Neighbours, cats and birds.

[Birdmurderer]

NC for this but regular.

We've lived in out house for a year, on a "hello" basis with next door. She's got a voice you can hear 3 streets away and her eldest daughter seems to have inherited it. A few issues but generally ok neighbours.

We have 3 cats - one who is old and never leaves the decking area of our garden, one who seems to have another family a few doors down (other side to neighbour in question), and one who likes to peep through their chain link fence at them but is too much of a mamas boy to leave our garden. (we've had a lot of time during lockdown to confirm our theories about where they go during the day). They made it clear from day one they don't like cats and will talk loudly about how awful our cats are when they know we're within earshot .

DP just went outside to get his bike and the woman is sobbing in the garden. Spots DP and starts shouting at him because apparently one of ours cats has eaten a bird that she was looking after (she has a feeding table in her garden).

DP apologised - for what I'm not sure - and sort of left it there and went off about his day. I was still in bed when all this happened.

He's gone out now and I can hear her sobbing and shouting in the garden about this bird.

There are 2 big cats the other side of her, one of which is horrible and has put my little cat in the vets twice. I think that's the culprit over my fat old one who sleeps 23 hours a day, the deserter, and the little one who can't catch his own tail.

AIBU to think she's massively overreacted? I have quite bad social anxiety and I am not good with confrontation so I'm hiding indoors now.

Sorry that was for @Pelleas.

Also, I’ve seen cats catch inexperienced birds. Not sick birds, just young.

Cats should be kept inside, they do untold damage to wildlife,

Humans should stay indoors, they cause untold damage to... well bloody everything.

He just makes it easier for them

Yes, so that's an artificial environment. Without someone to 'make it easier' an old bird won't be able to feed itself and will eventually starve.

Also, I’ve seen cats catch inexperienced birds. Not sick birds, just young.

Like I said previously the RSPB acknowledge these birds would be unlikely to survive until breeding season so why does it matter if its a cat that kills them instead of another bird, starvation or any other predator?

OP if you’re neighbour isn’t a veggie next time she has a bbq go in the garden and cry and shout about the poor pig/cow/chicken that she killed

Cats should be kept inside, they do untold damage to wildlife

Compared with the damage done by humans, the damage done by cats is smaller than a single grain of sand on a 5 mile beach.

If you're worried about wildlife:

• get rid of your car and campaign for cars to be banned so that we won't need to destroy habitat to make motorways, and those we have can be allowed to fall into disuse and regrow with plants.

• Campaign for population control in humans so we don't need to keep building houses on land that could be used by animals. Don't add to the problem by having children of your own.

• Boycott all palm-oil products

• Don't buy anything new made of wood

• Become a vegan

Once we humans have stopped ruining the planet for other species, then perhaps we can start to judge what other species do. Until then, it's the utmost in arrogance and hypocrisy to judge a cat for killing a bird.

Lol @Pelleas, nope. As I posted it’s not a daily thing, and there is a lot of food here. Birds here don’t starve.

We live 3 blocks from a ravine, with coyotes, cougars, deer, moose, rabbits, even wild boar (not indigenous). I can’t begin to list the birds, or fish varieties in the river.

A mouse could feed itself until old age just on the leaves in our backyard.

We don’t feed songbirds, but there’s enough food to feed hordes of them from bushes and trees. They had stopped coming to the yard for a few years, when a falcon took up residence next door, but they’re back now. Most of the food available in our yard falls off trees and bushes before birds eat it. I’m certain that’s the case in neighbouring yards as well.

@kickanxiety but they are and owners are doing nout wrong letting them out. So it's just one of them things

@MadameMinimes 😂 That really made me laugh.

Some of the responses on this thread are insane. Of course YANBU OP.

@TinySleepThief, I’m not in the U.K.

I posted previously about how sister’s cat caught a young magpie. BIL heard a commotion, came out and sprayed the cat, who dropped the baby magpie. That magpie is now grown and buzzes the cat every time the cat is in the yard.

Hubby worked at a military hospital in the Chernobyl’ zone. Every morning, he’d open the pantry. When the keys were jingling, a feral tomcat would slink past him, run into the pantry just as the door opened, and kill a rat. Those rats were not all sick.

Was it the 'circle of life' when my dog caught and killed a neighbour's moggy that was in our garden? Perhaps if the cat hadn't been so busy shitting it would have escaped.

Tell her you've had a word with them and they said sorry but the little shit had it coming.

@spasiba no because dogs are suppose to be under the control of their owner. If it kills or causes injury to another domestic animal it eventually risks being put down.

I posted previously about how sister’s cat caught a young magpie. BIL heard a commotion, came out and sprayed the cat, who dropped the baby magpie. That magpie is now grown and buzzes the cat every time the cat is in the yard.*

See you could spin this story the other way. If the cat had killed that magpie the magpie wouldn't now kill lots of other birds every year as magpies do when they eat eggs and chicks. So which is better the death of 1 magpie or that 1 magpie kiling numerous other birds every year?

See it's not as black and white when you actually sit and think it through.

I love birds and would dearly love a bird table.

Every house in our close owns a cat. Cats roam. Cats are free creatures. Cats kill birds.

We also have a cat who's great claim to a kill was a spider that once fell into its mouth!

For this reason I can't feed the birds or encourage them into our garden, that would be cruel.

Your neighbour is being unreasonable to lure the birds into a vulnerable situation where they could be pounced on by a cat.

Was it the 'circle of life' when my dog caught and killed a neighbour's moggy that was in our garden?

Well, yes, technically it is. Dogs are predators too, after all.

The difference is, in law, dogs are expected to be under their owners control whereas dogs are not. Mine has caught and killed rabbits before - he's a beagle, it's in his blood. It's what they've been bred to do for centuries, after all.

That should say "whereas cats are not".

I wonder if there were any bird witnesses? Maybe she could have a police style line up - your 3 moggies , the horrible neighbours cat and a few other randoms, see if the bird witnesses can pick out the culprit.

I have four cats, two strays we adopted and the rest were here since kittens. I have neighbours who are neurotic and hate cats. Cats like the outdoors, so the compromise is a catio. It keeps the cats safe from neighbour abuse, and gives them chill out time away from the house. It is attached to a side window so they can get outside when they want a stroll. You can buy them online. It is not cheap but saves on vets bills, prematurely demised pets, ranting neighbours and worms/ fleas/ salmonella infections from kitty eating wild birds and rodents. When we took in the last stray cat, he was in poor condition. I wormed him and those roundworms poured out of him the size of shoe laces...

Don't worry @birdmurderer there's always someone more hated on MN than you.

I'm a teacher AND a cat owner

I wormed him and those roundworms poured out of him the size of shoe laces...

Oh, dear, watch out -

(Cat) "There were some roundworms I'd been feeding and this woman went and killed them! I was beyond furious!"

We have two cats and a chihuahua.

Had the cats four years they have never even brought so much as a worm in.

Had the chihuahua two months. It brought a live, stunned sparrow in on Wednesday 😐🤷🏻‍♀️.

You neighbour is a head the ball crank.

Pleased to confirm that my cat eats everything that he catches, other than the odd red bit of mouse innards that I am yet to identify.

He rarely catches birds.

As I stated up-thread, please will people do proper research. Cats do not decimate wildlife, not in the UK. Humans and other bird/animal predators are far worse. I have a cat. My garden is full of birds, hundreds of them, of all species. My hedges are full of fledgelings. Who creates the most carnage? Magpies and Sparrowhawks.

the garden should have netting over the Top of the fence

That's going to kill more birds than your average tabby.

Anyhow, bird tables also attract squirrels, rats and mice. Grey Squirrels and rats will happily take nestlings in the same way that Magpies will. Peregrines will happily pick off a pair of doves and happily pluck and dismember them on the roof. If they're mobbed by crows or magpies in the process, they might drop their prey.

The reason why gulls are such bastards is because their natural hunting method is to body slam smaller, weaker birds mid air or to raid nests.

Competing Robins will happily slaughter one another.

Adders will eat birds. Stoats and Weasels will, too. As will Badgers and foxes.

Non native animals include Rabbits, Grey Squirrels, Glis Glis, Mink, Deer, Black Rats.

Realistically, there are many species that shouldn't be in the country.

The number one in terms of contributing to the death of wild animals, though, is Human Beings.

Not as bad as my Dads old cat.

She actually killed his neighbours favourite blackbird in her kitchen in front of her.
She was so upset.

But she loved both birds and cats although she didn't like Dads cat anymore.

I'm happy that my cat hates going out so is an indoor cat, and my neighbour's cats are useless at catching things.