-arsed effort and then leave it still on top with a light sprinkling of earth- still smells. They do dig up my seedlings though.

As I said, I like them, I can see the attraction of having one, but I wouldn't unless I was sure I lived somewhere where other people didn't have to deal with it.

@TurkeyBasterHopeItWorks YES!! I love cats! Everything you said. I have 2 and I adore them. They judge me every day but that's part of their charm. I'm very needy.

Well I love cats but don't particularly understand them as outdoor pets. My neighbors have a steady stream of them that get killed by coyotes before being replaced. Condemning cats to such a horrific death, I really can't empathize. The part of the last one was found in our yard

On a lesser note they crap in all my flower beds, one used to spray our front step and one peed on one of our outdoor Christmas decorations. Cats can live a wonderful, loved and long life....inside.

Same here fixit, I love cats but I don't think they are suitable as outdoor pets. I think wild colonies of them should be culled. Here in Australia they have decimated native bird and small mammal populations (as if those species didn't already have enough threats). I have two cats and they have never stepped foot outside.

I see cats as a bit like humans, they kill everything in sight and breed quickly so they ruin every environment they go in. Humans are worse of course as we know what we are doing.

I am very much a dog person, however we have two local cats who come up to say hello when I get out my car. I’ve gone from a non cat lover to completely entranced as they walk with me to my front door, gaining a few head scratches on the way (until the dog barks and they scatter).

So yes they are probably evil and mind controlling little fluffy psychopaths, I will however be disappointed the next time I arrive home and don’t receive this welcome. Gaslighting little bastards!!! They do still shit on my lawn still!!!

Love cats, have my own BUT she stays inside, where she should be for the safety of native animals

But dogs no angels either, a local stray has over last week taken out almost 20 of our chooks, we have it on video.
There many feral cats in area too but they never taken more than a couple in last 4 years. Yet, 1 dog, 20 chooks in a week

I don’t really care for cats or dogs. Both would probably eat you if given the chance.

All cats are different IME. My current cats never caught anything but an already mouldy dead bird. I've seen her watching mice, fascinated, but she doesn't kill them & I've taken them away & put them elsewhere & she's not gone frantically looking for them like a previous cat would. Previous cats when I lived really rurally would bring live baby field mice in, which I'd return to the fields & keep cat in for a few hours . I also don't get all these cats that poo ON lawns. All mine have buried it & all have had a toilet spot close to home, the prior cats was in the huge wooden barrel with a mini fir tree in it, so that got left untouched, as 'her' loo.

Sorry if it's already been said but cats tend to burry their poo. It's dogs and FOXES that tend to just leave it. Also, dogs can attack, maim and kill humans in addition to wild life.

cats tend to burry their poo
buried it & all have had a toilet spot close to home

Well that spot close to home is often someone else’s flower bed or veggie patch. And the burying involves digging up someone’s seedlings and vaguely covering their stinking shit in a thin layer of soil

Mrbob Dogs can mess up flower beds,too.
Op complained of poo ON the lawn.

I really don't understand how it's acceptable for cats to go round decimating local wildlife and crapping in gardens

Because the world doesn't exclusively belong to humans. Cats aren't shitting in your garden to be rude, they can't exactly use the toilet can they.

Cats are awesome.

Dogs cause far more problems IMO. No newborn baby ever got it's face ripped off by a cat

I love cats, OTOH, dogs and those black bags of poo that they shit and leave everywhere are a far bigger issue than a dead mouse on my doorstep thank you very much.

I assume dogs shit pre-filled bags of poo as no MNetters ever leave them lying around.

I agree with you OP. Yes, cats are adorable, fluffy, purr and all that...
But I can't cope with cat poo in the garden, sick, cat fur and the smell in people's houses..... And yes, a cat kills wildlife, it has the hunting instinct and chases birds and mice.
For that matter dogs are as bad, but in different ways.

I think pets should be kept for working purposes only, such as guide dogs or working sheep dogs, cats should be on a farm where they have a role in keeping rats away and where there is space for them to roam without leaving their shit for neighbours (and where the wildlife also has space to get away).

Why should anyone have to cope with someone else's animal shit on their garden?

YANBU. I just don't get the appeal of cats and have never liked them. I also think that the person who owns a pet should be the one dealing with its shit, instead of inflicting it on their neighbours.