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Original poster

To really not understand why people are OK with cats

709 replies

Duvetstay · 10/05/2020 19:23

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!

OP posts:
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username108 · 11/05/2020 10:15

Well, I can't stand kids-noisy, annoying, demanding things. But you know, I have to put up with them despite me not wanting any and having no say in the matter. So, tough shit. We deal with your kids, you deal with our pets.

Iwalkinmyclothing · 11/05/2020 10:16

I don't really like dogs, but I don't go around being all amazed that other people do. In my ideal world I would never have to put up with some great hairy thing bounding at us and terrifying the dc whilst its deluded owner says "he's just being frieeeeeeeendly, he wouldn't hurt you" and thinking we are the unreasonable ones for not being delighted to be slobbered over by it. I would certainly never have to sit in a house than smelled of dog and I wouldn't have to clean dogshit off shoes and pushchair wheels and so on. But the world doesn't revolve around me and my likes and dislikes, does it? Nor yours.

SchiftingUp · 11/05/2020 10:17

Cats = good
Dogs = bad

It really is that simple!

HerbieHerr · 11/05/2020 10:17

And for the record my cat was the loveliest kindest animal there was, the biggest thing she ever caught was a moth, or a feather if those count 😁

DateandTime · 11/05/2020 10:17

What I dont understand about cats is the outrage (on my local FB page) when someone "heartless" person hits one with a car. There's an assumption that they must have been speeding, they should have found the owners etc. Having a cat dart out in front if you must be terrifying whatever speed you're doing and probably causes damage to the car too. If the owner was found would they pay for the damage?

areyoubeingserviced · 11/05/2020 10:19

I really don’t like cats. For the poster who suggested that cats bury their own poo.
I wish that poster could see my garden lawn at the moment
I am constantly cleaning up cat poo.

Potionqueen · 11/05/2020 10:20

Dogs = fantastic, loyal.

Cats= shitty little bird murdering gets.

Glitterbubbles · 11/05/2020 10:22

Completely agree OP. People get frustrated with dogs using their lawn as a toilet which I TOTALLY understand. Round our area cats have used other people’s cars as scratching pads, they dig the plants out of our raised beds and they poo on our veg patch too. Yet somehow it’s allowed because they’re cats?! I’ll admit I’m a dog person, but I just don’t get the double standards. If it’s not acceptable for a dog to deface other people’s property it shouldn’t be acceptable for cats.

Chillipeanuts · 11/05/2020 10:23

“I see absolutely no point in cats tbh“

I feel that way about quite a lot of people, tbh.

sestras · 11/05/2020 10:23

There is a cat near me who loves to shit in my garden and terrorise my kids rabbit.

It attacks my dogs, it attacks us when we go out into the garden. I've started spraying it with a water pistol to get it away from us. It tries to get in my house. The cat is a fucking nightmare.

Chillipeanuts · 11/05/2020 10:23

(That sounds sarky, not meant to be: hadn’t noticed the tbh on the quote!)

Hingeandbracket · 11/05/2020 10:28

What I dont understand about cats is the outrage (on my local FB page) when someone "heartless" person hits one with a car. There's an assumption that they must have been speeding, they should have found the owners etc. Having a cat dart out in front if you must be terrifying whatever speed you're doing and probably causes damage to the car too. If the owner was found would they pay for the damage?
Totally agree - I was doing 15mph when one of the little fuckers ran out from alongside my car and straight under the rear wheel.
It then writhed around in obvious agony while I could do nothing for it until it finally expired. I don't have any pets - I have no idea where the vets are. The cat had no collar and there were no obvious clues to where it lived. I felt awful leaving it there but I was on my way to collect DD from school. One reason I deleted my FB account was the angry mod with torches and pitchforks every time a stupid cat was run down. Obviously I realise someone lost their pet - but I was very upset about the whole thing too.

Winterlife · 11/05/2020 10:28

@ScrapThatThen, how did you manage to cat proof your garden?

Cats roam in our back yard, and poop in our vegetable garden and grass. I'd love to stop that. They also come sit on our front porch, but I don't mind that, they don't poo in the front yard at all.

And NO, they don't bury their poo!!!

Floralnomad · 11/05/2020 10:30

This is not a dog v cat argument . I love dogs and cats but I don’t think people appreciate how awful it is to live next door / be the litter tray for a few cats that don’t belong to you until it happens to them . Our ex neighbour had 4 cats , 3 of them used our garden as a toilet despite our best efforts at cat deterrents ( humane ones) , none of them bothered to dig or cover the poo it was just in heaps on the lawn . This summer is the first one since they moved and it’s absolute bliss not having to check the garden every time you want to go out and use it , thats aside from not having the smell of cat piss and poo .

Jocasta2018 · 11/05/2020 10:32

The poo I pick off the lawn is either stinky hedgehog poo or occasionally a ginormous fox turd....
I have a cat. As she's quite shy & has been bullied by other cats, she only goes in the garden if I'm out there otherwise she's indoors all year round. I let her in & out - the cat flap is shut as other cats are known to come inside the house...
She doesn't like peeing or pooing outside - I have 2 litter trays inside for her. I have watched her come outside with me, go back in for a pee, then come back out again. The idea of scent marking her territory is completely beyond her.

She loves roasting herself inside on sunny windowsills & is currently crashed out on a sunny armchair.
My neighbours love her as they know she's not a mass murderer & phantom crapper.
If only the other cats in the area were as nice.

SciFiScream · 11/05/2020 10:34

Don't move near me OP. The majority of households here have cats and 18 months ago we finally became owned by 2!

I have a dust allergy which has massively improved since getting our cats.

The cats are wonderful friends for my DC so loving, patient and tolerant. My lovely grey lady comes to me for cuddles whenever I'm stern with the DC so we joke that's she's my emotional support cat.

They are so much easier to look after than dogs (used to have a dog and I dog sit whenever I can)

Yes they are killers but we do everything in our power to mitigate that (keep them in at appropriate times of day, double bell them on quick release collars). We play with them lots to distract their hunting instinct.

I love them very much and I'm allowed to make my own choice about pets. I did check with neighbours and all of them encouraged me.

Our little cats are mini celebrities where we live and I have people (pre lockdown) who make special trips to return their collars and chat to me about them.

Remember other people will love their pet as much as you love yours

IDIC - infinite diversity infinite combinations.

Loopyloopy · 11/05/2020 10:38

In Australia, cats are a major cause of wildlife species loss. Every person thinks that their cat does not hunt - they all do. There's good research in this. Most will take 2-3 animals per night. Bells are shown to make no difference.

areyoubeingserviced · 11/05/2020 10:44

Perhaps people should start lobbing the cat poo over in the neighbours garden

Thelnebriati · 11/05/2020 10:44

I'd be embarrassed to own an animal I knew nothing about, and use it to act out against my neighbours. Its no different from having an aggressive dog and letting it crap everywhere.

Oilyoilyoilgob · 11/05/2020 10:49

I’m owned by cats, I love them 😻 Mine are indoor apart from the occasional few sites outside and are very spoiled! I’m firmly wrapped around cats paws, they are master manipulators.

Including nexts doors, who is with us more than his owner, sleeps in the vegetable plots I have going 🙄 and poos in our rockery, while facing us and looking at us 😏

Footywife · 11/05/2020 10:51

I have to agree with the OP. Cats are really unpleasant. Dogs aren't allowed to roam the streets as and when they feel like it, yet it is acceptable for cats to do so. I have to constantly chase cats out of my garden. Nobody takes responsibility for them.

Boooooooo to cats I say!

DollyDoneMore · 11/05/2020 10:52

We deal with your kids, you deal with our pets.

My kids have never climbed into other people’s gardens and shat on their lawns.

”I see absolutely no point in cats tbh“. I feel that way about quite a lot of people, tbh.

Pathological. Please seek help.

Hingeandbracket · 11/05/2020 10:54

I’m owned by cats, I love them 😻 Mine are indoor apart from the occasional few sites outside and are very spoiled! I’m firmly wrapped around cats paws, they are master manipulators.

WTAF is the appeal of that? If Cats were people they'd be accused of emotional abuse?

mumofamenagerie · 11/05/2020 10:57

I love cats and hope to get one when we move to a bigger house, but I do wish there weren't so many double standards for owners looking after them vs looking after dogs.

Cats:

  • Should be allowed to roam around because it's 'their nature'
  • Can poo/wee where they want, including in other people's gardens, without their owners cleaning up after them because they didn't see it happen
  • Can kill wildlife (and small pets eg rabbits) and fight with/injure other cats because it's 'their nature'

Dogs:

  • Must never be allowed to roam around or possibly even be off lead in a public place at all
  • Are disgusting for having bodily functions in public places, even if their owners clean it up
  • Should be controlled to prevent them killing wildlife or small animals or fighting with other dogs

Rarely a day goes by in which I don't see posters/messages on FaceBook for missing cats which makes me really sadit's just accepted that cats should be free to roam, and so they might be hit and killed or shut in a shed and starved or just disappear. If I left my dogs to their own devices, they would also happily roam aroundand would quite possibly also be hit by a car or shut somewhere and starved or stolen, etc.

I don't think it's OK in either case, and saying it's the 'nature' of a domesticated animal is avoiding responsibility. A dog's nature is also to roam, but societally we have recognised that it's a bad thing for other humans, and for the dog too.

Similarly, any dog owner who lets their dog mess out of sight and doesn't clear it up, or hangs poo bags in trees or leaves it in the park is disgusting and should be banned from having a dog, but then cat owners who let their cats roam and poo in other people's gardens are also disgusting. I watched a cat brazenly poo in my neighbour's garden on the grass, and then saunter away (not all cats bury their poo or do it in flowerbeds)! The owners will have no idea.

I want (some) cat owners to take more responsibility for the care of their cats, whether it be by making them a house cat, putting them on a long lead for walks, or building a 'catio'/outside run and keeping them safe, making sure they don't go in other people's gardens and protecting wildlife--with exceptions for farm cats/very rural cats who have many many acres to roam of their own land and which may be needed for pest control.

Basically cats are awesome, dogs are also awesome, but owners need to be better in both cases.

SciFiScream · 11/05/2020 11:16

@Loopyloopy. I keep my cats in at dawn and dusk (most active hunting times) and overnight too.

I do double bell my cats but I actually think this makes them more effective killers as they learn to compensate for the bells too.

I've released a few uninjured animals back to the wild. Though I have had to put a teeny wee vole out of its misery.

Cats will be catching the older and/or weaker animals. Survival of the fittest.