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!

It's unusual for a cat to leave its poo out as they usually bury it. Sure it's not badger? In our pond the tadpoles and froglets likewise get decimated but by a local heron. We float plastic coated wire fencing to try and minimise, but predation is natural. Mice, rats, squirrels and other birds will predate eggs and baby birds.

I used to have three cats and never managed to step in their poo or vomit. I have however stepped in a lot of dog poo over the years and had it in our front garden. I was glad the cats kept the rodents down. And like other pets, they give people a lot of pleasure.

If you look at the damage that has (and is still) been done to our planet, I think our actions heavily outweigh that of cats or any other creature,

@EveryLifeHasASoundtrack Well thank you for the well wishing. However I think you should get the help to maybe see the world more.

It's a shame to see someone so sheltered. I hope you are still young enough to get out there and see the world for all it's amazing stuff. Yes it's not nice that animals kill other animals but it really is how to world works. You can't tell a Lion to eat soy Zebra lol.

Most people also don't feed their cats/dogs on a meat free diet.

Lockdown has not bothered me, but thank you for your concern.

@sunflowery

Sounds like fox poo

You don't 'understand' why people like an animal that you don't?

Um, I don't understand why people like lots of things but ... um, it actually doesn't matter. Who cares if you like or dislike cats apart from you? Not one person.

Wow. Is this thread still going?

@Lostvoiced I know we are in a disagreement and that's fine by me also.

However I do just want to point out that I never said animals should not kill. My point was that all animals do. Well for the most part anyway.

I hope you sleep well. And thank you for being civil and not insulting me just because you disagree.

Itsmybirthday19. Not a dog hater here. !

You wouldn't get me then op, I have 10 of the little blighters.

Everyone cracking up because someone said they let their dog out while someone else’s cat is on their property. Won’t someone think of the poor cat’s instincts?! What about the dog’s natural instinct to protect its own property from perceived intruders?! Anyone seriously suggesting a dog owner should keep their pet indoors and unable to enjoy their property so someone else’s ‘pet’ that they take zero responsibility for can crap everywhere, leave mess and potentially disease (toxoplasmosis!) for that property owner to clear up needs their head testing?! The entitlement and hypocrisy is breathtaking As a dog owner I am extremely responsible, there are laws in place to prevent dogs roaming around and crapping everywhere and dog owners can be prosecuted and stray dogs picked up and if not rehomed, even destroyed but cats can please themselves and everyone has to just get over it because of some ridiculous outdated perception. Absolute double standards and it needs to change. In the meantime, my dog will be out in my garden whenever he pleases and if he goes for a cat while in the garden, well it’ll maybe learn to stay the hell off my property in future! If you don’t like that risk, keep your pet on your own property like I have to and you’ll have nothing to worry about. I won’t be telling my pet to curb his instincts on my property when you don’t have to do the same to yours!

Under law, a cat is not owned, and they have the right to roam.

My cat has only ever given me leaves and a feather which had been on the floor for a week, my dogs bring me many gifts from the garden from coal out of the bbq the knocked over (cold and wet before you panic), to mice which they proudly spread across the hallway

I love cats like dogs..my cats actually told me I had cancer before I found out .they both got over affectionate and kept trying to nestle into my chest or bumping there heads into my chest .I said to one of my children I think they trying to fell me something as It was odd behaviour for them.couple months later I get told I had breast cancer. On the other hand if eldest was sitting on your chair it was easier to let her have it rather than moving her arguing with a cat is no use

Have you thought about taking up knitting, @Duvetstay? Or crocheting? Or painting? Or bread baking?

Sounds to me like you are in serious need of a hobby.

I totally agree OP and you can't compare it to someone parking outside your house (unless that person drops a dead half eaten bird on the window ledge and crops in your garden).

House cats are fine..anything else is vermin or at least akin to the grey squirrels.

Tip
I don't know why it supposed to work but a few half filled glass bottles supposed to put them off.....or a hosepipe.

Anyone seriously suggesting a dog owner should keep their pet indoors and unable to enjoy their property so someone else’s ‘pet’ that they take zero responsibility for can crap everywhere, leave mess and potentially disease (toxoplasmosis!) for that property owner to clear up needs their head testing?!

My dogs are out in the garden a lot at the moment. However, if I seen that a neighbours cat was in my garden I wouldn’t deliberately let my dogs out and say ‘oh well, it either escapes or gets killed’. That would make me fucking sick.

I like all animals. I have dogs and cats. There’s a difference between a cat catching a bird than basically setting a dog on a cat.

I do wonder how all these people who take such offence at cat poo, cope with other animals pooing in their garden. Foxes, rabbits etc.

Posted too soon.

It’s not great having any poo in your garden but it’s nature, what’s the difference having to pick up cat poo or fox poo ?

Folk on about being a "slave" to their cats. Christ cat owners are either embarrassing or absolutely batshit

I live in a semi rural area and have never had a fox crap in my garden and if it did I would be taking measures but it’s a wild animal not a pet. If someone’s dog walked into my garden and crapped, I’d have the police go their door. I know it’s a cat as I saw it kick up my spring onions as it buried it’s shit in my veg bed. So you agree it’s one rule for one pet and a different for another? Maybe I should campaign for dogs to have the right to roam too then and let my dog crap all over your garden? I don’t hate animals but I do hate smug, arrogant hypocrisy!

And if no one owns a cat, who are all these strange deluded people who continue to put signs up in my town looking for ‘their’ lost moggy? Surely they should just let them go back to nature then, right? Stop allowing them into your house and leave them to it altogether like badgers or foxes, right? Nah, cat owners want to pretend they have a pet just none of the actual responsibility for the damage they cause.

Cats are the best.Mine has helped me with depression and been a great comfort during lockdown.

So you agree it’s one rule for one pet and a different for another?

Yes, cats are treated differently under UK law to dogs. That’s just how it is.

@Terralee that is one cute cat! 😍

Everlandia, great posts and I agree with everything you have said. I've been battling cat shits and cat hunting for years. They're coming from next door, three of them. Not always the same ones because periodically one gets run over, but the neighbour quickly replaces it. They are utterly feckless people in every way, and this carries over to the way they view pet keeping. I no longer hide the fact that I lob the cat droppings over the fence. I don't care if they see it or step in it. I always let my dog out into my garden if I see one of the cats out there. He loves to chase them. Unfortunately he hasn't a snowball's chance in Hell of catching it, but it brightens up his day! Incidentally, three nights ago my field camera, which I set up most nights to film hedgehogs, caught (at 4.20am in pitch black!) one of those damned cats killing a bird. I found the corpse in the morning, a sparrow fledgling with a nasty wound in its side. We'd had strong winds that night, and maybe it had been dislodged from its perch. TBH, I don't think the cat's life is any more valuable than a bird's life, and birds need protecting, especially with at least five million unlicensed killers stalking the land.
It makes me laugh to read the fallback position of almost every cat owner "well, the RSPB say..." Yes, well they would, wouldn't they? They need the support of naice middle class people, the sort whose cats ALWAYS use the litter tray, and whose cats NEVER catch birds! How many dozens of cat owners have said these things on this thread alone?

Cats shit wherever they want, dogs make a racket and disturb the peace. I prefer our guest garden shitter to the dog two doors down that barks himself into a frenzy at the tiniest noise.